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LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM J. JtfANN, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR EMERITUS OF ST. MICHAEL AND ZION CONGREGATION, AND PRO- 
 FESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE EVANGELICAL 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH AT PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Ecclesia non plantata, sed plantanda. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 G. W. FREDERICK, 
 
 117 N. SIXTH STREET. 
 1887, 
 
Copyright, 1887, by 
 G. W. FREDERICK 
 
 WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 
 
 Stereotypers and EUctrotypers, Phila. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ONE hundred years have passed since, on the 7th of Octo- 
 ber, 1787, HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG, D. D., departed 
 this life. 
 
 J. Chr. Kunze, D. D., in a note found in the pamphlet con- 
 taining his sermon preached in the Evangelical Lutheran 
 church of the Holy Trinity at New York on the occasion 
 of Miihlenberg's death, says : " A biography of this eminent 
 man shall and must be given to the public. Years ago I 
 read with pleasure a composition from his pen which will 
 serve excellently as a basis of a biography, but will not sat- 
 isfy the just expectations of those who know properly to 
 estimate his merits. His rare humility there hides the most 
 interesting circumstances, to which many witnesses still can 
 testify. There are many important confidential communica- 
 tions from him in my possession. Almost every one of my 
 brethren in the sacred office in these States is in possession 
 of such communications. One of his sons, or whosoever it 
 might be, would also do a good service to the friends of 
 God's kingdom on earth by weaving all such communica- 
 tions into a somewhat extended biography or by simply pub- 
 lishing selections from them. I say this with the view of 
 encouraging the possessors of such relics to take good care 
 of them and diligently to collect them." 
 
 We may be thankful that not only within the circle of the 
 descendants of the venerable ancestor many of his letters and 
 
 iii 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 other documents, and especially his carefully-written diaries, 
 were conscientiously preserved and guarded, but that also in 
 the archives of the Orphan-House at Halle in Germany, from 
 which he came forth a missionary among the dispersed and 
 spiritually destitute German Lutherans in Pennsylvania, and 
 with which he kept up correspondence throughout his life, 
 large portions of his diaries, many reports, and letters were 
 deposited and carefully preserved. This latter part of Muhl- 
 enberg's literary legacy became within recent times accessible 
 to us through the praiseworthy efforts of Rev. Dr. William 
 Germann, ecclesiastical counsellor and superintendent of the 
 diocese of Wasungen, Sachsen-Meiningen. Access to the 
 diaries, correspondence, reports, and other documents first 
 mentioned was kindly permitted me by the late H. H. Muhl- 
 enberg, M. D., of Reading, Pa., and by the Rev. F. A. Muhl- 
 enberg, D. D., professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 
 The confidence they bestowed upon me was of the highest 
 value, and is herewith gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 These extensive documents and much valuable material 
 bearing upon the life and labors of Miihlenberg on the nu- 
 merous pages of the Halle Reports were, in connection with 
 other historical publications, the main sources at my com- 
 mand. Not the least of these sources were the results of 
 the painstaking investigations of the Rev. B. M. Schmucker, 
 D. D., pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran church of the 
 Transfiguration at Pottstown, Pa., which are included in the 
 new edition of the Halle Reports, vol. i., published by Brobst, 
 Diehl & Co. at Allentown, Pa., 1886. To him my thanks are 
 due for having introduced me to the study of the history of the 
 Lutheran Church in America, and for having proved to me a 
 trustworthy and most desirable colaborer in this branch of liter- 
 ary research. In the first volume of the new edition of the Halle 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Reports the united labors of Dr. Germann, Dr. Schmucker, 
 and myself gathered a large amount of information on the 
 general and local history of the Lutheran Church in this 
 country, from its very beginning down to the present time. 
 Therein we adhered to the German language, in which the 
 Halle Reports originally were published. The chilling indif- 
 ference shown toward our altogether unselfish labors by an 
 appallingly large number of the German Lutheran clergy and 
 laity, who in their public worship, and even in their families, 
 habitually use the German language, and in whose behalf we 
 had devoted years of assiduous labor and the publishers an 
 outlay of thousands of dollars, moved me to make use of the 
 English language in the work now offered to the public. 
 
 From Miihlenberg's own hand we have at least part of an 
 autobiography extending from his youth to the year 1743, 
 the commencement of his pastoral and missionary labors in 
 Pennsylvania. It is given to the public by the Rev. W. Ger- 
 mann, D. D. (Allentown, Brobst, Diehl & Co., 1881). Other 
 portions of Miihlenberg's life were published from his diaries 
 for instance, his visit to Ebenezer, Ga., 1774-75, in the Get- 
 tysburg Evangelical Review, vols. i.-iv. An abridged biogra- 
 phy, containing the most important events of his life and giv- 
 ing a portraiture of his religious character, from the pen of 
 the late Prof. M. L. Stoever of Pennsylvania College, appeared 
 in 1856, and has again and again been reprinted. 
 
 Henry Melchior Miihlenberg needs no biographer to keep 
 him in most revered and loving remembrance in the Lutheran 
 Church of this country. His name is so closely connected 
 with the very genesis of the Lutheran Church here, with the 
 first attempts at its organization, and with the first and suc- 
 cessful missionary labors among the many dispersed German 
 Lutherans from Maryland to the shores of the Upper Hudson, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 and, in fact, far beyond these limits, that it cannot fall into 
 oblivion. Indeed, while the large numbers of Lutherans in 
 our country are divided on various questions and segregated 
 into divers representative bodies, the name of Miihlenberg is 
 honored among the membership of the General Synod, in the 
 circles of the General Council, in the United Synod of the 
 South, and indeed in every Lutheran community. 
 
 Yet it cannot be denied that, though his name is famil- 
 iar throughout the Church, yet about the actual course of 
 his intensely interesting life and labors, and about the con- 
 ditions under which he had to exhibit his eminent talent and 
 the wonderful energy of his character, proportionally very 
 little is known. During my researches concerning the early 
 history of Lutheranism in this country my interest in him 
 as a man, a Christian, a representative of the Church, a mis- 
 sionary to the dispersed Lutherans, and an organizer of Lu- 
 theran congregations, a spiritual father to many souls, a most 
 judicious counsellor of his colaborers, could but increase. I 
 feel myself perfectly justified in saying that what I here offer 
 to the public was to me a work of love, and has an interest 
 not only for the numerous and honored descendants of the 
 noble ancestor, but for the historian of our country, for all 
 who relish historical reading and information, and most di- 
 rectly for those who are engaged in pastoral work and 
 mission enterprises in the home-field. 
 
 In a certain sense it is true that the life of Miihlenberg and 
 the history of the Lutheran Church of those times are identi- 
 cal. My book does not, however, pretend to supply a Church 
 history of that period, and therefore does not answer many 
 collateral questions, while it will throw some light upon that 
 eventful epoch. Neither will it in any way supplant works 
 on the early history of the Lutheran Church of this country, 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 like the meritorious book on this subject by the Rev. C. W. 
 SchaefTer, D. D., Senior of the Faculty of the Theological Sem- 
 inary of the Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, or any similar 
 books. My main intent was to give a portraiture of the per- 
 sonality of Miihlenberg and a truthful story of his life and 
 labors, framed in a sufficiently comprehensive delineation of 
 the times in which he lived and the personal and social ele- 
 ments with which he was brought into contact. On the cen- 
 tennial of his death I devote this book to his memory, and lay 
 it on his grave as an olive-branch offered to the discordant 
 elements in the Church which was his spiritual home and the 
 object of his faithful labors. 
 
 In the preparation of this book I was most kindly assisted 
 by the Rev. Prof. F. A. Muhlenberg, D. D., and the Rev. H. 
 E. Jacobs, D. D., my beloved colleague in the Faculty of the 
 Theological Seminary. To these brethren, and to others who 
 variously encouraged me and speeded my way, my hearty 
 thanks are herewith publicly given. 
 
 Of the imperfections of my work I am fully conscious. If 
 what I here offer should awaken a new interest in the vener- 
 able patriarch, and in the times in which, through his inde- 
 fatigable labors, the Lutheran Church in this country began 
 to be an organized body furnished with instrumentalities 
 needful for her conservation and progress, I shall consider 
 myself amply rewarded for my labors. If those who now, 
 in the service of the Lutheran Church, have to fight the bat- 
 tles of the Lord should be encouraged and stimulated by the 
 noble example of H. M. Muhlenberg as a missionary and as 
 a pastor, I would consider it the most signal blessing that 
 Divine Grace might bestow upon this book. 
 
 W. J. MANN. 
 PHILADELPHIA, Easter, 1887. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 1711-1738. 
 
 PAGH 
 
 Birth. Birthplace. Parentage and family. First school-years. Longing for 
 higher education. Zellerfeld. Gottingen. Spiritual awakening. Piet- 
 ism. Prof. Oporin, D. D. Patrons of high standing. Beginning of , 
 charity school. First exercises in practical theology. Enters the Halle 
 Orphan-House as teacher * 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1739-1742. 
 
 Selected as a missionary for East India. Frustration of this plan. G. A. 
 Francke, D. D. Christian work at Halle. Herr von Canstein and the 
 first Bible society. Fr. M. Ziegenhagen, D. D. Call to Grosshenners- 
 dorf. Baroness Gersdorf. Acceptance of the call. Examination and 
 ordination at Leipsic. Enters upon his duties at Grosshennersdorf; 
 Or;jl an-House and other charitable institutions there. The Bohemian 
 colony. Embarrassing circumstances. Visit to Eimbeck and Halle. 
 Call to the dispersed Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Return to Grosshen- 
 nersdorf. Apology for private conventicles. Balthasar Mentzer, D. D. 
 Departure from Grosshennersdorf. Journey to Halle 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1742. 
 
 Departure from Halle. Miihlenberg arrives at Eimbeck by the way of Halber- 
 stadt, Wernigerode, Gottingen. Unpleasant experiences there through 
 clerical censoriousness. Passing through Hanover, Osnabriick, Deventer, 
 and Norden to Amsterdam, through Leyden, Rotterdam, Briel, to Hel- 
 voetsluys, he sets sail for England. Acquaintance made on board the 
 ship. Arrival at London. Intercourse with Ziegenhagen, John Dav. 
 Michaelis. H. A. Butjender, and others. Miihlenberg receives the for- 
 mal call to the Evangelical Lutheran congregations of Philadelphia, New 
 Providence, and New Hanover in Pennsylvania. He is requested to 
 visit the Salzburger congregation at Ebenezer, Ga. Sets sail for the New 
 
 \\orld 28 
 
 viii 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 Voyage across the Atlantic. The armature of the ship. Misery experienced. 
 Dangerous foes. Salzburgers on board. Mtthlenberg's interest in 
 them. Slow progress. Painful want of drinking-water. Uncongenial 
 fellow-passengers. Muhlenberg's influence over them.- He conducts 
 services in the English language. His conversation with the Spanish 
 cook 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 Arrival at Charleston. Muhlenberg's inquiries for the Germans there. John 
 Lederer, the German explorer of the Carolinas Dutch Lutherans in 
 South Carolina. German settlers on the Congaree. Muhlenberg meets 
 negro slaves. He sets out for Georgia. Incidents. Divine services on 
 shore in a Presbyterian family. Beaufort. Arrival at Savannah. James 
 Oglethorpe. John and Charles Wesley. Methodism in contact with 
 Pietism and Moravianism. Thomas Stephens. Rev. J. Chr. Gronau 
 comes to meet Muhlenberg, and accompanies him to Ebenezer. The 
 locality. Rev. J. M. Boltzius. Rev. H. H. Lembke. Condition of the 
 Salzburgers. J. Fr. Vigera. Donation of J. M. Kiderlin 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 Benefit derived from the visit at Ebenezer. Boltzius accompanies Muhlen- 
 berg to Charleston. They hold religious services in their lodgings. 
 Visitors from Purrysburg Boltzius returns to Ebenezer. Muhlenberg 
 reads reports of Count Zinzendorf in Pennsylvania. He is a guest of 
 Mr. Theus. Holds religious services with the Germans at Charleston. 
 Departure for Philadelphia. Incidents and hardships of the voyage . . 76 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1742 (continued}. ^ 
 
 Muhlenberg's fitness for his life-work. His mental frame and physical con- ) 
 dition. Peculiar character of his field of labor. Political condition of 
 Pennsylvania since the times of William Penn. German settlers near 
 and in Philadelphia. Political influence of the Quakers. Mixed popu- 
 lation of Pennsylvania. Count von Thurnstein. Val. Kraft and the 
 German Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia. Muhlenberg sets out 
 for New Hanover. Preaches there, and presents his pastoral call. 
 Preaches at New Providence (Trappe). Meets Val. Kraft at Phila- 
 delphia. Preaches there. Peter Kock. Henry Schleydorn. Muhlen- 
 berg acknowledged as the legitimate pastor at New Hanover, New Provi- 
 dence, and Philadelphia. Rev. Pet. Tranberg 87 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Count Zinzendorf in Philadelphia. Moravian emissaries and settlers in Penn- 
 sylvania. Bethlehem. The nine conferences in Pennsylvania. The Ger- 
 man Lutherans in Philadelphia before Zinzendorfs arrival.^-Rev. Jac. 
 Fabricius. Rev. J. Chr. Schultze. Rev. J. C. Stoever. Zinzendorf and 
 the German Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia. Rev. J. Chr. Pyr- 
 laeus. Rev. Pet. Boehler. Muhlenberg meets Count Zinzendorf ... 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1743- 
 
 Muhlenberg enters upon his pastoral work in the three united congregations. 
 He opens schools at Providence and New Hanover, and maintains church 
 discipline. Halle Reports. Charitable gifts from Germany. Muhlen- 
 berg's unselfish labors appreciated. Resolutions passed at Providence 
 and at Philadelphia to erect churches; at Hanover, to build a school 
 house 1 2P, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1743-1745. 
 
 Difficulty in doing justice to the three united congregations. External circum- 
 stances of Muhlenberg's office. His sphere of action begins to extend. 
 The west side of the Schuylkill. Germantown. Tulpehoken. Conrad 
 Weiser. Casp. Leutbecker. A. Eschenbach. Zinzendorfs interest in 
 Tulpehoken. G. BUttner. J. Ph. Meurer. Corner-stone of Christ 
 Church laid. Muhlenberg's first visit to Tulpehoken. Rev. Tob. 
 Wagner. J. C. Andreae. Muhlenberg's interest is claimed in behalf of 
 the Lutheran congregations on the Upper Raritan, N. J. J. A. Wolf 
 and his troubles. Rev. W. Chr. Berkenmeier. Rev. M. Chr. Knoll . 138 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1745-1747. 
 
 Further extension of Muhlenberg's missionary labors. Numerical increase of 
 Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Their spiritual destitution. Irregularly ap- 
 pointed pastors. Carl Rudolph. Moravian pastors intruding upon Lu- 
 theran congregations. In answer to Muhlenberg's petition, Rev. P. Brunn- 
 holtz and J. N. Kurtz and J. H. Schaum arrive from Halle. Their re- 
 spective fields of labor. Brunnholtz takes charge of Philadelphia and 
 Germantown. Muhlenberg retains Providence and New Hanover and 
 outlying charges. Kurtz begins to teach at New Hanover, Schaum at 
 Philadelphia. J. J. Loeser. Muhlenberg's marriage. He settles at 
 Providence. Missionary work in Lancaster and York. L. T. Nyberg. 
 J. Conr. Weiser the elder. The Lutherans on the Upper Hudson and 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 in the Schoharie Valley. Interest in the Raritan congregations. The 
 catechists Kurtz and Schaum there. Progress of these churches . . 156 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1747-1748. 
 
 Arrival of Rev. J. Fr. Handschuh. Disturbed condition of the Lancaster con- 
 gregation. Miihlenberg's influence demanded. J. N. Kurtz, settled at 
 Tulpehoken, serves for a time at Lancaster. Handschuh placed there. 
 Molatton. Earltown (New Holland). A Liturgy. Muhlenberg, again 
 on a missionary tour, visits Tulpehoken, Northkill (Bernville), Lancaster, 
 York, Monocacy, Frederick, McAllistertown (Hanover). Jacob Lischy, 
 L. T. Nyberg. B. Maul. Articles of church order. Dissensions. 
 Moravian influences. Rev. J. C. Hartwig. Visits to Upper Milford, 
 Saccum, and neighboring congregations. Missionary work branches out 
 to Birkensee (Perkasie, N. P. R. R.), Fasten, Macungie, Salisbury, and 
 other localities. Catechist J. H. Schaum placed at York. Muhlenberg's 
 account of his pastoral work. Correspondence and diaries 173 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 1748. 
 
 J. N. Kurtz again sent to the Raritan congregations. Handschuh begins his 
 labors at Lancaster. Muhlenberg holds services in English at Molatton. 
 Missionary tour to the Blue Mountains. Visit to the Raritan congre- 
 gations. Consultation with Brunnholtz and Hartwig. Tulpehoken and 
 Northkill petition for a regular pastor and reception into the united 
 churches of Pennsylvania. Organization and first meeting of synod. 
 Examination and " Reverse " of J. N. Kurtz. His call to Tulpehoken. 
 Dedication of St. Michael's Church. Ordination of Kurtz. Retrospect . 204 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 1748 et seq. 
 
 Political aspects of Pennsylvania. Internal dissensions. Disastrous war with 
 the French. Barbarous hostilities of the Indians. Final victory of the 
 English. Influence of those turbulent times upon social life, congrega- 
 tions, and pastors in Pennsylvania. Regina the released captive. Sick- 
 ness of Brunnholtz. John Albr. Weygand. Muhlenberg's interest in 
 him. He is sent to the Raritan congregations. J. B.^van Dieren. J. H. 
 Schaum ordained 1749. Weygand ordained 1750; called to New York 
 1753. Marriage of J. Fr. Vigera. Ludolph H. Schrenk. Kindness of 
 Brunnholtz and Muhlenberg toward him. He labors as catechist at Up- 
 per Milford, Saccum, and neighboring places. His ordination. He suc- 
 ceeds Weygand in the Raritan congregations. Catechist J. A. Friderici. 
 Schrenk leaves the Raritan congregations. His erratic course and final 
 disappearance 216 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lucas Raus of Transylvania. His parentage and education. Brunnholtz and 
 Muhlenberg' s interest in him. He labors as catechist at Old Goshenhop- 
 pen, Indianfield, and Tohicon. He is sent to Hartwig's congregation on 
 the Hudson. His ordination and marriage. His call to York, and final 
 severance from synod and the pastorate. Rev. G. S. Klug's visit to Penn- 
 sylvania. His successors, J. Schwarbach, J. Frank. Muhlenberg at the 
 meeting of synod at Lancaster, 1749. He visits again Upper Milford, 
 Saccum, Easton, and Birkensee, and the Raritan congregations ; erection 
 of churches at New Germantown and Bedminster. His services desired 
 at Indianfield. Synodical meeting at Providence, 1750. Tob. Wagner 
 appears there 232 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 Arrival of Israel Acrelius, the Swedish provost. Relations between Swedish 
 and German Lutheran pastors. Acrelius's History of Nerv Sweden. 
 Conrad Weiser and Muhlenberg visit Hartwig's congregations on the 
 Hudson. Visit to Bethlehem. Experiences of the travellers. Muhlen- 
 berg as peacemaker in Hartwig's congregations. He and Hartwig set sail 
 for New York. The Dutch Lutheran congregation there. Difficulties on- 
 account of the demands of the German Lutherans. Formation of a Ger- 
 man congregation. Muhlenberg meets Berkenmeier and preaches in the 
 Dutch Lutheran church in German and in English. On his reiurn to 
 Pennsylvania he visits the Raritan congregations. Hartwig sojourns in 
 Pennsylvania 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 The Dutch Lutherans of New York give a call to Muhlenberg. Difficulties. 
 Importance of the case. Pastoral conference at Tulpehoken. Hand- 
 schuh to be transferred to Germantown ; Muhlenberg to spend a limited 
 time at New York. He again visits Upper Milford and other congrega- 
 tions then served by Catechist Schrenk. Synodical meeting at Phila- 
 delphia, I75 1 - Muhlenberg, accompanied by Hartwig, sets out for New 
 York. Pastoral work there ; preaches in the Dutch language. Pays his 
 respects to some of the clergy of the city. Visits the Dutch Lutherans at 
 Hackensack, N. J. Lawrence van Buskirk. Rev. J. Fr. Riess. Rela- 
 tion between the Dutch and the German congregations at New York. 
 Rev. Eb. Pemberton, D. D. Muhlenberg returns to Providence ... 261 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 1751-1752- 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Muhlenberg's pastoral work at Providence, New Hanover, and the vicinity. 
 Correspondence with his relatives at Eimbeck and with dignitaries of 
 the Church in Germany. Arrival of Rev. J. D. M. Heintzelmann and 
 Rev. Fred. Schultz. Heintzelmann appointed assistant to Brunnholtz. 
 His early death. Schultz, for a time assistant to Muhlenberg, labors for 
 a few years at New Goshenhoppen and at Indianfield. His further career. 
 Muhlenberg again during three months active in pastoral work at New 
 York and Hackensack. He preaches in Dutch, in German, and in Eng- 
 lish ; catechises adults ; instructs, confirms, and administers the sacraments. 
 His interest in the colored race ; views on certain recently-introduced 
 measures. Rev. Mich. Schlatter of the German Reformed Church. His 
 career in America and friendly relations with Muhlenberg. Muhlenberg 
 returns to Pennsylvania. Statistics as to his pastoral work. Extent of 
 his influence ' 283 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 1752 et seq. (continued). 
 
 Difficulties arising. Pietism in conflict with carnal-mindedness. Handschuh's 
 unfortunate marriage at Lancaster. He enters upon his new field of labor 
 at Germantown. Impediments in his way. Disturbances in the congre- 
 gation. Rebellion against Handschuh and synod. He retires with a 
 small number of the faithful. The congregation cut loose from synod. 
 They are assisted by Tob. Wagner. Danger of the spread of the 
 rebellion. Disturbances at York. J. Sam. Schwerdfeger. J. H. Schaum 
 leaves York; his further career and death. Rev. J. S. Gerock of Wiir- 
 temberg accepted by the Lancaster congregation ; his further career. 
 Rev. B. M. Hausihl. Muhlenberg again visits Frederick, Md. Rev. J. 
 F. Schertlin. Muhlenberg pays another visit to New York. Transient 
 difficulties in the Raritan congregations. Muhlenberg restores peace and 
 greatly encourages them by repeated visits. William Kurtz. William 
 Graaf. Jacob van Buskirk. Muhlenberg at Hackensack and Remmers- 
 pach 298 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 1752 et seq. (continued). 
 
 Muhlenberg and the Raritan congregations. Death of J. C. Weiser. Rev. 
 P. D. Prizelius. Mtthlenberg declines a call to Nova Scotia. Charity 
 schools among the Germans in Pennsylvania. Rev. W. Smith, D. D. 
 Benjamin Franklin. Politics mixed with benevolence. Christopher 
 Sauer. Muhlenberg's relation to the charity schools. They cease to be 
 supported 3 2 3 
 
xiv ' CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 1760-1761. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Distinguished visitors at Providence. Rev. Rich. Peters, D. D. Rev. Chas. 
 M. Wrangel, D. D. His friendship with Miihlenberg. His activity as 
 pastor and as provost of the Swedish churches. His voice in behalf of 
 the history of the Lutheran Church in America. Muhlenberg accepts 
 the call to the German Lutheran church at Philadelphia. History and 
 condition of this 'congregation. Gerhard Henkel. J. Eneberg. J. Chr. 
 Schultze. J. C. Stoever. J. Dylander. P. Brunnholtz. J. F. Hand- 
 schuh elected pastor 338 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1760-1761 (continued). 
 
 Difficulties within the Philadelphia congregation. Need of reorganization. 
 Discordant parties. Muhlenberg's presence in the congregation de- 
 manded. He visits Philadelphia as a mediator. Salaries of pastors 
 and teachers. Electing church-officers. Need of a congregational con- 
 stitution. Adoption of the new constitution. Wrangel's friendly co- 
 operation. Muhlenberg's eminent merits in the pacification and organi- 
 zation of the congregation. Presiding officer of synod 356 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 1762 et seq. 
 
 New York and Germantown claim the attention of synod. J. N. Kurtz for a 
 time at Germantown. Rev. J. A. Krug and Rev. J. L. Voigt arrive. 
 Voigt elected pastor at Germantown. The congregation reunited with 
 synod. Succeeding pastors. Arrival of Rev. J. Fr. Schmidt and Rev. J. 
 H. Chr. Helmuth. Origin of St. Peter's Church at Barren Hill. Diffi- 
 culties in its progress. Muhlenberg's embarrassment and release. The 
 Solms-Roedelsheim legacy. Muhlenberg's plan to establish an orphan- 
 house and a seminary for the education of pastors. His care of all the 
 congregations connected with synod. Repeated visits at Reading, Tul- 
 pehoken, Cohansey, the Raritan, and other congregations. J. G. Jung. 
 Christian Streit. Baron Stiegel. Rev. J/ G. Eager. Rev. Chas. F. 
 Wildbahn. Extent of synod. J. C. Stoever in membership with synod. 373 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 1762 et seq. (continued). 
 
 Pietism and Methodism. 'Lutheranism and Episcopalianism. Progress of the 
 Philadelphia congregation. Muhlenberg on confirmation. Relation to 
 politics. He sends his three sons to Halle. Handschuh's death. 
 German Benevolent Society of Pennsylvania. Erection of Zion Church, 
 Philadelphia. Flourishing condition of the congregation. Arrival of 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Chr. Em. Schulze. He is Muhlenberg's colaborer in Philadelphia. He 
 follows a call to Tulpehoken. Career of Krug, Voigt, Schmidt, Helmuth. 
 Struggle in later years between English and German in Philadelphia. 
 Organization of an English Lutheran congregation 390 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1766 et seq. 
 
 Provost Wrangel returns to Sweden. His relation to the Episcopal Church. 
 Muhlenberg's eldest son, J. Peter Gabriel, returns from Europe and devotes 
 himself to the study of theology. His further career. H. M. Miihlen- 
 berg again visits the Raritan congregations, also Easton, Allentown, Ma- 
 cungie, Salisbury, Allemaengel, and White Hall. His sons Fred. Aug. 
 Conrad and G. Henry Ernest return from Halle prepared for pastoral 
 work. They enter upon it. Their further career. Rev. J. Chr. Kunze. 
 His labors in Philadelphia, and later in New York 420 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 1773-1775. 
 
 Miihlenberg is requested to pay another visit to Ebenezer, Ga. Difficulties in 
 this congregation, and between Rev. Chr. Rabenhorst and Rev. Chr. Fr. 
 Triebner. Muhlenberg's manifold cares before the voyage. Another visit 
 to the Raritan churches. Synodical meeting of 1773. Members of synod. 
 Plans for a theological seminary and an orphan-house. Hartwig's rest- 
 lessness. Difficulties at Reading. Rev. Ph. J. Grotz. Miihlenberg again 
 visits New York. His son Frederick Aug. pastor of the German Lutheran 
 congregation there. Hausihl pastor of the Dutch Lutheran congregation. 
 The Swedish pastors J. Wicksell and Nic. Collin. Barren Hill and 
 Germantown. Rev. J. F. Riess. Rev. J. Chr. Leps of Loonenburg. : 
 Muhlenberg's letters to Grotz and to a member of the Lutheran congre- 
 gation at Charleston, S. C. Corner-stone of a church laid at Pikestown . 443 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 I 773~ I 775 (continued}. 
 
 Voyage to Charleston, Savannah, and Ebenezer. Muhlenberg at Charleston. 
 His interest in the Lutherans there and in other localities in South 
 Carolina. Rev. Messrs. Daser, Martin, Hochheimer, Hahnbaum, Chr. 
 Streit. Muhlenberg's idea of a practical theological seminary. Arrival 
 at Savannah. Rev. Joach. Ziibly, D. D. Rabenhorst and Triebner visit 
 Miihlenberg and acknowledge his authority. He arrives at Ebenezer. 
 The two parties in the congregation. Mutual charges. Divided services. 
 Attempts at reconciliation. Rabenhoijst's accounts found correct. 
 Preparation of a new constitution for the congregation. Its adoption. 
 Rabenhorst's Christian character vindicated. Muhlenberg's return to 
 Philadelphia 457 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 1773-1775 (continued}. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sickness of Dr. Kunze. Political aspects. Reports and insinuations against 
 Muhlenberg. He visits Reading, Tulpehoken, Pikestown. The Germans 
 of Philadelphia in the political conflict. Christopher Ludwig. Miihlen- 
 berg's opinion of General Washington. The Hebron congregation in 
 Virginia. H. Moeller. J. Frank. Acquisition of a cemetery by the 
 Philadelphia congregation 480 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 1776 et seq. 
 
 Miihlenberg again settles with his family at Providence. Death of Ziegenha- 
 gen and Sigismund Streit. Streit's legacy. Muhlenberg's decreasing 
 strength and loss of hearing. Last attendance at synod. He is created 
 doctor of divinity. End of his official' relation to the Philadelphia con- 
 gregation. His labors in behalf of the proposed hymnbook of the Minis- 
 terium. The first edition of the Liturgy. Muhlenberg's conservative 
 principles on church services. His private reading. His meditations on 
 the Bible. Aversion to Neology and irreligious tendencies. Specimens 
 of his correspondence. Letters exchanged with Wrangel. News from 
 Ebenezer. Rev. J. E. Bergmann. Miihlenberg and the medical art . 490 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 1776-1787. 
 
 Respect shown to their senior, Muhlenberg, by the Ministerium. He is lov- 
 ingly remembered at Halle. Sebast. Andr. Fabricius. Muhlenberg's 
 last pastoral acts. His last sickness and his death. Respect shown to his 
 memory throughout the Church. Memorial sermons preached by Rev. 
 Drs. Helmuth and Kunze. Their delineation of Muhlenberg's person- 
 ality and work. His descendants. His grave, and the inscription 
 thereon 517 
 
LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1711-1738. *- *'*.:** "' **. ; 
 
 Birth. Birthplace. Parentage and family. First school-years. Longing for 
 higher education. Zellerfeld. Gottingen. Spiritual awakening. Pietism. 
 Prof. Oporin, D. D. Patrons of high standing. Beginning of charity school. 
 First exercises in practical theology. Enters the Halle Orphan-House as 
 teacher. 
 
 ON the 6th of Sept., 1711, HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG 
 was born at Eimbeck, a town of Hanover, then one of 
 the electoral principalities of Germany, now a province of 
 Prussia and the re-established German Empire. 
 
 The history of Eimbeck (or Einbeck) leads us back into 
 the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the Christian era. It 
 seems that two ecclesiastical institutions founded there formed 
 the nucleus around which in the course of time the town grew 
 up. It numbered, in times before the Reformation of the six- 
 teenth century, twelve thousand inhabitants, and was con- 
 nected with the great commercial confederation called Hansa. 
 Though strongly fortified, it was taken during the Thirty 
 Years' War, after a second siege, by the Roman Catholic 
 armies. In 1718 the traces of the terrible devastation were 
 still plainly visible, when King George I. of England, as elec- 
 toral prince of Hanover, by orders from London, took decisive 
 measures to restore and beautify the town. Eimbeck is now, 
 though the number of its inhabitants has been reduced to 
 
2 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 about seven thousand, a place of considerable industrial activ- 
 ity. In mediaeval times, and still later, one article was there 
 manufactured which carried the name of the town through 
 the German Empire and far beyond its limits. This article 
 was beer, and it appears even in the history of Martin Luther. 
 When he, then a mere monk, on Thursday evening, Apr. 18, 
 1521, came out of the fiery ordeal at Worms before the em- 
 peror Charles V. and other potentates, the high ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, and all the Diet most of the members of which 
 had taken an inimical position against him and had passed 
 through the dense crowd curious to see him, the Spaniards 
 present mi tfce assembly hissed at him ; but many Germans, 
 thdugh' at that time not siding with him, could not but admire 
 ; .tHe'ib^rq'isvn o the man, and one of them, Duke Erich of 
 Brunswick, 'himself closely allied to the papal party, offered 
 him a silver goblet full of Eimbeck beer. It is related that 
 Luther, when he heard who the kind donor was, said, " As 
 Duke Erich remembered me, so may our Lord Christ remem- 
 ber him in his last agony !" But their beer did not prevent 
 the citizens of the town from placing the proper estimate upon 
 another article of immensely higher value when, in the provi- 
 dence of God, it was offered to them. Eimbeck was among 
 those communities which soon embraced the cause of the 
 Reformation. As early as 1528 adherents of the new doc- 
 trine were* members of the town council, and in the same year 
 the first Lutheran pastor was called to serve in the " Market 
 Church." His name was Conrad Bolen. Eimbeck manifested 
 its firm adherence to the Lutheran doctrines by subscribing, 
 through its official representatives, to the Formula of Concord 
 of 1580. Whilst the history of the town offers many points 
 of interest, and some of the ancient church-buildings still tes- 
 tify to the opulence and the artistic taste of its inhabitants in 
 bygone ages, the town as such has, in consequence of a num- 
 ber of disastrous conflagrations, rather a modern, uninteresting 
 appearance. A very destructive fire took place in 1826, and 
 consumed, among others, the house which had belonged to 
 the Muhlenberg family and witnessed the birth of Hen 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 3 
 
 Melchior. The environs of the town present no romantic 
 beauty: neighboring hills prevent the view of the bolder Harz 
 Mountains toward the south. The whole region, however, 
 is fertile and well cultivated. 
 
 In harmony with time-honored custom, Henry Melchior 
 Miihlenberg was baptized on the day of his birth. His father, 
 Nicolaus Melchior, a citizen and tradesman of Eimbeck, in the 
 . church-register is called a brewer which simply means that 
 he enjoyed the prerogative of a privileged class, but never 
 made use of it and is also introduced to us as a deacon in 
 the church to which the family belonged. There is no doubt 
 that a brother of Henry Melchior was in baptism given the 
 name John Arndt, which may well be taken as evidence that 
 John Arndt, the godly author of the renowned work True 
 Christianity, stood high in the estimation of father N. M. 
 Miihlenberg. We know that a number of other children 
 were born to him, the first one of whom may have been Use 
 Mary, who is entered in the church-register as having seen 
 the light of this world on Sept. II, 1700. But not even the 
 name of the mother is there given. The church-registers, 
 .which antecedent to 1700 are very defective at Eimbeck, give 
 us no clue to the earlier history of the family. There is a 
 tradition that the Miihlenbergs had immigrated to Eimbeck 
 from Bohemia^ If this be so, we are not risking too much 
 in supposing that they belonged to the thousands who, on 
 account of their fidelity to evangelical principles, suffered per- 
 secution in that country. The name of the partner for life 
 of Nicolaus Melchior Miihlenberg was Anna Mary Klein- 
 schmid. Her father was an officer in military service. Henry 
 Melchior Miihlenberg saw his mother the last time when, in 
 1742, on his way to America, he took farewell of his relatives 
 at Eimbeck. She died in 1747: her husband had, through 
 an attack of palsy, been suddenly taken away from her soon 
 after the confirmation of her son Henry Melchior in 1723. 
 It is stated that the name Miihlenberg is now not unfrequently 
 found in neighboring towns and villages. In Eimbeck we do 
 not now meet with it. Yet descendants of the female side 
 
4 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 appear to be now living there, and a garden belonging to 
 them was shown to a friend of ours visiting the town. 
 
 Genealogical and heraldic works on the ancient noble fam- 
 ilies of Germany state that the Von Muhlenbergs were recog- 
 nized in times before the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) as 
 among the old baronial families of the empire ; that they 
 derive their origin from Ziracka, a prince of the Wendish and 
 Sorbic tribes ; that about the year 950 A. D. he was converted 
 to Christianity ; that he had his residence near the present 
 Muhlberg, on the right hand of the Elbe River in the Merse- 
 burg district of Prussian Saxony. In the neighborhood of 
 this town, Muhlberg, the electoral prince John Frederick, after 
 an unfortunate battle, fell April 24, 1547, into the hands of 
 the emperor Charles V. Mills (Muhlen in German) erected 
 in that locality gave name to the town, and subsequently also 
 to the family reigning there, which increased, and in the course 
 of time acquired large possessions in Saxony, Austrian Sile- 
 sia, and other parts. In the escutcheon of the family were two 
 wheels, and the members of it signed themselves " of the 
 Miihlenberg." The ancestral prince was, as a vassal of the 
 bishop of Naumburg, received into the nobility of Germany. 
 His son Bonifacius, apparelled in a coat of mail, accompanied 
 Emperor Otto (unfortunately, our sources leave us in doubt 
 as to which of the three Ottos) on an expedition to Italy, and 
 was rewarded for his services with valuable privileges. Vari- 
 ous members of the family made themselves eminent in war 
 and peace, and in the beginning of the sixteenth century the 
 family is still counted among the prominent and wealthy 
 nobility. But during the wars of the sixteenth century, and 
 especially the Thirty Years' War, some of its branches died 
 out, and others were, like many noble families, greatly reduced 
 in circumstances. After the middle of the seventeenth century 
 the name is no longer found on the roll of the nobles of the 
 empire, and the family never made any attempt to have their 
 title acknowledged and restored by the imperial court of 
 heraldry at Vienna. 
 
 From his seventh to his twelfth year H. M. Miihlenberg 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 5 
 
 was sent by his father to the larger one of the two classical 
 schools at that time existing at Eimbeck. Here, going 
 through the three lowest classes, he laid the foundation of 
 his knowledge of the Latin language, in which he many years 
 later addressed at various synodical meetings the clergy over 
 whom he was made the presiding officer. In his twelfth year 
 he was, by the rite of confirmation, received into membership 
 of the Lutheran Church. We have some relics in writing 
 from the hand of the youth, which not only indicate his 
 child-like faith, but also a certain independence of religious 
 thought and a ready facility in expressing his devotional 
 sentiments in the form of poetry. There is preserved a family 
 Bible, large folio, printed in 1/19. In it, which tradition 
 views as once the property of Henry Melchior Miihlenberg, 
 was found a marriage contract signed both by other witnesses 
 and also by him. On the first and last blank leaf of that Bible 
 we find short rhymes, apparently written by his hand. Of 
 course the youthful poet never thought that any of these 
 verses would ever see the light so as to become public. But 
 we think it quite proper to lay before our readers at least one 
 specimen of them in translation. Referring to the narrative 
 about the man whose withered hand Jesus healed (Matt. xii. 
 10-13), we find the following couplets, which are indeed much 
 more than rhymes : 
 
 " Two hands, both fresh and strong, did my Creator give : 
 They shall not idle be as long as I may live; 
 'First I will raise them up to God to praise and pray, 
 And then they may begin what labor brings each day; 
 In truth, I'll never forget the Ora, 
 And with it, hand-in-hand, I'll practise the Labora /" 
 
 Certainly, this is satisfactory evidence that the youth intel- 
 ligently appropriated and applied the Word of God as he read 
 it or was instructed in it. When writing in later years his auto- 
 biography, he severely criticises the ways of thinking and acting 
 in his boyhood, and the evil influences of some of his school- 
 mates. We can admire the moral sensitiveness of the ripe 
 
6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Christian character of the man, and wish that all youths would 
 share in that appreciation of the divine truth and in that respect 
 for it which we trace in him. 
 
 It seems that H. M. Muhlenberg had neither the inclination 
 nor the time to spend the years of youth in " sowing wild oats " 
 or in dreamy sentimentalism. The course of school education 
 was short enough. After the death of the father on which 
 sad occasion the son received, as he tells us, the first deep re- 
 ligious impressions and was most seriously affected we find 
 him up to his eighteenth year engaged in assisting one 
 of his brothers in his trade. His natural instincts, however, 
 could not be thwarted, and hence the longing for knowledge 
 and a higher education was irrepressible. The family tradi- 
 tion will have it that he clandestinely devoted every free 
 moment to his books, and that in a barn he made his first 
 homiletical attempts by preaching to the bare walls. Did not 
 St. Franciscus of Assisi preach to the fish in the sea? How- 
 ever that may be, the result was that after some time H. M. 
 Muhlenberg was permitted to devote his evening hours to 
 study ; that the superintendent of the highest classical school 
 schola senatoria of the town, His Worthiness Herr Rector 
 John Joachim Schiisster, taking an interest in the young and 
 ardent Henry, began to give him private instruction, and 
 finally admitted him to the public school, and then into the 
 highest class, to the great chagrin of the mischievous urchins, 
 who were quite disinclined to tolerate one in all respects so 
 much above them. Nor was this all : Henry made rapid 
 progress in arithmetic, Latin, Greek, and other branches, and 
 in addition to all th'is he managed to cultivate music, which, 
 according to the high authority of Martin Luther, comes next 
 to theology, and proved quite a master not only in singing 
 his beautiful tenor voice often gained him favors from those 
 of high station in society more valuable than mere admira- 
 tion but he became also a skilful performer on the clavichord 
 and the organ. We shall hereafter discover that this musical 
 accomplishment of H. M. Muhlenberg was conducive in bring- 
 ing aboqt at a later period of his life a harmony of a totally 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. J 
 
 different character, and at all times proved to him a most 
 valuable assistance in his pastoral work. 
 
 From the spring of 1733 to the autumn of the following 
 year we find H. M. Miihlenberg continuing his studies at the 
 classical school of Zellerfeld, situated east of Eimbeck on one 
 of the high plateaus stretching forth from the Harz Moun- 
 tains. That school enjoyed at that time a very high reputa- 
 tion. Under the guidance of Rector Raphel, A. M., who gave 
 to the zealous student of Eimbeck much active sympathy, he 
 made considerable progress in mastering the more difficult 
 Roman authors and the Greek style of the New Testament. 
 He found here occasion not only to extend his attainments 
 in music and other branches of education, but also to in- 
 struct a class of about eighteen children j which employment 
 enlarged his experience and qualified him in a direction so 
 important in the pastoral office. He likewise began the study 
 of Hebrew and of French, making very good use of time and 
 opportunities, though, in complaining in his autobiography of 
 certain dangerous impressions made upon him in the social 
 circles to which he was there introduced, he censures himself 
 severely. 
 
 On March 19, 1735, we find our friend on the road to the 
 University of Gottingen, established in that year. He was 
 consequently one of the first students of that Alma Mater, 
 and one of whom she still may be proud. During the pre- 
 ceding winter he had diligently continued his studies at Eim- 
 beck. It seems to have been generally understood among the 
 relatives and friends that Henry was intended for a learned 
 profession, and that a thorough education would best qualify 
 him for the mission of his life. His mother was willing with 
 a loving heart to do her share and to assist the student son 
 to the best of her ability. And, more than this, Providence 
 directed the hearts of the members of the council of Eimbeck 
 in such a manner that they gave our aspiring friend the use of 
 a stipend under their control which at least for a year offered 
 to him free board at Gottingen. This appears also an incon- 
 trovertible argument to us that they entertained of their favor- 
 
8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ite an opinion much better than, when writing in later years, he 
 in his humility thought himself entitled to. 
 
 German university- and student-life is, even in our times, to 
 some extent an anomalous social phenomenon. It is a prac- 
 tical anachronism. The freedom in various respects enjoyed 
 by the sons of those Alma Matres reminds us of a republic 
 in the midst of a monarchy, and those sons make even now 
 not unfrequently a rather dangerous and objectionable use of 
 their mothers' indulgence. But in those times, when H. M. 
 Muhlenberg was matriculated as a civis academicus at Gottin- 
 gen, German universities, though truly centres of learning 
 universitates literarum were in a moral aspect, as to the life 
 and manners of many or most of the students, not garden- 
 spots in the desert, but a howling wilderness in the midst of 
 cultivated lands. There the unrestrained young animal spirits 
 broke out in the rudest and crudest manners and barbarous 
 freaks. Muhlenberg narrates that after his arrival at Got- 
 tingen some wild fellows had in a nightly brawl killed a 
 watchman. Students not joining with the brutal companion- 
 ship were often exposed to the ridicule and contemptuous 
 treatment of the rougher classes by a terrorism which the 
 civil authorities did not properly oppose. Under these cir- 
 cumstances many a youth was misled. From such an effect 
 Muhlenberg was protected, not only to some extent by his 
 riper years, but much more by the better Christian moral 
 principles implanted in his heart. And, providentially, he 
 formed a friendship with young men, also fellow-students, 
 three of them, like himself, natives of Eimbeck, who were of 
 a decidedly religious turn of mind, and exercised a most 
 salutary influence upon their new associate. Through them 
 Muhlenberg came the first time in contact with that spirit and 
 that form of piety which, having originally been represented by 
 the learned theologian Phil. Jac. Spener, had made manifest 
 its decidedly practical character through Hermann August 
 Francke of Halle in the founding of the celebrated Orphan- 
 House and the literary and educational institutions connected 
 with it, in his efforts to advance God's kingdom on earth by 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 9 
 
 means of missions in foreign lands, by spreading the Bible 
 among the masses of the people, and by other instrumental- 
 ities. These great institutions at Halle were most important 
 elements in the education of hundreds of young men who 
 visited the university of the same place, founded A. D. 1674 by 
 King Frederick I., grandfather of Frederick the Great, and 
 had there a most excellent opportunity to prepare themselves 
 at the same time for the practical work of the Church. 
 
 A number of circumstances combined to confirm Miihlen- 
 berg in the religious turn his mind had taken. He refers in 
 this connection to the influences which the lectures of his 
 teachers, especially on dogmatics, ethics, and homiletics, exer- 
 cised upon him. Certainly, schools of theology ought to be 
 not simply schools of scholastic instruction, but should shape 
 as much as possible the minds of the students and properly 
 form their characters for the sacred office which is in prospect 
 for them. Of course the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire 
 is the indispensable prerequisite for a preacher of the gospel. A 
 theologian, ever so learned, without the touch of the prophetic 
 spirit will not fulfil his mission. Of this Miihlenberg seems 
 to have been fully convinced as a student. He considered it 
 a special and most favorable dispensation of Providence that 
 the Rev. Prof. Oporin, D. D. (a learned man of this name had 
 in the sixteenth century been professor of theology at the 
 Basel University), took him into his house, made him his pri- 
 vate secretary, and gave him free board and a room for his own 
 use. Certainly, this is ample proof of the esteem in which 
 the professor held his student and of the confidence he placed 
 in him. Dr. Oporin is the author of a work on homiletics 
 viz. Ancient and Only Rule for a Convincing and Effective 
 Manner of Preaching, 2 parts, 1736-37. He there opposes 
 the dangerous influences of the Wolfian philosophy upon 
 preaching, which under utilitarian pretexts led to rationalism. 
 Oporin died in 1753. His memory was for ever endeared to 
 Miihlenberg, who greatly profited by his daily intercourse with 
 such an excellent teacher and friend, and as a member of his 
 household derived various social advantages. He remembered 
 
10 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sayings of Oporin even after the lapse of many years ; of this 
 we have an instance in the Halle Reports, p. 787, 1st edit. Even 
 in his diary of 1779, under March 2d, he introduces, not with- 
 out a quaint humor, Oporin's peculiar manner of criticising 
 sermons composed by students of the classes before him. He 
 there says : " Dr. Oporin was accustomed first to pay attention 
 to what physics or moralities deserved some praise : when by 
 this bland treatment self-love felt itself flattered, the old 
 Adam, like a cat, would raise up his tail well pleased ; but all 
 at once things took a sudden turn and the critical eye would eat 
 away the proud flesh, without moving any one to anger, since 
 the preceding encomium had operated as captatio benevolentice" 
 
 It was a fortunate circumstance that Miihlenberg's residence 
 with one of his professors not only removed the young stu- 
 dent from intimate intercourse with students of lower tenden- 
 cies, but afforded him the opportunity to be introduced to 
 persons of higher standing. Among these he mentions Herr 
 von Munchhausen, high sheriff of Hanover, who granted to 
 his young protege certain benefices which went far to secure 
 to him a three years' course at the university, and the count of 
 Wernigerode, who permitted him to be present in his apart- 
 ments at the hours when devotional exercises from time to 
 time were held there. Intercourse with persons of high social 
 standing and refined tastes is calculated to teach polite man- 
 ners, which often prove to young people a substantial advan- 
 tage in their intercourse with others. 
 
 In the year 1736, Muhlenberg, conjointly with two other 
 students of theology, rented a room and began to instruct 
 poor ignorant, neglected children in spelling, reading, writing, 
 and the Catechism, the teachers deriving no pecuniary advan- 
 tage from their labors.* Yet some members of the Gottingen 
 
 * Rev. J. Chr. Kunze, D. D., says in his sermon, preached after the death of 
 H. M. Muhlenberg, his father-in-law, in New York on the nineteenth Sunday after 
 Trinity. 1787 : "When the illustrious prince, at that time Count Henry XI. Reuss, 
 still living, as a student sojourned at Gottingen, moved by his godly tutor, after- 
 ward Chancellor Riesenbeck, he established a school in behalf of poor, neglected, 
 begging children, and, endeavoring to find as instructor for them a truly converted 
 student, selected our late senior." This was H. M. Muhlenberg. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. II 
 
 clergy, with some of the public school-teachers, lodged com- 
 plaint against this charitable enterprise as a new movement 
 fraught with dangers. But one of the representatives of the 
 aristocracy favoring Miihlenberg with their confidence, the 
 Count Reuss, took up the good cause, gave it into the hands 
 of his legal adviser, Dr. Riesenbeck, and thus it came to pass 
 that the government indorsed the course of the students and 
 placed their charity school under the supervision of the theo- 
 logical faculty. The consequence was that attention was 
 attracted to the school, contributions were cheerfully given, 
 the work proceeded, and the students were benefited by the 
 opportunity of exercising the art of teaching and catechising. 
 Out of this small enterprise grew in the course of time* the 
 Gottingen Orphan-House, still existing under the supervision 
 of the theological faculty. It offered at various times shelter 
 to no less than one hundred and twenty children. Even now 
 the students of theology exercise themselves there in preach- 
 ing and catechising. It appears that a Mr. Borries, a citizen 
 of Muhlenberg's native town, Eimbeck, furnished the means 
 and took the first steps to transform the charity school begun 
 by Miihlenberg and his colaborers into an orphan-house. We 
 also know that Dr. Oporin, as dean of the faculty, published 
 some of the yearly reports of the institution, in one of which 
 (of 1/50) he honorably mentions the liberal gifts of Counsel- 
 lor von Borries and, after his death, of the family. 
 
 In the year 1737, Miihlenberg had advanced so far that he 
 was enrolled among those students who from time to time 
 had to preach in the University church, and also to catechise 
 there, for which purpose the children of the charity school 
 were required to appear once a week. It was certainly grat- 
 ifying to the young aspirant for the sacred office, and calcu- 
 lated to stimulate him to his best efforts, that Count Reuss 
 invited him to lecture in his aristocratic mansion at stated 
 times on theological and religious topics. It is a fact well 
 deserving notice that a very considerable number of the first 
 aristocratic families of Germany among them the princes 
 of Wernigerode, Counts Stolberg, Reuss, Isenburg, Solms, 
 
12 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Dohna, Saalfeld, Henkel were at that time in sincere sym- 
 pathy with the religious movement to which Phil Jacob 
 Spener had given the most energetic impetus, and assisted 
 all the charitable enterprises proceeding from it in the most 
 liberal manner. They also took pleasure in favoring and 
 assisting young men of the character of H. M. Miihlenberg. 
 When, in the spring of 1738, after attending finally to a spe- 
 cial course of lectures on the symbolical books of the Luther- 
 an Church, he had graduated, the Counts Reuss of Koestritz 
 and Henkel of Poeltzig two places then held in high esteem 
 in the Pietistic circles of Germany entertained the idea of 
 placing the young candidate for the ministerial office in a 
 pastoral charge, but resolved, after due deliberation, that he 
 should enter the Orphan-House and charitable institutions 
 connected with it at Halle as a teacher a resolution which, 
 under Divine Providence, decided the future course and the 
 mission of his life. 
 
 Leaving Gottingen, he spent some time at the University 
 of Jena, visited, by special invitation of Count Reuss, Koes- 
 tritz ; proceeded to Halle, left again on account of his private 
 affairs for Eimbeck ; visited Wernigerode, where by invitation 
 he was present at a pastoral conference ; Hanover and other 
 places, at which he met friends whose sympathy, experience, 
 and advice were of value to him ; and at Eimbeck preached on 
 several occasions and had private conversations on spiritual 
 matters with various individuals. Then, having taken an 
 affectionate farewell at Gottingen of his patrons and friends 
 in high and low positions, he entered upon his duties at Halle, 
 and as a teacher went through the usual routine there estab- 
 lished. For a few weeks he was put on probation as a teacher 
 of the smallest children ; then he was advanced to have charge 
 of higher classes, superintended eight boys in their room ; and 
 in the management of this small flock entrusted to his care as 
 teacher gained new experience and new lessons in practical 
 Christianity. After going through this course, it was made 
 his duty in the higher classes of those extensive institutions 
 to give instruction in Greek, Hebrew, and in some theological 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 13 
 
 branches, and he was appointed " inspector " of a ward of the 
 sick, which office brought him into close connection with 
 Prof. Junker, M. D., and with his subordinates, and gave him 
 opportunity to acquire some knowledge of the medical art, 
 which he had ample occasion to make good use of in the 
 future years of his life. 
 
14 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1739-1742- 
 
 Selected as a missionary for East India. Frustration of this plan. G. A. 
 Francke, D. D. Christian work at Halle. Herr von Canstein and the 
 first Bible society. Fr. M. Ziegenhagen, D. D. Call to Grosshenners- 
 dorf. Baroness Gersdorf. Acceptance of the call. Examination and ordi- 
 nation at Leipsic. Enters upon his duties at Grosshennersdorf. Orphan- 
 House and other charitable institutions there. The Bohemian colony. 
 Embarrassing circumstances. Visit to -Eimbeck and Halle. Call to the dis- 
 persed Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Return to Grosshennersdorf. Apology 
 for private conventicles. Balthasar Mentzer, D. D. Departure from Gross- 
 hennersdorf. Journey to Halle. 
 
 HAVING labored for a year at Halle, Muhlenberg re- 
 ceived pressing invitations to return to Gottingen 
 and to take charge of the charity school formerly conducted 
 there by him and two fellow-students, which had already 
 assumed larger proportions. But a warm friend and well- 
 wisher, Councillor Cellarius, who occupied rooms in the 
 Orphan-House, opposed this plan, confidentially informing 
 him that the directors of the institution, the Right Reverend 
 Fathers, as Mlihlenberg is wont to speak of them, intended to 
 send him as a missionary to East India. Among those worthy 
 men Gotthilf August Francke, the son of August Hermann 
 Francke, the celebrated founder of the charitable institutions 
 at Halle, and a typical representative of Pietism in its first 
 and purer form, deserves special mention, since he greatly 
 influenced the turn which H. M. Miihlenberg's life took, and 
 kept up correspondence with him until the end of his useful 
 career, Sept. 2, 1769. Not only at the head of the institutions 
 founded by his father, but also as professor of theology in the 
 Halle University, he exercised a great influence upon the 
 minds of a large number of candidates for the sacred office 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 15 
 
 by giving them solid information and by pointing out to them, 
 by his example no less than by his teaching, the value of 
 personal and practical piety. In this good work he was 
 assisted by colleagues in the professorial office and in the 
 management of the institutions, and by a number of pastors 
 in Halle. They were men moved by a holy zeal : while they 
 in their time were very averse to any interference with the 
 landmarks of the Lutheran Church and creed, to which their 
 convictions bound them, they united with those conserva- 
 tive principles a deep interest in the personal appropriation 
 of saving truth and in the practical questions of Christianity, 
 which in former times had not often found among theologians 
 the serious attention they deserved. They made Halle a cen- 
 tre for the cause of the orphan, for elementary and for higher 
 education on truly Christian principles, for missions, and for the 
 spreading of the Bible among the masses of the people. In 
 fact, the first Bible society, growing out of a small beginning 
 of Herr von Canstein, a pious nobleman, was a part of the 
 Halle institutions, and still exists there. The cause of mis- 
 sions brought them into sympathy and correspondence with 
 godly men in various countries. Among them we have to 
 mention the name of one often appearing in the sequel of our 
 narrative, the Rev. Fred. Mich. Ziegenhagen, D. D., German 
 court-preacher at London, who there became a fatherly friend 
 and adviser to many missionaries coming from Halle. He 
 died at London, Jan. 24, 1776, in the eighty-third year of 
 his most useful and exemplary career. 
 
 Miihlenberg had in May, 1738, paid his first visit to 
 Halle. We know that soon afterward he began his duties as 
 a regularly installed teacher in the Francke institutions. Those 
 schools contained in the times of Miihlenberg no less' than 
 between two and three thousand scholars. Classics were rep- 
 resented as well as the usual branches of elementary educa- 
 tion. The design of sending Muhlenberg as a missionary to 
 East India was indeed entertained at Halle. Missionaries 
 had gone thence to preach Christ and Him crucified to the 
 heathen at Malabar. A. H. Francke's advice guided King 
 
1 6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Frederick IV. of Denmark in his attempts to find the proper 
 workmen for that field of labor. Ziegenbalg and Plutschau 
 names endeared to every friend of evangelical missions had 
 for a time been sojourning at Halle before they started in 
 1706 for the distant land in the sunny South. Christ. Fred. 
 Schwartz, of all German missionaries of the last century in 
 East India the mosUsuccessful, had for a time been a teacher 
 in the Orphan-House, and had received instruction in Halle 
 in the Tamil language from missionary Schulze, who had 
 returned to Halle from Malabar, where he had built on the 
 foundation laid by Ziegenbalg. The leading men at Halle 
 were heartily interested in the cause of missions, and knew 
 from experience what kind of men that field of labor re- 
 quired. That they directed their attention now to H. M. 
 Muhlenberg proves that they thought him well qualified 
 for that kind of work. They had intended to make use of 
 him in a new field in Bengal. Outward circumstances pre- 
 vented the execution of the plan. Meanwhile, in the month 
 of July, 1739, a pressing call arrived from Count Reuss 
 that Miihlenberg should at once enter upon a pastoral 
 charge at Grosshennersdorf in Upper Lusatia. Muhlenberg 
 was, however, troubled with doubts concerning this appoint- 
 ment. It seems that at first he refused to acquiesce in 
 the call. But as it was urgently repeated, and Dr. Francke 
 and other friends insisted upon his accepting it, various 
 obstacles being in the way of his entering upon the mission- 
 ary work in East India, he resolved for the present to proceed 
 to Upper Lusatia and become well acquainted with this field 
 of labor, in every respect new to him. Thus the will of Prov- 
 idence decided his future career. Two weeks after he had left 
 Halle,- quite unexpectedly letters arrived from Denmark and 
 from England requiring that without any delay two proper 
 men should be selected for the Danish and for the English 
 missions. Muhlenberg was already out of the question. 
 
 Grosshennersdorf, the birthplace of the well-known the- 
 ologian and exegete Leopold Eman. Riickert, D. D., born 
 1797, who died as professor in the University of Jena 1871, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 17 
 
 and had been (1819-25) in his native place one of the succes- 
 sors of Muhlenberg in the pastoral office, is situated in the 
 eastern part of the present kingdom of Saxony, not far from 
 the Bohemian boundary and only a few miles south of Herrn- 
 hut, the central seat of Moravianism and the head-quarters 
 of Count Zinzendorf. Thus the two men who a few years 
 later came into conflict with each other in Philadelphia 
 were for a time near neighbors. We know that Muhlenberg 
 once in travelling passed through Herrnhut. The Baroness 
 von Gersdorf, the sister of Zinzendorf's mother, who had at 
 Grosshennersdorf the right of nominating the two pastors in 
 charge there, was a relative of the noble family Reuss ; which 
 connection explains why the preliminary call had come to 
 Muhlenberg through Count Reuss. Baroness Gersdorf, in 
 whose house Zinzendorf had sojourned during a few years of 
 his childhood, belonged to the school of Spener, as did also 
 Zinzendorf before he struck out on a path of his own selec- 
 tion. She wished to become acquainted with Muhlenberg, so 
 as to be able to act advisedly in taking such a responsible 
 step. Two weeks after having been introduced to her he was 
 requested to preach in the town. The result was that on 
 Aug. 12, 1/39, a formal call was given to him. On that occa- 
 sion Abt Steinmetz, a man of godly character and high esteem 
 in pious circles of Germany, superintendent of the classical 
 school at Klosterbergen near Magdeburg the place from 
 which in 1580 the Formula of Concord emanated was pres- 
 ent and encouraged Muhlenberg to accept of this call. 
 
 Having, after a prayerful consideration, arrived at the con- 
 clusion that he should enter upon a field of labor where he 
 certainly was not an intruder, he accepted the call. Proceed- 
 ing to Leipsic, the University of Saxony, under the sovereignty 
 of which also Grosshennersdorf stood, he was there examined 
 by the consistory of the church of the electoral principality in 
 the exegesis of the Old Testament, in the dogmas of Christ, 
 regeneration, justification, conversion ; also concerning the his- 
 tory of the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church. Having 
 given satisfactory evidence of his ability and attainments, he 
 2 
 
1 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was a few days later solemnly ordained in the presence of the 
 whole ministerium of the city of Leipsic by the Right Rev. 
 Superintendent Deyling, D. D., and in consequence thereof 
 fully entitled to enter upon the pastoral office to which he 
 had been called.* We see in this happy issue a convincing 
 proof that Muhlenberg, who entered upon a course of study 
 in classics and theology somewhat late in life, and under 
 greater difficulties than many other candidates of the pastoral 
 office, had made a very conscientious use of the time and of 
 the means allotted to him, and had given all his energies to 
 his studies, well knowing that the sacred office needs no less 
 than any other responsible position in life a proper preparation. 
 He never trifled with a duty. To this his whole life bears ample 
 testimony. But, viewing the prospects now before him and 
 the responsibilities awaiting him, he takes occasion humbly 
 to confess that at that moment he appeared to himself, after 
 four years' experience in a true spiritual life, as a mere child, 
 and could hardly realize the fact that he had been ordained 
 a minister of Christ and called to a pastoral charge. There 
 is an admonition in this to all who are not fully conscious of 
 the responsibilities they incur in entering the sacred office. 
 
 On his way through Halle from Leipsic, Muhlenberg 
 learned that soon after his departure from that place the 
 demand for three missionaries had come, and that the appoint- 
 ments had already been made. He felt convinced that it was 
 not God's will that he should serve his cause in East India. 
 
 Leaving Halle, he directed his steps to Hanover, the prov- 
 ince in which he was born, paid visits to a number of friends 
 whose intercourse spiritually benefited him, and returned 
 through Brandenburg and Saxony to Grosshennersdorf. 
 
 This town was and still is in various respects of no particular 
 significance. It has now about fifteen hundred inhabitants, 
 and no great commercial or industrial establishments. The old 
 aristocratic mansion is the only building of any architectural 
 pretension. In Miihlenberg's time two pastors took care of 
 
 * The certificate of ordination still exists, and is in possession of Rev. F. A. 
 Muhlenberg, D. D., professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 19 
 
 the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants ; now, one is considered 
 amply sufficient for this purpose. Yet there were interests 
 there which claimed the entire and careful attention of 
 Miihlenberg. There was the noble family of the baroness 
 of Gersdorf, with whom social and official duties brought 
 him into frequent intercourse. He considered it a peculiar 
 favor of Providence that his clerical associate, the Rev. Siisse, 
 was in matters of religion of one mind with himself, and was 
 a colleague both agreeable and by his solid scholarship val- 
 uable in the intercourse he had with him. An Orphan-House, 
 founded by the baroness and her mother, who had died before 
 Miihlenberg's arrival, gave him ample opportunity each day 
 to teach and to assist in the management of the house, since 
 there were four different departments in it which he had to 
 superintend. The first one was a higher school, in which 
 sons of impoverished noblemen were instructed in the classics 
 and other higher branches, also in the fundamentals of the 
 Christian religion, to prepare them for future study. The 
 distressing condition of widows of noblemen who had in 
 turbulent times lost the means of educating their sons prop- 
 erly, and were in those parts often exposed to the proselyting 
 attempts of Papists, had given occasion for the establishment 
 of this department, in which three teachers gave instruction. 
 In the second department thirty-two poor, needy boys, chil- 
 dren of the subjects of the baroness, were furnished with 
 boarding and clothing and obtained their education, their 
 teachers being young men selected from the more advanced 
 scholars and specially prepared for this office. The third 
 department contained some poor orphan girls ; and the fourth 
 -was an asylum for a number of aged widows, some of them 
 blind and helpless, who were here charitably sustained and 
 received spiritual assistance to prepare them for the last hour. 
 The whole institution was under wise laws and regulations. 
 The baroness spent yearly more than three thousand thaler 
 (dollars) of her income for this benevolent purpose ; there was 
 no income from any other source. Miihle-nberg found ample 
 opportunity as a superintendent to show his talent for instruc- 
 
2O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tion and discipline. After divers changes that Orphan-House 
 still exists, is under the authority of the government of Sax- 
 ony, serves 'as a reformatory school for neglected and unruly 
 boys, of whom there are about one hundred, while there is 
 room for one hundred more. But there was in addition to 
 the Orphan-House another, .smaller institution, in which 
 Protestants who suffered persecution on this account in Bo- 
 hemia found refuge, received instruction in the Bohemian lan- 
 guage, and were spiritually cared for. Miihlenberg found it 
 his duty to learn enough of that language (Czech) to enable 
 him to assist in the administration of the Lord's Supper. The 
 Bohemian interest had in former years been of much more 
 significance at Grosshennersdorf. When Baroness Gersdorf in 
 1721 began her benevolent labors she erected the Orphan- 
 House, also invited a considerable number of Bohemian 
 Protestant refugees and allowed them to establish themselves 
 on her estate in a colony called Schonbrunn. In 1726 a Bo- 
 hemian congregation was organized, and Rev. John Liberda 
 called to preside over it. Difficulties arose, and in 1732 a 
 large number of Bohemians emigrated to Berlin, where King 
 William I., father of Frederick the Great, moved by the inter- 
 cessions of Rev. Liberda, built for their use the well-known 
 Bethlehem Church, which was dedicated March 12, 1737. 
 Miihlenberg found, consequently, at Grosshennersdorf only 
 a remnant of the former Bohemian congregation. The bar- 
 oness herself, on account of her liberality, which transcended 
 her income, was involved in difficulties, and sold her estate 
 in 1740 to Baron Charles G. von Burgsdorf. Miihlenberg, 
 whose support in consequence of this was reduced and ren- 
 dered doubtful, received in the same year an invitation to pay 
 a visit and to preach at Gorlitz, where a pastoral charge was 
 vacant. But in obedience to the entreaties and arguments 
 of the baroness, who continued to reside in her old mansion 
 until her death, August 2, 1761, he paid no attention to the 
 call, continued in the discharge of his duties, and resolved to 
 pay in 1741 a visit to his native place, with a view to receive 
 a part of his paternal inheritance, and thus to be enabled to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 21 
 
 continue his labors at Grosshennersdorf. It was indeed im- 
 possible to act in a more generous way. 
 
 It was in the month of July, 1741, when Miihlenberg in- 
 tended to set out on his journey. Just at that time Baron 
 von Gersdorf, brother of the baroness, who was engaged in 
 diplomatic services, arrived as a visitor. He made Miihlcn- 
 berg his companion on the route to Leipsic. From here 
 Miihlenberg went to Koestritz to pay his respect to his 
 former patron, Count Reuss. Taking his advice and fur- 
 nished by him with the necessary means, he proceeded at 
 once to Halle. 
 
 During Miihlenberg's visit to Koestritz a certain Baron von 
 Braim had been staying there, who had heard about the con- 
 dition of things at Grosshennersdorf, and, reaching Halle 
 before Miihlenberg, most probably gave the Rev. Dr. Francke c 
 some information concerning Miihlenberg's situation. This \ 
 fully explains how it happened that when Miihlenberg, a few 
 days afterward, arrived at Halle, Francke at supper, to which 
 he had invited him, offered him " a call to the dispersed Lu- 
 therans in Pennsylvania," adding, however, " to make a trial 
 of a few years." Without much deliberation Miihlenberg 
 answered that if he could see in it the will of God he would 
 go, and that 'he felt bound to go wherever Providence called 
 him. This happened Sept. 6, 1741. "f 
 
 Thus a moment or a few words may determine the career 
 and the issues of a whole life. Thus the decision of a 
 moment may fix the fate of thousands. And certainly this 
 was the case here. 
 
 But in this world, alongside of the most momentous events 
 in the history of individuals and of thousands, the smallest 
 trifles will attach themselves. When Miihlenberg had, with- 
 out any hesitancy, following the first impulse of his heart, 
 declared his resolution, good Mrs. Henrietta Francke was so 
 elated with joy that she at once presented the young pastor 
 with a comfortable dressing-gown, hoping and trusting that 
 now some help had arrived for the suffering brethren of the 
 faith in Pennsylvania. Possibly we are right in assuming that 
 
22 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 this incident goes far to prove that the destitute Lutherans 
 beyond the Atlantic, and the painful inability up to that time 
 to find them proper help, had often been subjects of conversa- 
 tion in Dr. Francke's family. 
 
 In accordance with the advice of Dr. Francke, Miihlenberg 
 now proposed to pay a visit at once to his relatives in his 
 native place, and to consult with them about his affairs and 
 plans for the future. A trifling impediment, want of room for 
 him in the regular stage-coach, prevented the carrying out of 
 this purpose. Meanwhile, Baron von Gersdorf had arrived 
 at Halle, on his return once more to Grosshennersdorf, and 
 he now invited Muhlenberg to accompany him. On Sept. 14 
 they arrived safely at Grosshennersdorf. 
 
 Dr. Francke having informed his friend, the Rev. Dr. Fr. 
 M. Ziegenhagen of London, of Miihlenberg's willingness to 
 go as a missionary among the Lutherans in Pennsylvania, he 
 received from Ziegenhagen a full approval of his offer of the 
 call to Muhlenberg, and the conditions viz. that he should 
 accept the call for three years, so as to make a trial, and that 
 he should have liberty to return after that period ; that his 
 travelling expenses from Upper Lusatia to America should be 
 paid, and also those for his return in case he should demand 
 them; that the sums necessary for these and a sufficient salary 
 should be taken from the charitable gifts collected by Ziegen- 
 hagen ; also, that Muhlenberg should receive his regular call, 
 with these conditions annexed, from Ziegenhagen, to whom the 
 Pennsylvania congregations had committed the matter. All 
 of this Francke, after the lapse of a few weeks, communicated 
 to Muhlenberg, who had made the baroness acquainted with 
 what had happened at Halle; to which she replied that "there 
 certainly was an extensive uncultivated field in America." 
 When she learned of Dr. Ziegenhagen's consent, being then 
 in the midst of her financial difficulties, she inquired at what 
 time the ships were to leave Europe and when Muhlenberg 
 had to be there. This Muhlenberg reported to Francke. A 
 few days later the baroness thought he had been too hasty in 
 this matter, and that he should certainly lay his case first 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 23 
 
 before his high patrons, the Counts Reuss and Henkel. They 
 answered that if he could see his way clear to leave Gross- 
 hennersdorf they could very well employ him in the " Vogt- 
 land," where their dominions were situated. Dr. Francke, on 
 the other hand, advised him he should come as soon as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The possessions of the baroness and the administration of 
 her estates had meanwhile passed into the hands of Herr von 
 Burgsdorf. A number of members of the Orphan-House and 
 a part of the congregation made application to him, praying 
 that he would not permit Miihlenberg's departure. The baron * 
 declared to him that he wished him to remain in his present 
 official position that changes going on in the outward admin- 
 istration of his official duties would affect him only so far as 
 to reduce to some extent his labors. It appears that the whole 
 complication of circumstances was of such a nature as to give 
 great anxiety to Miihlenberg, and he was very desirous of 
 clearly recognizing the will of God. He wrote to Francke 
 and Ziegenhagen. The letter to Ziegenhagen was enclosed 
 in the one to Francke, who, however, informed Miihlenberg 
 that he did not despatch it, and added that he must -at once 
 arrive at a final decision, either yea or nay. Should he refuse 
 the call to Pennsylvania, it would be left to his conscience, 
 acting as accountable to God. " His Excellency the count " 
 soon afterward also sent a message to the effect that Miihlen- 
 berg should accept the call to America, since it would be 
 easier to find the proper person for the vacancy at home than 
 for the mission-field beyond the sea; and the promise was 
 given that for Miihlenberg's vacant position with divine help 
 a suitable incumbent should be found. -A successor was 
 indeed found in 1744, Rev. Anton Rhode, who, unfortunately, 
 proved such a troublesome individual that he was finally sus- 
 pended. 
 
 Before bidding farewell to Grosshennersdorf we have to 
 refer to a circumstance which offers to us perhaps more than 
 a mere episodic interest, and which cannot be omitted in the 
 annals of Miihlenberg's life and times. There are strong 
 
24 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 reasons to believe that during his pastorate at Grosshenners- 
 dorf he entered the literary arena, and that this was in his 
 whole career the only case of this kind. The facts are these. 
 In those times controversy between the old conservative 
 ecclesiastical party and the Pietists or the radicals and pro- 
 gressivists was the order of the day. There were among the 
 conservatives undoubtedly many clergymen of very little spir- 
 itual life, who in a perfunctory manner attended to their official 
 duties, and whose hatred against the Pietists, who were en- 
 deavoring to arouse more religious feeling and life, and with 
 fervor preached repentance and Christ crucified, came from 
 carnal motives. But there were among the opponents of Pie- 
 tism also men of a godly character and of sound practical 
 principles, who saw in the innovations and methods of Pietism 
 much that to them portended no good to the Church and 
 religion. While they could approve of the efforts of Pietism 
 in the direction of practical godliness, Christian charity, the 
 suppression of vice, the alleviation of misery, they could not 
 close their eyes to certain dangers which they found inherent 
 in Pietism. It laid too much stress upon the feelings and 
 doubtful mental conditions of individuals, and endangered 
 and put into the background the solid form of true faith, the 
 creed of the Church ; it had occasioned here and there very 
 objectionable excitements and eccentricities ; it encouraged 
 separation within the Church, and often a very objectionable 
 censoriousness against the ministers on the part of the hear- 
 ers. Certainly, these were serious things, and men of the 
 highest conscientiousness and friends of true godliness might 
 well feel alarmed under the circumstances. 
 
 One of the prevailing features of Pietism was that, in addi- 
 tion to the ordinary public services, its lay adherents held 
 private conventicles in family circles. These meetings were 
 often conducted by clergymen holding the same views ; lay- 
 men also, of the proper character and talent, expounded pas- 
 sages of the gospel and led in prayer. We can understand 
 that meetings of such a character may have been felt as a 
 necessity in congregations presided over by unspiritual pas- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$ 
 
 tors, whose preaching was dry, lifeless, cold, or offensive to 
 believers. We would not maintain that under such unfortu- 
 nate circumstances godly members of the congregation have 
 no right to meet for mutual edification in private houses, pro- 
 vided all things be done in decency, on the basis of the true 
 faith and sound religion, and not in the interest of party spirit 
 and strife. But we cannot shut our eyes to the dangers of 
 fomenting a foreign spirit, of opening the gates to errorists, and 
 of engendering by those means separation and spiritual pride. 
 Now, it appears that in the year 1740 the Rev. Balthasar 
 Mentzer, D. D., general superintendent of the church in the 
 duchy of Kalenberg, court-preacher, etc., etc., published a 
 book wherein he exposes in a quiet, unobjectionable manner 
 these dangers connected with private conventicles, and warns 
 Christian people against them. We cannot doubt that he ut- 
 tered those warnings prompted by the best motives, and that 
 he was sustained in his views by an extensive pastoral expe- 
 rience. That no answer should appear to his objections, and 
 no attempt should be made to refute his arguments, could 
 hardly be expected in those times, although the controversies 
 between orthodox or conservatives and the Pietists had already 
 lost much of their former acrimony. There appeared in the 
 year 1741 a pamphlet in the form of an address to Dr. B. 
 Mentzer, wherein the author attempts to show that Mentzer's 
 position in this matter was not supported by any convincing 
 proof; that Pietism with its newly-introduced agencies and 
 instrumentalities was called forth by the actual and deplorable 
 condition of the Church ; and that private conventicles did 
 not deserve condemnation. It cannot be denied that the tone 
 of the pamphlet was not without a satirical element and some- 
 what irritating. Dr. Mentzer, who might have taken up his 
 pen again to defend his views, was by death prevented from 
 doing so ; he departed this life Dec. 20, 1741. The pamphlet 
 published against him attracted attention in literary circles, 
 and in various theological periodicals of those years reference 
 is made to it. The author had not given his full name, but 
 on the title-page only introduced himself as D. M. Soon the 
 
26 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 critics read this " Diaconus Miihlenberg," and in various pub- 
 lications the pamphlet was ascribed to the young pastor at 
 Grosshennersdorf, who, to our knowledge, never denied his 
 authorship. Neither does it appear that any of his friends 
 after his departure from Germany maintained that that pamph- 
 let had not come from his hand. True it is that in all his ex- 
 tensive private manuscripts Miihlenberg never referred to that 
 attempt to use the public press. If it was his first effort in 
 polemics of such a character, it was also his last one. He 
 served throughout his life the ecclesia militans, but avoided 
 the public battleground of theological controversies. To us 
 a peculiar interest rests in this, that except one sermon 
 printed in Philadelphia many years later, that pamphlet is 
 the only publication ever ascribed to him as author.* 
 
 After having under considerable emotion delivered, Dec. 9, 
 1741, his farewell sermon, he handed over to the proper author- 
 ities, in good order, all the documents and accounts entrusted 
 to him. With mutual good wishes for steadfastness in the faith 
 and for a happy meeting in the land beyond the grave, and with 
 prayers, he paid his last respects at the mansion of the baron- 
 ess, and departed in stormy weather from Grosshennersdorf, 
 Dec. 17, 1741. 
 
 Travelling westward by the way of Bautzen, Dresden, Oschatz, 
 Leipsic, and Altenburg, he came, Dec. 23d, to Polnitz, where 
 Count Henkel entertained the worn-out traveller in a most 
 hospitable manner, refreshing him in body and soul, and on 
 Jan. 2, 1742, had him conveyed in a vehicle to Count Reuss 
 at Koestritz, who received him no less kindly. He had at 
 both places to lead in worship in the residences of the counts, 
 and to preach. Both his noble friends at that time already had 
 advanced into the sixties, and the farewell was keenly felt by 
 Miihlenberg, there being little prospect that he would see them 
 again on earth. Jan. 8th, Count Reuss had his guest conveyed 
 to Halle, Miihlenberg on the road paying a visit to the Orphan- 
 House at Langendorf. 
 
 * The preface to the German hymnbook edited 1786 by the Pennsylvania Min- 
 isterium is also from Miihlenberg's hand. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2J 
 
 It was a wintry day, so cold that Miihlenberg's hands and 
 feet were frost-bitten, when, in the evening of Jan. 9, he 
 arrived at Halle and as a guest entered the house of Mrs. Dr. 
 Goetz. Afterward Francke took him to his house, where he 
 received all the attention his case needed and hospitality could 
 offer. Efforts were made to find an associate for Muhlenberg 
 to accompany him as a colaborer to Pennsylvania, but no suit- 
 able one was found. 
 
 We have arrived at the end of. what we may call the pre- 
 paratory period of H. M. Miihlenberg's life. He was led on 
 thus far by a kind Providence. The years of his youth had 
 not been without hardship and sad experiences. Temptations, 
 found everywhere, and especially in the course of young stu- 
 dents, had assailed him. He escaped them unscathed. He 
 faithfully used the opportunities and means offered to him to 
 finish his education. He experienced in the most dangerous 
 years of man's life the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 and was awakened to a spiritual life. The resolution to walk 
 before God was firmly taken and sincerely kept. Friends and 
 patrons were found who confirmed him in this resolution and 
 its execution. He had endeared himself to godly people of 
 lowly and high standing. Already he had entered upon the 
 field of action, had tried his strength, and gathered some 
 experience. He had matured for greater tasks, for the pecu- 
 liar and comprehensive mission of his life. Heretofore friends 
 and advisers stood near enough for him to receive from them 
 at any time encouragement and counsel. And their prayers 
 accompanied him into the distant land beyond the ocean and 
 into an uncertain future. Departing from them, he was, as 
 the saying is, " thrown upon his own resources," and had 
 under unusual and trying circumstances to evolve and to 
 prove the Christian manhood that was in him. 
 
28 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1742. 
 
 Departure from Halle. Miihlenberg arrives at Eimbeck by the way of Halber- 
 stadt, Wernigerode, Gottingen. Unpleasant experiences there through cler- 
 ical, censoriousness. Passing through Hanover, Osnabriick, Deventer, and 
 Norden to Amsterdam, through Leyden, Rotterdam, Briel, to Helvoetsluys, 
 he sets sail for England. Acquaintance made on board the ship. Arrival at 
 London. -Intercourse with Ziegenhagen, John Dav. Michaelis. H. A. Butjen- 
 der, and others. Miihlenberg receives the formal call to the Evangelical 
 Lutheran congregations of Philadelphia, New Providence, and New Hanover 
 in Pennsylvania. He is requested to visit the Salzburger congregation at 
 Ebenezer, Ga. Sets sail for the New World. 
 
 HAVING departed, Feb. 4, 1742, from Halle, where in 
 those times the way of extending God's kingdom on 
 earth was providentially decided for Miihlenberg and for 
 many other missionaries of the gospel and the cause of 
 Christ, the candidate for spiritual services among the Luther- 
 ans in Pennsylvania arrived the following evening at Halber- 
 stadt, and at a late hour of the day paid his respects to some 
 members of the family of the Counts Wernigerode, then 
 sojourning there, who stood in intimate relation with Dr. 
 Francke and other godly men at Halle, and to whom, as 
 well as to other sympathizing friends who were present, he 
 was quite welcome. That in such a circle conversation would 
 turn to questions of personal religious experience and the 
 interests of Christ's cause on earth might be expected. It 
 belonged indeed to the characteristics of Pietism. The count 
 also, in addition to good advice, gave Miihlenberg a number 
 of tracts referring to the life of his deceased wife, which he 
 intended partly for readers in America, partly for the mission- 
 aries in East India ; hence some were to be left in London, 
 thence to be transmitted to their destination. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$ 
 
 On Feb. 6th, Miihlenberg arrived at Wernigerode, the old, 
 venerable residence of the counts of the same name, and there, 
 as on a former visit, he was hospitably entertained by his 
 friend, Pastor Boetticher. On the following day he was 
 invited to hold religious services at the princely residence 
 and to be present at a conference meeting attended by a con- 
 siderable number of pastors of that district. The Counts 
 Wernigerode exercised sovereign authority in their domin- 
 ions, like many other high-standing and wealthy noble fam- 
 ilies of Germany. They consequently had also ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction. This power they used in favor of the mission- 
 aries from Halle. A number of them, and some sent to 
 Pennsylvania, before departing for their destination were 
 ordained by the church dignitaries of Wernigerode. We 
 know that Miihlenberg was ordained at Leipsic. 
 
 On Feb. 8th he preached in the pulpit of his friend Boet- 
 ticher the first sermon of the Lent season of that year ; he 
 also held services in the neighboring Ilsenburg, and here also 
 met a number of pastors in sympathy with Halle and Pietism. 
 On the following day, in a terrible storm, he went up again 
 to the mansion of the counts, took farewell of the head of 
 the noble house, and arrived, after much hardship, at Gottin- 
 gen, where he was hospitably entertained by his old patron 
 and friend, Prof. Dr. Oporin, who rejoiced after four years of 
 separation to have his former pupil again under his roof. That 
 the chanty school founded by the co-operation of Miihlenberg 
 was on this occasion an object of his attention hardly needs a 
 remark. He paid his respects to some of his former teachers 
 and a number of brethren in the faith, and Feb. i/th continued 
 his journey and arrived at his native place, Eimbeck. 
 
 It was a great satisfaction to him once more to see his aged 
 mother. But to her and his brothers and sisters and other 
 relatives the idea of his going to America was most distress- 
 ing. His mother said she would rather follow him to his 
 grave than learn that the Indians had torn him to pieces. Of 
 course we in our times consider the crossing of the Atlantic 
 simply as an excursion for pleasure ; in those times the case 
 
3O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was a totally different one, fraught with innumerable diffi- 
 culties and dangers. Not only a very protracted and stormy 
 voyage, but miserable and scanty provisions, loathsome dis- 
 eases, attacks of pirates, and other ills stared the adventurous 
 traveller in the face. These things, however, could not dis- 
 courage Miihlenberg. 
 
 His visit to Eimbeck was unexpectedly connected with 
 unpleasant experiences. It seems that his hearty consent to 
 the views and principles pronounced at Halle was well known 
 to the clerical dignitaries of his native town. There were at 
 least some of them who on this account were prejudiced 
 against him and did not wish him to preach in their pulpits, and 
 therein acted against the request of a number of the citizens. 
 Many of these who in their religious views and feelings sided 
 with him visited him at his private residence. It was stated 
 that he held with them private religious services. On Sun- 
 day, Feb. 25th, however, he preached, at the request of one of 
 the pastors of the town, Rev. Benckhard, senior of the clergy, 
 in one of the churches at Eimbeck. The building, as may be 
 expected, was crowded. Miihlenberg took as his text the 
 Gospel of the day, third Sunday in Lent, Luke xi. 14-28, and 
 spoke on " the diverse effects produced on those present by 
 the miracle of Christ." In the evening of that day a number 
 of friends came to him, with whom he entered into conver- 
 sation on religious subjects. There were present also some 
 strangers. On the following morning the burgqmaster sent 
 him command " to desist from holding Pietistic conventicles, 
 which the law of the country prohibited." At a subsequent 
 visit to the house of the burgomaster he was informed that 
 two of the clergy of the town one of them Herr Superin- 
 tendent John George Hunt were his accusers. These gen- 
 tlemen were not satisfied with first steps, but sent reports to 
 the highest ecclesiastical authorities at Hanover : they also 
 requested the civil and the clerical authorities of a neighbor- 
 ing village, where Miihlenberg was expected to preach, to 
 prevent him from holding conventicles. This caused Miihl- 
 enberg to return from that village without having accom- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 3 1 
 
 plished his object. He took occasion to admonish those 
 who sympathized with him not to entertain any schismatic 
 thoughts or devices. 
 
 On March I2th he was summoned before the burgomaster 
 of Eimbeck, who read to him a rescript sent by the high 
 authorities of Hanover demanding that " the burgomaster and 
 the superintendent should unitedly, under the menace of im- 
 prisonment, command Muhlenberg to desist from holding con- 
 venticles." Miihlenberg's question, whether such a procedure 
 was not suggestive of the Spanish Inquisition, the burgomas- 
 ter answered with a smile, and dismissed him kindly. He 
 proceeded straightway to the Right Rev. Superintendent, to 
 whom he presented the certificate of his ordination at Leipsic 
 and his testimonials from Gottingen. The Superintendent 
 regretted that Muhlenberg had not visited him before, ex- 
 cused himself by saying that two of the pastors of the town 
 had compelled him to bring the charges, embraced the " mis- 
 erable delinquent," and dismissed him with his blessing. 
 
 Having taken farewell of his relatives and friends, Muhlen- 
 berg departed on March i/th to Hanover, where Frau von 
 Hattorf hospitably entertained him and made the necessary 
 arrangements for him to pay his respects to the members of 
 the consistory, composed of the highest ecclesiastical digni- 
 taries of the electoral dominion. He soon learned that it had 
 been reported from Eimbeck that " an individual had appeared 
 there who pretended to be a preacher from Saxony, but that 
 he was a mere vagabond and a heretic, who had recently re- 
 turned from Pennsylvania, was holding Pietistic conventicles 
 at Eimbeck, and causing dissatisfaction with the existing 
 laws." These calumnies and inventions Muhlenberg could 
 refute without any difficulty. He did not need the advice 
 which the head of the consistory, Dr. Tappe, gave him not 
 t'o take revenge on his accusers, since all the clergy of the 
 Hanoverian dominion might have to suffer in public esti- 
 mation. 
 
 Here also he met with a number of friends among the 
 clergy and laity who shared in his religious views and feel- 
 
32 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ings. With two of them he went, on March 24th, the day 
 before Easter, to Rev. Winkler, pastor at Peina, for whom 
 he entertained very affectionate regard ; paid visits to two 
 other pastors in the neighborhood ; preached on Monday after 
 Easter at Peina, and returned on March 2/th to Hanover. Here 
 he was admitted to the presence of Frau von Miinchhausen, 
 wife of the high dignitary who had kindly assisted him as a 
 student at Gottingen. This noble Christian lady continued 
 her good-will toward him for many years after he had begun 
 his missionary work in Pennsylvania. The Rev. Flugge, one 
 of the pastors of Hanover city, encouraged by Dr. Tappe, 
 president of the consistory, had invited Miihlenberg to preach 
 on April 1st in his parish church. Another member of the 
 same high ecclesiastical board, a jurist, remonstrated with 
 Flugge, but was invited by him to come and to hear for him- 
 self, as he could then form a better judgment ; which advice 
 he took. After listening to the sermon he said that " it had 
 all been orthodox, in agreement with the Formula of Con- 
 cord." Thinking, however, that the designs of the adherents 
 of the so-called orthodox, anti-Pietistic party might lead to 
 further unpleasant results, Miihlenberg sent his official cer- 
 tificates and testimonials to the privy council of the Hanover- 
 ian government. They were sent back to him after a few 
 days. Researches recently made in the ecclesiastical archives 
 of the now Prussian province of Hanover have brought to 
 light no trace of any transaction on record concerning Miihl- 
 enberg. 
 
 Departing from Hanover April 5th, and proceeding with 
 the stage to Osnabriick, where he arrived April /th, Miihlen- 
 berg, as he tells us, keenly felt the separation from his native 
 country, from his relatives and many friends, with whom he 
 was connected by the tenderest ties. But he says that divine 
 Providence, which benevolently extends his care even to the 
 smallest and most insignificant creatures, protected him in his 
 long journey in the "most fatherly manner." 
 
 His first companions in the stage were two lawyers, who 
 asserted that they knew Miihlenberg when students at Gottin- 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 33 
 
 gen. During this conversation allusion was made to Pietism, 
 and one of the two finding fault with the progress of Pietism 
 in Hanover, Miihlenberg asked him to define Pietism. His 
 answer proved sufficiently that he did not know what he was 
 talking about, but it helped, as Miihlenberg says, to render 
 the time less tedious to the travellers. Arriving at Osnabriick, 
 they were at once summoned before the French general, who 
 with some thousand soldiers had taken quarters in the town. 
 Query : What had brought the French to German soil ? 
 When the emperor Charles VI. died in 1740 he left no son as 
 heir to the throne, but in consequence of the ratification by 
 some of the powers of the recently-settled principle that the 
 Austrian monarchy should continue undivided, and that, in case 
 of no legitimate male heir, the eldest daughter should ascend 
 the throne, Maria Theresa, wife of the grandduke Francis 
 Stephan of Tuscany, took the Austrian sceptre. ' But she had 
 to defend her claim against mighty foes. Frederick the Great 
 at once marched (Dec. 17, 1740) into Silesia, parts of which 
 he claimed as belonging to his estates. In consequence of 
 his decisive victories over the Austrian army, all Silesia was 
 ceded to him at the Peace of Breslau, 1742, he on his part 
 acknowledging Maria Theresa as the lawful regent of Austria. 
 But with the electoral prince of Bavaria, Charles Albrecht, 
 who claimed to be the legitimate heir of the Austrian throne, 
 the French formed in 1741 a coalition against Maria Theresa, 
 and two French armies marched into Germany one in the 
 south, the other against Hanover, which with England and 
 Hessia sided with Austria. The French suffered total defeat 
 (1743) at Dettingen, and finally, after various changes of 
 fortune of the several armies and protracted diplomatic trans- 
 actions, Maria Theresa was acknowledged empress of Austria 
 in the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, her husband having 
 already, in 1742, been elected at Frankfurt emperor of Ger- 
 many, at that time rather an empty title. These circumstances 
 fully explain why Miihlenberg met a French army at Osna- 
 bruck, and a general who closely examined the travellers as 
 to their political connections. Miihlenberg, declaring him- 
 
34 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 self a minister of the gospel, was at once set free. He had 
 time enough to glance in the town-hall at the portraits of the 
 ambassadors who, after most protracted discussion as to their 
 respective privileges according to diplomatic etiquette, had 
 finally, in 1648, brought peace to unfortunate Germany and 
 an end to the Thirty Years' War. He also observed, in going 
 through the streets, how the French soldiers in the exube- 
 rance of their war-spirit, were dancing and leaping in torn 
 pantaloons like wagtails, and how gladly the citizens would 
 have seen the departure of these unclean birds. 
 
 Departing at noon with a single companion in the stage, 
 one of the two lawyers of Hanover having left him at Deven- 
 ter, Miihlenberg considered it a special providence that, while 
 yet in Westphalia near Bentheim, a merchant from Holland, 
 bound for Amsterdam, joined his company. This gentleman 
 took the pains to give him his first lessons in the Dutch lan- 
 guage, of which Miihlenberg had ample occasion to make 
 use at a much later time ; he also advised him to speak his 
 good German with slow pronunciation, so that the Hollanders 
 would readily understand him. They found that in the towns 
 of Holland hardly anything was to be had gratuitously, save 
 the chimes and their sentimental melodies. 
 
 Having reached the town of Norden, April loth, they went 
 on board of a boat pulled by horses (the first time Miihlen- 
 berg travelled by water), and arrived at Amsterdam, where 
 his companion, performing his last act of kindness, guided 
 him to Messrs. Deutz and Sons, to whom he handed the rec- 
 ommendations given by his illustrious patrons at Hanover. 
 They treated him with all politeness after the manner of the 
 country, procured him comfortable lodgings, and gave him rec- 
 ommendations to a merchant of high standing at Rotterdam, 
 "Mr. Hering of the Loewenhoven by de Swane-Staeg." The 
 loth of April he spent in visiting some of the perishable curi- 
 osities of this world of which the wealthy city boasts. He was 
 more benefited by the first properly-prepared meal and the first 
 undisturbed rest in a comfortable bed after five nights and days' 
 travelling in a stage-coach. April nth he proceeded through 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 35 
 
 Leyden to Rotterdam, where Mr. Hering received him kindly, 
 had him properly lodged, and took the trouble to show him 
 the sights of the city. Arriving April loth at Briel, by the 
 advice of a well-educated Hollander he took lodgings in an 
 inn kept by an Englishman. Here he had occasion to observe 
 that the tradesmen in their conversation spoke the English in 
 such an abbreviated, hurried, and lisping way that he could 
 not understand a word, though he had begun the study of 
 that language at Gottingen, and even on some festive occa- 
 sion had delivered at Grosshennersdorf an oration in English ; 
 which, however, not a soul understood save the local physi- 
 cian, who had also acquired all his English at Gottingen. He 
 tells us the good people at Briel thought he was rather deaf, 
 and therefore screamed into his ears, thereby " making con- 
 fusion worse confounded." He thought that if he had been 
 a Frenchman he might have helped himself more readily by 
 gesticulations, but, says he, " for such manoeuvres the Low 
 Germans (Platt-Deutsche) and Hollanders are too stiff, and the 
 common English people don't like the French." His English 
 host, however, proved very kind and compassionate to the 
 German stranger. 
 
 April 1 4th the stage-coach took him to Helvoetsluys ; there 
 he was booked in the regular packet-boat for England. Among 
 the passengers was an Hungarian officer of the court at Vienna, 
 who was sent on a special mission to England, spoke also the 
 Latin, French, and to some extent the English language, and 
 took a kind interest in Miihlenberg. When Miihlenberg, in 
 answer to his inquiry, had modestly informed him in Latin 
 that he was a minister of the gospel on his way .for America 
 and upon his first sea-voyage, he looked after him in a fatherly 
 manner. As soon as they had left port a contrary wind, in- 
 creasing in vehemence, struck the ship. Sea-sickness over- 
 came the passengers. Muhlenberg says that he was pros- 
 trated as by palsy. The Hungarian gentleman formed the 
 only exception, and, though two servants were at his com- 
 mand, he was for two hours at the bed of his sick ward and 
 nursed him. The stormy weather continued until, on the 
 
36 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 evening of April i6th, they cast anchor at Harwich, the first 
 town of England which they reached. Not without consider- 
 able trouble, though assisted by his Hungarian friend, Muhl- 
 enberg landed his baggage. That gentleman managed to get 
 a private room for himself and his ward for a short time, and 
 asked him to pray for him, which Miihlenberg did not fail to 
 do, interceding for him in a short prayer before the throne 
 of grace. The gentleman was a Roman Catholic, but in his 
 way expressed himself as a Christian. Before leaving he 
 recommended Miihlenberg to the particular care of the stage- 
 driver and took an affectionate farewell of his protege, who had 
 cause to thank God for having an eye of mercy even for the 
 " least of the children of men," and to remember the guardian 
 angel of Tobit. 
 
 Leaving Harwich in the afternoon of April i6th, he arrived 
 at Colchester the same evening, made the best use he could 
 of his stock of English, and after various unpleasant experi- 
 ences with a drunken cab-driver through the endless streets 
 of the city of London, he finally, on the evening of April 17, 
 was safely brought to the house of Rev. Frederick Michael 
 Ziegenhagen, D. D., court-preacher at the German St. James 
 Chapel, who resided in the district of Kensington. Here he 
 was first greeted by a young scholarly German theologian, 
 John David Michaelis, then a guest of Ziegenhagen, to whom 
 he at once introduced the stranger. Ziegenhagen welcomed 
 Muhlenberg with thanks and praises to God. On the follow- 
 ing day Muhlenberg moved to the lodgings which had already 
 been taken for him in the vicinity, but he was kindly invited 
 to be a daily guest at the table of Ziegenhagen. 
 
 We have in Miihlenberg's own hand a detailed account of 
 his life and the experiences of every day during his pro- 
 tracted stay at London. There is no need to enter upon all 
 these minutiae. Muhlenberg does not refer to the impressions 
 made upon him by the buildings, bridges, galleries of paintings, 
 monuments, and other curiosities. But he speaks repeatedly 
 of the benefits he derived from his intercourse with his 
 fatherly friend, the Rev. Dr. Ziegenhagen, who was a devout 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 37 
 
 Christian, a friend to the missionaries, a practical interpreter 
 of the Scriptures, and by his position a man of an unusually 
 wide range of pastoral experience, and who enjoyed the high 
 esteem of persons of high social standing. The German 
 royal chapel, called St. James, was established in London 
 through Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne, 
 daughter of James II, r and successor of William of Orange. 
 The first incumbent of the charge had been Rev. Anton 
 William Boehme, who used his position and influence to 
 ameliorate the pitiable condition of the emigrants from the 
 Palatinate, of whom about ten thousand were in 1709 
 encamped near London. Some thousands of them were 
 settled in June, 1710, by the English government on the 
 shores of the Hudson. After Boehme's death Ziegenhagen 
 was appointed in 1722, through the influence of A. H. 
 Francke of Halle, his successor, and remained in the office 
 until, Jan. 24, 1776, he entered into his rest. He never mar- 
 ried, and left his worldly possessions to the missions of East 
 India and America. Hymns of his composition were sung 
 in Lutheran congregations in the New World, and catechu- 
 mens memorized an epitome of his catechism in rhymes of 
 his making. It hardly need be told that he was in fullest 
 sympathy with the Halle Pietism. This makes it perfectly 
 plain that Muhlenberg could unreservedly enter into his 
 feelings and views, and that he approached this witness for 
 gospel truth in an elevated position with much reverence. 
 
 The novelty of sojourning at London amid the turbulent 
 waves of its social life and frivolous gayety might have exer- 
 cised a distracting influence upon the mind of a man who had 
 led a quiet pastoral existence in one of the most remote cor- 
 ners of Germany. It appears that Muhlenberg was in no way 
 attracted or influenced by it, but rejoiced in his intercourse 
 with Ziegenhagen and other men who served the thousands 
 of Germans living in that metropolis of the world's com- 
 merce and wealth in the pastoral office, or awakened his 
 interest by their erudition in theology and cognate branches 
 of learning. In this respect his acquaintance with the learned 
 
38 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Michaelis, whom as a teacher he had known in Germany, was 
 of much advantage to him. This young scholar was at that 
 time travelling to perfect his general education and to make 
 use of the literary treasures of different countries. In this 
 respect the great libraries and antiquarian collections of Lon- 
 don and of other celebrated seats of learning and literature 
 in England were things of great interest to him. Michaelis, 
 who was born in 1717 at Halle, and had received instruction 
 in classics in the higher branches of the schools connected 
 with the Orphan-House, after his return from England 
 began his career as a public teacher at the University of 
 Gottingen in 1745, and was appointed in 1756 professor of 
 Oriental languages and literature in that seat of learning. 
 He lectured, however, also .on a general variety of topics 
 of exegetical and systematic theology, published books con- 
 taining most valuable information on antiquities and other 
 subjects pertaining to the interpretation of the Bible, edited 
 essays on the study of Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, and rose 
 to highest eminence as a linguist and theologian. When 
 meeting Miihlenberg at London in 1742 he had not yet 
 adopted those views of the Supranaturalistic School, as it is 
 called in Germany, which, while professing to oppose Ration- 
 alism in principle, makes, nevertheless, so many concessions 
 to it that the orthodox faith has reason to be afraid of such 
 friends no less than of its pronounced opponents. But this 
 is the position Michaelis held in later years. He lost much 
 of what he had imbibed in his youth at Halle, and the fun- 
 damental ideas of the Bible lost under his treatment in later 
 years much of their substantiality. The* missionary whom 
 he met at the quiet house of Ziegenhagen never rose, it is true, 
 to high renown in the world of letters, but, holding fast to the 
 old landmarks, he laid the foundation of the Lutheran Church 
 in the New World, and thereby raised for himself a more 
 noble monument, lasting through ages. 
 
 It afforded pleasure to Muhlenberg to become acquainted 
 with other men engaged either in serving German Lutheran 
 congregations in the large city, like the Rev. H. A. Butjentfer, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 39 
 
 pastor from 1732 of the German Evangelical Lutheran St. 
 Mary's Church in the district of Savoy in London, or being 
 engaged in the cause of Christ's kingdom in other relations. 
 Ziegenhagen took his friend also to the house where the 
 Society de Promovenda Cognitione Christi, with which the 
 "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" 
 was united since 1701, met. Miihlenberg also found occasion 
 to preach and to assist in the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper. It seems that in view of the mission of his life he 
 derived the greatest benefit for himself from his daily inter- 
 course with Ziegenhagen, whose extensive pastoral experience 
 and penetration in the analysis and practical application of 
 Bible texts proved to him of much advantage. With humble 
 modesty he sat many a blessed hour at the feet of this godly 
 teacher, and found himself again and again instructed, encour- 
 aged, and spiritually benefited. 
 
 Of course London could only be a transient station for 
 Miihlenberg, whose destination was the far West beyond the 
 Atlantic. But London served him in various ways to prepare 
 him better for his future work. 
 
 Arrangements were made to procure him a passage in a 
 vessel intended to proceed to sea soon after Whitsunday. On 
 May 24th, Ziegenhagen handed to him the formal official call 
 to the Evangelical Lutheran congregations of Philadelphia, 
 New Providence, and New Hanover in Pennsylvania. It was 
 a memorable moment, in which Miihlenberg profoundly felt 
 the responsibility which he took upon himself and the dif- 
 ficulties he would have to contend with. Viewing the very 
 peculiar character of his mission, he was distressed with seri- 
 ous misgivings about his own ability. The comforting and 
 encouraging words of his fatherly friend proved to him a 
 great blessing. It was a matter of minor concern that the 
 landlord with whom he lodged in Kensington, a godly man, 
 Mr. Matthison, who had in 1733 proved himself very service- 
 able, through his knowledge of the English language, to the 
 first company of Salzburg Lutheran refugees on their voyage 
 to Savannah, Ga., took him to a London merchant-tailor to 
 
4O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 procure for him a ministerial gown, an article in those times 
 much less dispensable to a pastor than in our age. The gown 
 intended for public services in Lutheran churches in Pennsyl- 
 vania was like the gowns of the clergy of the Anglican Church. 
 In this kind of robe Lutheran pastors were hereafter in a great 
 many places in America clothed when performing public ser- 
 vices. It differs considerably from the official dress of Luther- 
 an clergymen in Germany and other countries. A number 
 of other necessaries besides this had to be provided for the 
 voyage. 
 
 During his stay at London, Miihlenberg sent also letters to 
 a considerable number of benevolent patrons and dear friends 
 in Germany, among whom Francke and Oporin were not for- 
 gotten. 
 
 It was the wish of Ziegenhagen that Miihlenberg should, 
 before proceeding to Pennsylvania, pay a visit in Georgia to 
 the Salzburg Lutherans, who had settled there and founded 
 Ebenezer, about twenty-four miles west of Savannah. He also 
 desired the Rev. Boltzius, one of the two Ebenezer pastors, 
 to accompany Miihlenberg to Pennsylvania, and to assist him 
 in beginning his pastoral labors and in the work of organizing 
 in the same way the Lutherans found there. With this ar- 
 rangement Miihlenberg was perfectly satisfied, and takes occa- 
 sion in his narrative to refer to Eccles. iv. 10: "Woe to him 
 that is alone, when he falleth, for he has not another to help 
 him up." For this reason Ziegenhagen had taken passage 
 for him on the packet-ship for Georgia, which the trustees 
 intended to send thither, where General J. E. Oglethorpe, in 
 their behalf, administered the affairs of the province. George 
 II. of England had set apart a large tract of land south of the 
 Savannah River for the benefit of poor people of England and 
 Protestant refugees from other countries. The management 
 of the land was in the hands of a number of bishops and 
 members of Parliament as trustees, in whose behalf Oglethorpe 
 acted. When all Protestant Christendom was greatly excited 
 on account of the expulsion of thousands of orderly, honest, 
 and industrious evangelical Christians from their native land 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 41 
 
 and their homes by the bigoted and intolerant bishop of Salz- 
 burg, L. A. Firmian, about 1731, the trustees, in union with the 
 " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," 
 resolved to transport three hundred of these exiles to Georgia, 
 and to provide for them in temporal and spiritual things until 
 they were able to take care of themselves. The Rev. Sam. 
 Urlsperger, senior of the Lutheran clergy at Augsburg, 
 offered his services in this philanthropic enterprise. Oct. I, 
 1733, the first party started from Augsburg, and were joined at 
 Rotterdam by the Rev. John Martin Boltzius and Rev. Israel 
 Christian Gronau, formerly teachers in the institutions founded 
 by H. A. Francke at Halle. The first Salzburgers arrived at 
 Savannah March n, 1734, and settled in the locality by them 
 called Ebenezer. Encouraged by good reports from the col- 
 onists, in September, 1734, another party, of fifty-seven per- 
 sons, left for Georgia, who again were followed in 1736 by a 
 third party. Other Salzburg emigrants had in 1733 settled in 
 Holland, but were not in congenial surroundings there, and 
 numbers of them again emigrated. A family of Salzburg 
 emigrants we find companions of Miihlenberg on his voyage 
 across the ocean. They were of those who for a time had 
 settled in Holland, having been residents of Casant in the 
 province of Seeland. The trustees were not willing to pay 
 their travelling expenses. Ziegenhagen, showing a noble 
 example of Christian charity, gave for them no less than 
 about thirty pounds sterling, in addition to which they had 
 Miihlenberg as a companion and as a spiritual adviser during 
 the voyage. 
 
 After sojourning nine weeks in London, Miihlenberg (Fri- 
 day, June nth) took farewell of Rev. Butjender and Rev. 
 Ziegenhagen. With the latter he had profitably spent some 
 hours of that day. They parted with the feeling that they 
 would not meet again in this world a presentiment which 
 the Subsequent . course of events verified. 
 
 On the following day Mr. Matthison and Miihlenberg took 
 the tide-boat to meet the packet-ship, a brigantine, which had 
 proceeded to Gravesend. In the afternoon of June I3th, 
 
42 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Miihlenberg went on the ship, where he met a number of the 
 trustees, and was introduced to the captain, McClellan, who, 
 as Muhlenberg says, was a morose Scotchman, but in speaking 
 Latin used the continental pronunciation a circumstance 
 which gave Muhlenberg an opportunity to converse with 
 him in that language. With the rest he had to use his stock 
 of English as best he could. 
 
HENRY ME LC HI OR MUHLENBERG. 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1742 {continued}. 
 
 Voyage across the Atlantic. The armature of the ship. Misery experienced. 
 Dangerous foes. Salzburgers on board. Muhlenberg's interest in them. 
 Slow progress. Painful want of drinking-water. Uncongenial fellow-pas- 
 sengers. Muhlenberg's influence over them. He conducts services in the 
 English language. His conversation with the Spanish cook. 
 
 ONE of the first objects of interest to a traveller going on 
 board of a ship is to inquire about the kind of vessel 
 to which he commits himself and the passengers with whom 
 he is there to associate. Generally speaking, ships crossing 
 the ocean at that time were not " floating palaces," as we now 
 sometimes hear them called, but rather floating prisons, fort- 
 resses, or, what is much worse, hospitals. Frightful in those 
 times in many cases was the mortality on board of them. For 
 one-third of the passengers to find their last resting-place in 
 the sea was nothing uncommon. One vessel which in 1738 
 arrived in Philadelphia had during the voyage lost no less 
 than two hundred and fifty souls. Passengers were crowded 
 into the ships in a most inhuman manner, and experienced 
 frequently most unjust and cruel treatment. Diseases 
 among them smallpox, the most loathsome of all produced 
 unspeakable distress. William .Penn himself had a mournful 
 experience of this when the first time, in 1682, he paid a visit 
 to his province, Pennsylvania. Christopher Sauer, who de- 
 serves to be kept in remembrance as the publisher of the first 
 German edition of the Bible in America, in 1743 at German- 
 town (the first English edition appeared at Philadelphia in 
 1782), and editor of the first German periodical in the New 
 World, affirms that during one year more than two thousand 
 
44 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 individuals had died whilst coming over from Europe, and 
 adds that this had happened especially in consequence of the 
 inhuman treatment to which passengers were exposed and the 
 overcrowding of the ships. 
 
 The ship in which Miihlenberg, as he says in his diary, with 
 his companions had to live or to die was provided with no less 
 than ten iron cannons and quite a number of other weapons 
 of war, and could therefore rather be called a floating fortress, 
 not excluding, however, the idea of a prison. The idea of a 
 fortress held good as long as no powerful and dangerous 
 enemy was at hand. In such an event the fate of the vessel 
 appeared to Miihlenberg quite doubtful, for the ship was an 
 old one, had seen much service, had only two masts, and thus 
 little chance of escape, and in fact only seven sailors and no 
 soldiers. What good could the ten cannons do in an emer- 
 gency ? Among the six steerage passengers were the Salz- 
 burg family and four adepts of the art of tailoring; the cabins 
 were occupied, in addition to Miihlenberg, by a lawyer, a cus- 
 tom-house officer, a trader, two " young fellows," a lieutenant, 
 and one woman. To these must be added the captain, the 
 cook (a Spanish captive), a drummer, a boy as steward, and 
 the helmsman. Certainly, all these forces combined were not 
 of much value either for attack or defence. The misgivings 
 of Miihlenberg on the emergency question were apparently 
 shared by the gentlemen trustees, who wisely had made pro- 
 .vision to have the Georgia packet-ship safely escorted by a 
 vessel of the royal navy an arrangement, in those times of 
 frequent piracy and privateering, very common, and calculated 
 to give courage to the passengers. Miihlenberg intimates 
 that his companions also had much trust in their royal 
 convoy. 
 
 June 13, at 5 P. M., the anchors were weighed, and by and 
 by the houses of Gravesend disappeared in the background. 
 There was no attack from outside, but from within a grim foe 
 did his humiliating work, and before long the whole vessel 
 looked, as Muhlenberg says, like a lazaretto. Unfortunately, 
 for this contingency no preparations had been made ; no bed 
 
HENRY MELCHfOR MUHLENBERG. 45 
 
 was in proper condition to receive the sufferers in its tender 
 folds, and they had to find their resting-places here and there 
 on the floor as best they could. Miihlenberg did not escape 
 the general misery, and in addition to it caught a severe cold, 
 and June 1 4th, as he says, " could not lift his head." The ves- 
 sel reached Ramsgate Road, and had to wait for high tide. 
 On the 1 5th they passed Dover, had fine weather, and saw 
 the coast of France and even some church-spires. Miihlen- 
 berg, however, continued in his miserable condition, though 
 some mulled wine to which the captain treated him made 
 some improvement of his condition. On the following day 
 a two-masted vessel sailed directly toward them. The cap- 
 tain, stating that occasionally Spanish privateers had taken 
 ships by pretending to be French fishing-vessels, made a 
 display of both courage and strength by commanding the 
 drummer to belabor his drum, the guns to be loaded, and 
 everything to be made ready for defensive action ; then asked 
 the foe, through the speaking-trumpet, what they wanted, and 
 received the comforting answer that they were Frenchmen 
 engaged in fishing. Miihlenberg, feeling during the confu- 
 sion concerned about the Salzburgers and inquiring after 
 them, was pleased to find the mother with her children 
 engaged in singing " Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott." Such 
 faith, he thought, would form a much better protection than 
 all the drumming and warlike preparations. He adds that on 
 this occasion he was much distressed by the English habit 
 of cursing and swearing. The behavior of the cabin-passen- 
 gers, their profane language and absurd pranks at this time, 
 were exceedingly disgusting to him, and he took no pains to 
 conceal the state of his mind. They, observing this, began 
 to rail at him, to which the captain, though himself joining 
 in the general folly, at once put a stop. In the afternoon 
 of the same day Miihlenberg gave the children of the Salz- 
 burg family a lesson in reading a work which he continued 
 throughout the whole voyage, instructing them also in mat- 
 ters of religion. He also held frequently religious services 
 with the whole family, and sometimes was, when the weather 
 
46 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was pleasant, sitting with them on deck and singing the well- 
 known German church-songs, which attracted the attention 
 of the other passengers and the crew. 
 
 It would not be without interest, but lead us too far, if we 
 were to follow up the incidents of every day of the voyage, 
 of which Muhlenberg has left us a minute description. The 
 ship made slow progress a thing in those days not at all 
 unusua.1. Passing Beachy Head June i/th, they arrived on 
 the following day, at IIP. M., at Spithead, near Portsmouth, 
 where on the following morning six men-of-war of the Eng- 
 lish navy presented a beautiful sight. Most of the passengers 
 paid a visit to Portsmouth, but returned in the evening to the 
 vessel in a drunken condition, much to the chagrin of Muhl- 
 enberg, who had used the quiet day to bring his effects into 
 proper order and for meditation and prayer. On the 23d 
 of June he also visited Portsmouth, with a view once more 
 to get a meal which his stomach, totally nauseated by the 
 fare offered in the ship, might possibly retain. The captain 
 received here the unwelcome information that the convoy he 
 had expected could not be given to him, since the govern- 
 ment of England, being then involved in a naval war with 
 France and Spain, which ended with the Peace of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle in 1 748, needed all available war-vessels for another 
 expedition then to be undertaken. He could, however, expect 
 some protection from a man-of-war which had orders to cruise 
 in the English Channel as far west as Land's End. Signals 
 having been given by this vessel, he set sail June 2/th, early 
 in the morning, but reached that day, sailing against contrary 
 winds, only St. Helen on the Isle of Wight, a distance of 
 about twenty-five miles. Starting again the following day, 
 they were driven back by the storm, and had to lay by, as 
 on June 3Oth the force of the storm increased. Muhlenberg, 
 who here despatched his third letter since leaving London to. 
 Ziegenhagen, found himself in a miserable condition. The 
 Salzburgers, who alone of all the souls on board could 
 sympathize with his religious feelings, became a source of 
 comfort to him, and he delighted in devoting to them as 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 47 
 
 much care as he could. It was here reported that Spanish 
 pirates had in that vicinity taken two English ships, and that 
 another pirate ship of twenty-four guns was cruising in the 
 Channel. July 3d the captain returned again from St. Helen 
 to take a safe position among the ships of the navy near 
 Portsmouth. There they saw the Spanish privateer St. 
 Sebastian, which ship had taken no less than thirty-nine 
 English vessels before it was overpowered. An English 
 ship with two hundred Germans on board, and intended for 
 Philadelphia, was also there at anchor, but in a sad condi- 
 tion, since in the night a bloody fight had taken place be- 
 tween the Germans and the sailors. 
 
 Another attempt was made, July 6th, to make progress 
 under the conduct of a convoy. The weather was wet and 
 stormy. The behavior of the passengers in cabin and steer- 
 age was disgusting to Miihlenberg, who lay sick in his ham- 
 mock. He felt seriously how much more distressing it is to 
 be sick on board of a ship than on land. Meals proper for 
 his condition he could not procure. There was a fright again 
 among the crew and the passengers on account of the appear- 
 ance of three vessels of doubtful character. But they proved 
 to be friends. July Qth, Land's End was passed, and the fol- 
 lowing day the convoy left them, the captain thereof honestly 
 stating that the packet-ship was not likely to reach America, 
 since she was too old and had too heavy a cargo. The cap- 
 tain of the ship was, however, not at all despondent : he com- 
 pelled all the men on board to drill, handed them arms, and 
 gave every one his position on board in case of an attack. 
 The smell of powder on this occasion had a wholesome effect 
 on Miihlenberg, so that he could take and retain some nour- 
 ishment, the first time for a number of days. July 1 2th a ship 
 came in sight, but soon took another course. The same hap- 
 pened often during the voyage, but no attack was made. Not 
 before July 22d was the wind favorable. About the 24th the 
 captain supposed that they were near the island of Madeira; 
 the ship was then in latitude 36 37' N., and continued to pur- 
 sue a southerly course. The increase of a warm temperature 
 
48 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was painfully felt, and drove large numbers of rats from the 
 hold of the ship into the hammocks of the passengers, the 
 perspiration from whose bodies they licked off whilst sleep- 
 ing, and disturbed them. July 2Qth the wind again took a 
 contrary turn. August 5th, a happy change took place, and the 
 ship made considerable headway. Aug. 6th they were in lat- 
 itude 29 2' ; on the loth they passed the Tropic of Cancer, 
 which gave to the crew of the vessel occasion to amuse them- 
 selves, according to custom, at the expense of the passengers, 
 two of whom they took from the steerage, -tied them with 
 ropes, and repeatedly immersed them in the waters of the 
 ocean. For the Salzburgers, Miihlenberg paid a ransom to 
 secure them against such frivolities. Aug. I4th they were 
 becalmed, which condition continued for a number of days. 
 These days of welcome rest Miihlenberg employed to write 
 his diary. Aug. 3Oth the wind changed to the north, chilled 
 the air, and brought rain. Every one now hastened to gather 
 the falling drops in every available manner and all sorts of 
 vessels. Such water was neither clean nor sweet, but com- 
 pared with the water on board of the ship it was prized highly. 
 Unfortunately, the supply was very limited, and soon the lack 
 of drinkable water was most painfully felt by the passengers 
 and by the crew. Sept. 6th the captain reckoned that he 
 could not be very far distant from Carolina. Seeing a bank 
 of fog, some had cried, " Land ! land !" Of water very small 
 rations were now given. Sept. ^th and the following days a 
 contrary wind drove them backward. On the 9th they were 
 becalmed. The lack of water was now felt as a painful afflic- 
 tion, and, becoming more and more serious, the captain re- 
 membered that he had somewhere on board some bottles of 
 vinegar. They were found, but some of them without corks 
 and half empty. The mystery of this phenomenon was solved 
 by observing that the rats gnawed off the corks and put their 
 tails down into the bottles, in this cunning manner to get and 
 to enjoy the fluid. We may easily imagine that a shower of 
 rain, setting in on the following day, was considered a real 
 Godsend. Another and a heavier one on Sept. 1 2th met with 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 49 
 
 no less appreciation. On Sept. i6th all on board the ship 
 were without any drinkable water. To attract the attention 
 of two English war-ships cruising in the vicinity the captain 
 hoisted the Spanish colors. They came now without any 
 delay, and their commanders, hearing that the packet wished 
 to deliver letters to them and that .there was no drinkable 
 water on board, assisted the sufferers by giving them three 
 casks of the precious fluid. The water leaking from them 
 was taken up by the Salzburg children as if it was nectar, 
 though it was anything but fresh and sweet. On account 
 of the danger of falling into the hands of the Spaniards, who 
 a few weeks previous had landed five thousand soldiers in 
 Georgia, it was resolved to follow in the wake of the two ships 
 of war, which sailed for Charleston. But, losing sight of them, 
 the captain, finding his way finally to the sand-banks on the 
 coast of South Carolina not very far from Charleston, met on 
 Tuesday, Sept. 2ist, with a pilot, and on the following day in 
 the morning fired a salute in the harbor with his rusty can- 
 nons, to which the ship of the commodore stationed there 
 promptly responded. Miihlenberg set his foot Sept. 23d upon 
 the soil of the New World. 
 
 No less than one hundred and two days had been spent on 
 board of the Georgia packet-ship. To him those days were 
 not only exceedingly tedious, but they were to a large extent 
 a period of actual misery. It seems that he was constitution- 
 ally more than many others a prey to sea- sickness. Through- 
 out the whole voyage he had again and again to succumb to 
 that disgusting enemy, calculated to destroy whatever there is 
 of pleasure or interest in crossing the mighty ocean. But 
 Miihlenberg's vital force, in addition to this aggravated mal- 
 ady, had to fight against sickness in another and more dan- 
 gerous form. All the ordinary functions of the bodily organ- 
 ism were greatly disturbed, and he was so reduced that he had 
 the strongest reasons to think that his end was near. His 
 stomach had with dreadful obstinacy refused to retain any 
 food. A drink of clear, cold, refreshing water was not to be 
 had. The passengers one day had caught some mackerel, and 
 
 4 
 
5O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 after having some properly prepared they brought it to Miihl- 
 enberg, who was laid up in bed. This morsel of fresh and 
 digestible food he could enjoy, and it moved him to special 
 gratitude toward God. One of the first things he did after 
 passing, Sept. 22d, the fort in the harbor of Charleston, was 
 to have some fresh vegetables brought on board ; which to 
 him and the Salzburgers proved quite a rare treat. 
 
 Bodily ills were, however, the minor part of the sufferings 
 from which in that ship there was no escape. There was not 
 one soul on board who was able to offer to Miihlenberg any 
 social satisfaction or to enter with sympathy and encourage- 
 ment into his religious views and feelings. It was some cause 
 of satisfaction to him that in quiet hours he could join the 
 Salzburger family on deck and sit with them singing the 
 grand old soul-stirring church-songs, or pray with them or 
 explain to them the precious words of the gospel and apply 
 them to the peculiar circumstances under which all were 
 placed, or instruct the children. But whilst he could give 
 to them in divine things, their education and spiritual condi- 
 tion were not advanced enough to prove a benefit to him. 
 
 As to the rest of the society on board of the ship, the whole 
 party was, without any exception, of a very indifferent character. 
 There was not only the continuous use of profane language, 
 but the principles, manners, enjoyments, tendencies of these 
 people were so totally worldly and vulgar, and the standard 
 of their education was so low, that not with one of them could 
 Miihlenberg enter into a friendly exchange of sentiments and 
 feelings. Occasionally better elements seemed to gain con- 
 trol over these men. But all of a sudden the wild, frivolous 
 spirit broke out irrepressibly. The young merchant who was 
 one of the company had for a time by his sedate behavior 
 made a favorable impression upon Miihlenberg ; but when, in 
 consequence of an altercation, a boxing-match was arranged 
 between two passengers, that young man was the most busy 
 in giving a helping hand to the disgusting affair. When 
 Miihlenberg reproached him on this subject, he answered 
 that his only interest had been to see that all would be carried 
 
HENRY MELCH1OR MUHLENBERG. 51 
 
 out " in good Christian order." One of the passengers felt 
 moved in a quiet evening hour to read to his companions a 
 religious tract. Miihlenberg relates that they all felt very 
 drowsy, and some fell asleep whilst the reading proceeded, 
 but that after the recital had come to an end they were all 
 very lively. That the entertainments which they used to 
 while away the time, such as singing of worldly songs of a 
 doubtful character, disputations, mock trials, and similar pas- 
 times, were not to his taste needs no remark. 
 
 But it is a circumstance pleasant and instructive to read 
 that Miihlenberg, who never held back his own principles 
 and convictions, enjoyed not only the respect due to his official 
 character, but indeed the high personal esteem of the whole 
 ship's company, and especially of his fellow-passengers in the 
 cabin. They soon found out what manner of man he was. 
 The impressions they received from his way of speaking and 
 acting and from his whole personality were of such a charac- 
 ter that, whilst he could not bring about in the short space of 
 time allotted to him and under peculiar trying circumstances, 
 a desirable change of their principles and views, and could not 
 prevent the natural outbreak of their unchristian spirits on 
 many occasions, he nevertheless in various ways exercised a 
 controlling influence over them. Not for a moment did he in 
 word or deed put under the bushel his character as a Christian 
 or as a minister and messenger of Christ. Perhaps some of the 
 views advanced by him in his frequent conversations with the 
 members of the society around him may to some appear to 
 have been somewhat too rigoristic, too exacting. But his 
 arguments against dancing, duelling a duel with swords or 
 pistols between the lawyer and the custom-house officer was 
 already proposed, and only prevented by his interference 
 and against similar exhibitions of the natural man and his 
 propensities, were of such practical convincing force that they 
 were calculated to move the thoughts of his hearers in a dif- 
 ferent direction. Indeed, they have not lost their power 
 at the present day. The judicious zeal with which Miihlen- 
 berg often, not without a happy gleam of genuine humor and 
 
52 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 wit quite peculiar to him, approached the heads and the hearts 
 of the motley company around him deserves all admiration. 
 
 It is a pleasant testimony to the esteem in which Miihlen- 
 berg was held by the captain and all the company on board 
 of the ship that not officially, but actually, he performed the 
 part of the ship's chaplain. He placed himself in this posi- 
 tion, taking his own way. When, Sunday, July 4th, he had 
 held service with the Salzburgers, and some of the passengers 
 had taken a boat for Portsmouth, in the neighborhood of which 
 the ship at that time was lying at anchor, Miihlenberg, being 
 left alone with the captain and the rest of the company, 
 requested that some one would read chapter xv. of the 
 Gospel of St. Luke. After this was done he put the ques- 
 tion as to what the meaning and import of these parables 
 were. Every one gave his opinion, especially on the Prodigal 
 Son. The captain's view, that he ceased to live a vicious life 
 and adopted an honest and respectable course, was sufficiently 
 and easily refuted by simply referring to the words of the con- 
 text. The conversation having turned to the first part of chap- 
 ter iii. of the Gospel of St. John, the captain asked what the 
 words " water and spirit " here indicated. Miihlenbepg eluci- 
 dated this by referring to Num. xix. ; Heb. ix. ; John xix. 34, 
 35. Finally, the conversation drifted to the topic of predes- 
 tination, which gave Miihlenberg an occasion to elucidate the 
 Bible teachings on this point. The captain seemed to be well 
 pleased, and the others also expressed their gratitude. When, 
 on the following Sunday, Miihlenberg again held service with 
 the Salzburgers, the captain and some of the Englishmen 
 attended, though at a distance, and were apparently affected 
 by the German singing. They felt urged also to 'do some- 
 thing for their improvement : one of them took his Book of 
 Common Prayer, another the .Spectator, another Fenelon's 
 Adventures of Telemachus. Muhlenberg then took advantage 
 of the opportunity to speak privately to the captain, and to 
 remind him of his duty as a father to have a concern also for 
 the spiritual welfare of all the souls entrusted to him. He 
 told him plainly that on board of his ship not the least was 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 53 
 
 done for the edification of the people in the English language, 
 and suggested that there were persons there who could read 
 a chapter of the Bible or a printed English sermon, or could 
 even sing a psalm, since they at least were called Christians. 
 To this the captain simply answered with a sigh. A few days 
 later Muhlenberg found a chance again to address himself to 
 the passengers. They inquired what was the origin of the 
 word " Protestant." He gave them a short sketch of the life 
 of Luther and of the history of the Reformation, but finished 
 by telling them that from the greatest to the least he could 
 not call them true Protestants, but rather the reverse of this, 
 since by their lives and behavior they protested against God 
 and his holy Word, to the great injury of themselves. They 
 admitted that in this he was right. 
 
 It is plain that if Muhlenberg wanted any office on board 
 the ship, he did not use flattery as a means of ingratiating 
 himself with them. But when, during the morning hours of 
 Sunday, July i8th, he had again held religious services with 
 the Salzburgers, in the afternoon the captain requested him to 
 hold divine service with the whole company on the ship. To 
 his answer that he did not feel himself sufficiently master of 
 the English language, and was afraid of giving occasion of 
 derision, the captain paid no attention. The lawyer was re- 
 quested to read prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. 
 The people were gathered together by the sound of the bell, 
 prayers were read, and Muhlenberg delivered his first English 
 sermon, the ship being his church, with the heavens as the 
 dome over it, and the strangers around him his congregation, 
 and as such attentive enough. When he was occasionally in 
 want of a 'proper English word he gave it in Latin to the cap- 
 tain at his side, and he put it in English. If we should for a 
 moment doubt whether the seed thus strewn upon those 
 souls on the wide expanse of the ocean resulted in any good 
 fruit, eternity alone will answer. 
 
 On every succeeding Sunday during the voyage Muhlen- 
 berg was requested to hold service in the English language 
 for the benefit of the people on board the ship. He was also 
 
54 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 expected to read the prayers, since the lawyer, who thus far had 
 served as a lay-reader, in consequence of his general charac- 
 ter no longer appeared the proper individual for the perform- 
 ance of that duty. Muhlenberg found no reason why he should 
 not, under the peculiar circumstances in which he found himself, 
 use the prayers which to the people of the Anglican Church 
 were a rich source of edification. Service was usually held 
 toward evening, when the oppressive heat somewhat dimin- 
 ished. The texts of his sermons he selected with a proper 
 regard for the necessities of his hearers. Considering that 
 the words of Ezekiel xviii. 27 are among the introductory 
 verses in the Evening Prayer found in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and that his hearers so often had listened to them 
 without properly appreciating their meaning, he spoke, July 
 25th, the sixth Sunday after Trinity, on those words, and was 
 gratified to see the close attention of his auditory, but grieved 
 to find that impressions received were not powerful enough to 
 counteract the force of worldly habits and ungodly proclivi- 
 ties. His sermon had five parts. On three of these viz. the 
 meaning of the words " the wicked," the characteristics of 
 wickedness, and the turning away from it he had spoken. On 
 the following Sunday the captain requested him to continue 
 that sermon. Muhlenberg spoke o'n the two other parts, the 
 turning to Christ and the walk and conversation of the con- 
 verted. He noticed a considerable interest on the part of 
 some of his hearers in the truth laid before them, and found 
 it advisable on Sunday, Aug. 1 5th, once more to return to 
 that text, especially to the concluding words : " He shall save 
 his soul alive." On Sunday, Aug. 22d, he felt little disposed 
 to preach again, since the behavior of his fellow-passengers 
 had been rather discouraging to him. But the request having 
 been made repeatedly, he resisted no longer, but preached on 
 Matt. v. 3 : " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." Sunday, Aug. 29th, he spoke on John 
 vii. 33 : "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
 drink ;" Sept. 5th, on Luke xviii. 9-14, the Pharisee and the 
 Publican; Sept. I2th, on Heb. xii. 22-25; Sept. I9th, on 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 55 
 
 Ps. 1. 5. But whilst trying to benefit those whom he could 
 approach only in the English language, he was not neglect- 
 ful of others, and held every Sunday forenoon special services 
 with the Salzburgers. 
 
 In all this Miihlenberg was certainly doing a good work. 
 But with these public and general services he was not satis- 
 fied, and therefore undertook, whenever occasion was given, 
 to exercise special pastoral care in his intercourse with the 
 diverse souls with whom God there had placed him. Even 
 that unfortunate captive, the cook, who as a Spaniard was 
 under the sway of his Roman Catholic views and traditions, 
 was drawn by Miihlenberg into conversation. The cook com- 
 plained that he had been greatly offended at London by the 
 behavior of persons professedly belonging to the Anglican 
 Church, and that the same had taken place on board of this 
 ship : there was, he said, much more devotion observable on 
 Spanish ships. Miihlenberg answered that he would allow 
 him as a cook of good common sense to judge for himself. 
 If, on the one hand, a wealthy gentleman of high position 
 should furnish a room and in it a splendid supper, and deco- 
 rate the wall with the finest paintings, and set out the tables 
 with imitations in wood and stone of all sorts of viands, and 
 command, under pain of punishment, his hungry and thirsty, 
 blind and lame, healthy and sick subjects to come in, what 
 benefit could these guests derive from all this splendid mock- 
 ery ? They would come out of the hall the same miserable, 
 needy beings they were when they entered. Now, on the 
 other hand, said he, the great King of kings has prepared a 
 place where all the walls are hanging full of garments to 
 cover the entire body, where the tables are laden with the 
 finest bread, milk, wine, and other kinds of wholesome food, 
 and where never-failing medicines are plentifully supplied to 
 heal all diseases; and the King sends a proclamation that 
 all his subjects are at liberty to come, no matter what their 
 condition and social position, and receive all as a gift of free 
 grace without any compensation. Miihlenberg wished the 
 cook to judge for himself about the respective value of each 
 
56 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the two arrangements. " In your Church," he said, " there 
 are very splendid paintings and imposing representations, but 
 the bread, the milk, the wine, the garments of salvation, the 
 medicines, are not given to you: in the evangelical Church 
 the substantial realities are placed before the people and freely 
 offered to them. Of course there are those who thankfully 
 accept of them, and are benefited for time and eternity ; many 
 others make no proper use of the grace offered to them and 
 are heedless to their own loss." The cook found these com- 
 parisons perfectly comprehensible, but maintained that the 
 Bread of life was not withheld in his Church from the peo- 
 ple, and that the ceremonies they could count additional 
 entremets. Miihlenberg intimated that Christ, the real 
 Saviour of the world, was the only Bread of life that his 
 righteousness was the only raiment of honor in which alone 
 a penitent and believing sinner can appear before God. The 
 words which came from Christ's lips unaltered and unabbre- 
 viated, his Spirit operative through them, and the sacraments 
 ordained by him, are milk and wine and unfailing medicine for 
 our souls. Mary's soul and the souls of other saints are in 
 the place allotted to them ; the bodies are given to corruption, 
 and their artistic representations are mere shadowy things in 
 which there is no salt, no strength, no life. The cook thought 
 that in his country such teachings would not be tolerated. 
 Miihlenberg indicated as the cause of this that men loved 
 darkness more than light and truth. The cook replied that 
 in his Church all were united under one head, but that there 
 were among Protestants as many diverging opinions as heads. 
 Miihlenberg said that he could enlarge much on this subject; 
 he would, however, briefly illustrate the matter by a compari- 
 son. The Roman Church was like a very large cemetery, 
 extending over the whole earth, in which a large number of 
 undertakers, gravediggers, pipers, etc. are entertained, and 
 these dead ones bury the dead. In the cemetery all is 
 quiet, peaceful, silent, but among the undertakers, gravedig- 
 gers, pipers, etc. there is no end to parties, disputes, con- 
 flicts ; and they long ago would have devoured one another 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 57 
 
 had not secular and worldly interests kept them under some 
 control. The Protestant religion and Church, on the other 
 hand, could be compared to an extensive, well-built hospital 
 of many wards and rooms, all under one roof and full of 
 innumerable sick people, suffering with all conceivable heredi- 
 tary diseases and maladies, provided with many doctors, sur- 
 geons, assistants, nurses, attendants, and supplied with medi- 
 cines and all possible means and instrumentalities to care for 
 the sufferers. Of course there is in it no end of complaints, 
 cries, murmurings, desires; the medicines also are often abused, 
 and there are vitiated exhalations from the many sick, and 
 disputes going on among the doctors, superintendents, and 
 nurses. But all this is under perpetual control of an almighty, 
 omnipresent, most benevolent, gracious, and merciful Head 
 and Master who overrules all and exercises compassion. " Now 
 say, dear cook, would you rather be dead than alive ? Is not 
 life sweet ? Would you not rather live among the sick in the 
 hospital, in hope of perfect restoration, than decay silently in 
 the cemetery ?" The cook said he hoped to be saved in the 
 Church in which he was born. Miihlenberg told him that 
 he, like all the children of Adam, was conceived in sin, born 
 flesh of flesh, dead unto that which was good in the sight of 
 God, and inclined to evil ; that through holy baptism he was 
 engrafted into Christ as the Tree of life, transferred into the 
 kingdom of grace through the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
 to the end that he should devote his life to Him who had 
 died for him and risen again, and now sitteth at the right 
 hand of God the Father. " Did you," asked Miihlenberg, 
 " keep the sacred covenant of your baptism ? Did you never 
 willingly and purposely do wrong since the time your con- 
 science has admonished you and told you of the distinction 
 between right and wrong ?" The man admitted that he had 
 grievously sinned. To the question how he hoped to be 
 released of his sins and be saved, he answered, " By interces- 
 sions and good works/' He thought that a poor subject had 
 little chance in his distress of being admitted to the king, but 
 through a friend at the royal court hfc might obtain his object. 
 
58 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 This comparison Muhlenberg considered as faulty in such 
 aspect. Kings and their courtiers deserve all proper honor ; 
 they can prove a great help to their distressed subjects, but 
 they cannot forgive sins : no one on earth save Jesus Christ 
 has power to forgive sin. God's command is, " Thou shalt 
 worship the Lord thy God, and serve him alone." The case 
 was a clear one : a king may have thousands of poor suffer- 
 ing subjects : if every one of them required his own interces- 
 sor, the king would be obliged to have an equal number of 
 courtiers; therefore a comparison between Christ, the King 
 of kings and Lord of lords) and an earthly potentate, is out 
 of place ; Christ knoweth all, and is gracious and full of 
 compassion ; there is with him no need of intercessors, since 
 he himself intercedes for us with the Father. He invites all 
 heavy- ladened, hungry, and thirsty souls, all sick and broken 
 hearts, sinners and publicans, not to angels or to the Virgin 
 Mary or saints, but to himself and to the Father ; and there 
 is salvation in no other name but his own. "As to good 
 works," he said, " no one could rationally suppose that a 
 gardener could offer to his master good apples or apricots 
 when not even a seed or a tree is planted : from an uncon- 
 verted man dead in sin we could as little expect works pleas- 
 ing in the sight of God as grapes from thorns or figs from 
 thistles." The cook said that all this he had pretty well 
 understood, and intended with his prayers directly to go to 
 Christ. Muhlenberg adds that the man proved to be very 
 reliable and willing in the duties of his office, that he was 
 kindly disposed toward the Salzburgers, and that nobody 
 ever heard him use profane language, which of some of the 
 Protestants on board could not be said. 
 
 The conversation with this cook has a peculiar interest for 
 us. Not one of Miihlenberg's sermons has in its entire form 
 come down to us. We have found in his manuscripts skeletons 
 of such, which prove the faithful conscientiousness and zeal 
 wherewith he attended to this important part of his pastoral 
 duty. But we are perhaps not committing an error in consid- 
 ering his conversation with the cook as typical of the popular, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 59 
 
 illustrative, argumentative, interesting method he used in ad- 
 dressing the people. 
 
 One thing is certain : no man could make better use of his 
 time and opportunities than Miihlenberg did under discourag- 
 ing circumstances during the tedious voyage across the Atlan- 
 tic. With him theology was indeed not a possession of a cer- 
 tain compass of knowledge, but the habitus of the whole man. 
 While others trifled away the precious days he was always 
 ready and active in throwing out his net into the waters of 
 the deep to catch souls and to bring them to Christ. 
 
6O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1742 (continued], 
 
 Arrival at Charleston. Miihlenberg's inquiries for the Germans there. John 
 Lederer, the German explorer of the Carolinas Dutch Lutherans in South 
 Carolina. German settlers on the Congaree. Miihlenberg meets negro 
 slaves. He sets out for Georgia. Incidents. Divine services on shore in a 
 Presbyterian family. Beaufort. Arrival at Savannah. James Oglethorpe. 
 John and Charles Wesley. Methodism in contact with Pietism and Moravian- 
 ism. Thomas Stephens. Rev. J. Chr. Gronau comes to meet Miihlenberg, 
 and accompanies him to Ebenezer. The locality. Rev. J. M. Boltzius. 
 Rev H. H. Lembke. Condition of the Salzburgers. J. Fr. Vigera. Do- 
 nation of J. M. Kiderlin. 
 
 WHEN Muhlenberg (Sept. 23, 1742) was transferred in a 
 canoe from the Georgia packet-ship, in which he had 
 in his voyage across the Atlantic been imprisoned for about 
 fifteen weeks, to Charleston, his first inquiry was whether he 
 could find there any of his German countrymen. 
 
 The name of the German explorer John Lederer, a man of 
 education, is for ever connected with the history of both Car- 
 olinas. He was sent out in the years 1669 and 1670 by Gov- 
 ernor Berkeley of Virginia in three different expeditions to 
 explore the lands south and west of the James River. At 
 that time there were in North Carolina no white settlers. 
 The whole extensive territory was in the undisputed posses- 
 sion of the Indians. On his second expedition Lederer who 
 was left alone with an Indian, as his English companions from 
 lack of courage had forsaken him found his way through the 
 wilderness and the Indians, who sometimes treated him kindly, 
 sometimes threatened his life, as far south as the Santee River, 
 consequently into the very centre of the present State of South 
 Carolina. When he returned to Virginia the envy of his former 
 
HENRY MELCH10R MUHLENBERG. 6 1 
 
 companions deprived him of the credit due to his heroism. 
 Governor Talbot of Maryland, becoming acquainted with him, 
 translated Lederer's journal from Latin, in which it was orig- 
 inally written, into English, and published it. Thus the trav- 
 eller's name and work were preserved, and contribute to the 
 history of geographical discoveries. 
 
 Whilst John Lederer in 1670 broke through the wilderness, 
 the first settlers, Englishmen, arrived in the south-eastern part 
 of South Carolina on the island of Port Royal, near the pres- 
 ent Beaufort, but settled a few months later, " for the conve- 
 nience of pasturage and tillage," on the banks of the Ashley 
 River, and laid the foundation of Charleston, several miles 
 from the present city, which, situated on a peninsula between 
 Cooper and Ashley Rivers, was on account of its healthier 
 climate selected in 1680 as the more favorable locality by 
 forty-eight families of the older settlement. 
 
 It appears that in the year 1674, after New Amsterdam 
 (New York) had the second time been taken by the English, 
 a number of Dutchmen, not satisfied with the change of cir- 
 cumstances, moved from the Hudson to South Carolina, and 
 settled on James Island on the south-west side of Ashley 
 River. There is enough historical evidence to prove that 
 they were Lutherans, and there can be no doubt that they 
 had been members of the Dutch Lutheran congregation, of 
 which we know that a house of worship was erected by them 
 about the years 1670 and 1671 in New Amsterdam, and that 
 at the time when some of the Dutch Lutherans moved to 
 South Carolina the Rev. Bernhard Anton Arens served the 
 congregation at New Amsterdam. The Lutheran settlers 
 in South Carolina in the year 1704 stood up energetically 
 for their Lutheran creed and worship when an attempt was 
 made to raise the Episcopal Church to the dignity of State 
 Church in the province. 
 
 In what year the first Germans landed and settled in Charles- 
 ton we are unable to say. We know that Queen Anne of 
 England, upon whose good- will -in the years 1708 and 1709 
 thousands of Palatine Germans, fleeing from the fearful miser- 
 
62 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ies of their native country and arriving near London, were 
 thrown, set lands apart for them on the Hudson and also in 
 Carolina. The land-grant in the latter province was on the 
 Congaree River, and was far inland. Settlers intending to go 
 there had to land at Charleston. The historical records on 
 this point are too meagre to give us the desired information. 
 But it is highly probable that some immigrants, arriving at 
 Charleston and finding it a town of considerable mercantile 
 activity, concluded to remain there. Certain it is that when 
 the first Salzburgers on their way to Savannah arrived at 
 Charleston early in March, 1734, they found there some Ger- 
 mans. And when in the following May the Rev. J. M. Boltzius, 
 colleague of the Rev. J. Chr. Gronau at Ebenezer, with Baron 
 von Reck, who had conducted the Salzburgers to their desti- 
 nation in Georgia, visited Charleston, and held religious ser- 
 vices there with the German Lutherans, and administered the 
 Lord's Supper to them, he in his report mentions that among 
 their members there were two persons, husband and wife, who 
 were from the Palatinate and took part in the celebration. 
 It is very probable that other Palatines preferred to remain at 
 Charleston and in its neighborhood, the lands on the Congaree 
 being a hundred miles distant from Charleston, difficult of 
 access, and exposed to hostilities from the Indians. 
 
 Miihlenberg tells us that after landing at Charleston he 
 found two German families, who were satisfied with their out- 
 ward condition, but complained that they were without relig- 
 ious services in their mother-tongue. Returning to the ship 
 in the afternoon, he had no time to inquire for other German 
 inhabitants of the town. 
 
 On the ship which had brought him safely from Europe 
 Miihlenberg found two negro slaves. Here was a new object 
 of solicitude. He entered into some conversation with them, 
 inquiring whether they had any knowledge of the true God, 
 the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and of his Son the 
 Saviour of the world. It pained him greatly that they were 
 unable to answer. It seems to have made a peculiar impres- 
 sion upon him to meet so many colored people at Charleston. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 63 
 
 He was informed that in this province tKere were fifteen negroes 
 to one white man, and that they frequently rebelled against 
 their owners and masters. He asks the question whether it 
 would not occasion severe visitations because people pretend- 
 ing to be Christians had made their fellow-creatures and shar- 
 ers in Christ's redemption slaves, and gained thereby advan- 
 tages without taking care of their souls. Pointedly he adds : 
 "JEHfi tVi^roming- times will show." He learned that some 
 time before his arrival a few English inhabitants, awakened 
 by the preaching of the Rev. George Whitefield, had under- 
 taken to instruct some hundreds of their negroes in the Chris- 
 tian religion, but that the government, fearing that it might 
 conduce to awaken rebellious feelings on the part of the slaves, 
 had prohibited it. 
 
 The captain of the Georgia packet-ship, being bound by 
 contract to convey Miihlenberg with the Salzburgers to Sa- 
 vannah, and desirous of staying for a few weeks with his ship 
 at Charleston, made on that day an agreement with the master 
 of a sloop to take them and the drummer to Georgia through 
 the channels running between the islands along the shore. 
 The evening of the same day Miihlenberg made use of to 
 write letters to various persons in Europe, among them to 
 his " sorrowing mother." The prospects were in those times 
 that the letters, at least after the lapse of some months, would 
 reach their destination. 
 
 On Friday, Sept. 24th, Muhlenberg and his small party took 
 farewell of the ship that had carried them across the Atlantic. 
 In company with the captain and the lawyer they were trans- 
 ferred to the Georgia sloop. The captain assisted them with 
 some biscuit ; other provisions they were obliged to procure 
 themselves. That day they sailed eight miles. By the down- 
 ward turn of the tide they were left without sailing water. 
 Muhlenberg with the drummer, going on land and breaking 
 through the woods, met with a house and some English 
 people, who at first suspected them to be Spanish spies, but, 
 soon learning that Muhlenberg was a minister of the gospel, 
 rejoiced in showing them all possible kindness. 
 
64 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 That Miihlenberg during the few days on board the sloop 
 did not cease his pastoral work in his intercourse with those 
 around him we, knowing the man, find very natural. There 
 was on board an old man, an English trader, who used shock- 
 ingly profane and even obscene language. After admonition 
 had been given to him in a gentle way, and he had been re- 
 minded as a man advanced in years that he was near the day 
 of reckoning for every wicked word that fell from his lips, he 
 appeared to take a serious turn of mind and voluntarily con- 
 fessed his besetting sins. But instead of taking the advice to 
 flee for refuge to the Source of all grace and to beg forgive- 
 ness, he unfortunately took to the brandy-bottle to drown the 
 trifling prickings of his conscience. The master of the craft 
 showed a good understanding in spiritual things and a hum- 
 ble heart, and put questions on various things in which he 
 was concerned, and was glad when Miihlenberg, avoiding use- 
 less disputations, gave him, starting with John iii. 1 6, the proper 
 evangelical view of God's election. 
 
 Sunday, Sept. 26th, Miihlenberg, going on shore, found on 
 a plantation a number of English people assembled to edify 
 themselves by the Word of God. It seems that they con- 
 cluded that he was an Episcopalian, and some remarks were 
 made of a somewhat polemical character. But when he began 
 to speak of Christ and of his merits as the only foundation of 
 our salvation, and of his holy life, which we, in the exercise 
 of humility, faith, love of God and all virtues, are to imitate, 
 and when he expressed his conviction that all heresies and all 
 disputations on points of religion had their origin and root in 
 the corrupt heart of the fallen children of Adam, they showed 
 themselves very kindly disposed, said they were Presbyterians, 
 and begged him to explain to them some gospel text. He 
 spoke on this occasion on Matt. v. I, seq. They were quite 
 well pleased, placed fresh provisions before him, and accom- 
 panied him to the sloop. His instruction to the Salzburgers 
 he continued as circumstances permitted, and found special 
 occasion to give to the parents some advice concerning the 
 education of their children. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 6$ 
 
 He records that during the night, Sept. 28th-29th, a high, 
 cold north-west wind sprang up, and that even ice was formed. 
 This occurrence, most probably very rare in that latitude, was 
 painfully felt by the travellers, who in the open craft had to 
 lie down on deck without the proper covering. But the cold 
 proved a protection against the innumerable insects, the mos- 
 quitoes, which tormented those seeking rest. Miihlenberg 
 says they had day and night to keep up a fire to create 
 thereby, using suitable material, thick clouds of smoke, with- 
 out which they could not have lived. On Thursday, Sept. 
 30th, they arrived at the small town of Beaufort, on the island 
 Port Royal, the native place of the master of the sloop. Miihl- 
 enberg met with a very kind reception at the house of a godly 
 man, the Rev. Jones, who spoke in high terms of the two pas- 
 tors Boltzius and Gronau of Ebenezer. He also kindly sent 
 bread and meat for his guest and the Salzburgers on board of 
 the sloop which was to take them farther, a smaller vessel than 
 the one which had brought them from Charleston. Meeting 
 during the night with a trading vessel, the captain of the same 
 invited them on board, placed some refreshments before them, 
 and permitted them to sleep there a few hours. The following 
 day they met with a peculiar phenomenon, the waters of the 
 sea appearing elevated to the height of a steeple: it was prob- 
 ably a waterspout. 
 
 Finally, on Saturday, Oct. 2d, at 8 P. ivr., they arrived at 
 Savannah. This place has for us particular historical interest. 
 George II. of England (king 1727-60) June 9, 1732, had set 
 apart the country between the Savannah River and the Ala- 
 tamaha as the province of Georgia, and given its administra- 
 tion for twenty-one years into the hands of trustees as a cor- 
 poration, holding it " in trust for the poor." Among these 
 trustees, consisting of members of Parliament, inclusive of 
 some bishops, as we formerly had occasion to state, was James 
 Oglethorpe, whose name deserves to be kept in grateful re- 
 membrance, since he moved the Parliament in 1728 to take 
 into consideration the disastrous effects of the law by which 
 " each year in Great Britain at least four thousand unhappy 
 
66 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 men were immured in prison for the misfortune of poverty, 
 for a small debt exposed to perpetual imprisonment." He 
 persevered in his philanthropic efforts till " from extreme 
 misery he restored to light and freedom multitudes who by 
 long confinement for debt were strangers and helpless in the 
 country of their birth." And when Georgia was formally 
 opened to the poor of all lands, even to Jews, " Papists " only 
 being excluded, and others had given of their wealth, and the 
 Parliament had contributed ten thousand pounds, Oglethorpe, 
 who had seen military service and been present at the siege 
 of Belgrade by the army of the renowned Prince Eugene of 
 Savoy, assisted by the counsel and liberality of the " Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," now 
 embarked (1732) with one hundred and twenty emigrants for 
 America, landed first at Charleston, S. C, then at Beaufort on 
 Port Royal, and chose the high bluff on the Savannah River 
 as the site for a new city. He entered into friendly relations 
 with the Indians, lived for twelve months under a tent pro- 
 tected by four beautiful pines, and then in the city if we may 
 use this term in one of those plain houses, all built after the 
 same model, of unplaned boards. This man of sterling value 
 was " the father of Georgia, and this the place of refuge for 
 the distressed people of Britain and the persecuted Protestants 
 of Europe." We have already learned that under the auspices 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel a number of 
 the cruelly-persecuted Salzburger Lutherans came (March 18, 
 1734) to Savannah, where Oglethorpe bade them a friendly 
 welcome. Soon they began with his personal assistance to 
 build Ebenezer, twenty-four miles west of Savannah. In 
 April, 1734, he sailed for Europe, won golden opinions for 
 his new colony, and returned Feb. 6, 1736, with three hundred 
 immigrants, among whom were a number of Moravians, now 
 added to the nine brethren in the faith who had arrived already 
 in May, 1735. Among his companions were also John and 
 Charles Wesley, the latter serving him as his private secre- 
 tary, well known as the Methodist hymnologist. His brother 
 John, finding that for making much impression upon the In- 
 
HENRY ME LC HI OR MUHLENBERG. 67 
 
 dian mind, as he had hoped to do missionary work among 
 them, he and the times were not yet prepared, returned in the 
 beginning of 1738 to England, where a larger field promised 
 him greater success. But his intercourse with the Moravian 
 Brethren helped him to view Christianity apart from Puritan 
 and monarchical principles, and made him a more hearty 
 evangelical Christian. The inwardness and subjectiveness 
 peculiar to Pietism and the Methodistic energetic, aggressive 
 spirit were to some extent united in him. Charles Wesley 
 returned to England Jan. 17, 1737, with Oglethorpe, who 
 had to make preparations for war with tlie Spaniards possess- 
 ing Florida, since they opposed the settling of the English in 
 Georgia. John Wesley, after having served his countrymen 
 in the new colony as a pastor, returned to England in 1738, 
 on the same day on which his great colaborer, George White- 
 field, embarked the first time for America. The latter had it 
 in his mind to establish an orphan-house after the Halle pat- 
 tern in Savannah, and expected to receive aid for this char- 
 itable object in the mother-country. Having gone in 1739 
 to England to collect the financial means for his enterprise, 
 after returning in the same year he laid the foundations of the 
 institution, which he called Bethesda, near Savannah, but met 
 with no success, and returned to England in 1741. On account 
 of his rigoristic predestinarian views he for a time became alien- 
 ated from the Wesleys, but paid five more visits to America, trav- 
 elling as a great revival preacher through the provinces. He 
 entered into his rest Sept. 30, 1770, at Newbury, Massachusetts. 
 The Moravians also met with unexpected difficulties in 
 Georgia. It was one of their leading principles never to 
 carry weapons of war or to engage in hostile combat. Ex- 
 emption from military service had been granted to them by 
 the trustees of Georgia, and when the conflict with the Span- 
 iards began was continued at their request. But the popu- 
 lace, being indignant at such a privilege, proved troublesome 
 to them. Therefore, already in 1738 some of them relin- 
 quished the plantations they had begun to cultivate, paid 
 back all the money with which they had been assisted for 
 
68 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 travelling and the first expenses of living in the colony, 
 moved to Pennsylvania, and were followed to the same 
 locality by the rest in the spring of 1740. In later years 
 Moravian emissaries appear again in the neighborhood of 
 Savannah and the Salzburg colony. German settlers we find 
 between 1740 and 1750 at Frederica, on the island St. Simon, 
 south of Savannah ; they had organized a congregation, and 
 Rev. Driesler and Rev. Ziibly are mentioned as their pastors. 
 Oglethorpe returned in the fall of 1738 to Georgia as a brig- 
 adier-general with military command and forces. The conflict 
 between the English' and the Spaniards now assumed larger 
 proportions, until, about the middle of 1743, the latter, having 
 suffered decisive losses, retreated from the Georgia frontiers. 
 A year later Oglethorpe sailed for England, " never again to 
 behold the colony to which he consecrated the disinterested 
 toils of ten years." During the War of Independence he refused 
 to serve as a commander against the Americans, with whose 
 cause he sympathized, and when, after the conclusion of 
 peace, the first ambassador of the United States of America 
 arrived in London, he was among those who heartily wel- 
 comed him and offered their congratulations. He died July 
 i, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years. 
 
 We- may add concerning Georgia that the first laws for the 
 government of the province prohibited the importation of 
 slaves. But after a few years the prohibition statute was 
 rescinded, since several of the so-called " better sort of peo- 
 ple " in Savannah addressed a petition to the trustees " for the 
 use of negroes." But the Salzburgers " deprecated in earnest 
 memorials the employment of negro slaves, pleading the 
 ability of the white man to toil under the sun of Georgia." 
 Later, among them and the Moravians the keeping of negro 
 slaves was tolerated, on the ground of their more humane 
 treatment and for the purpose of Christianizing them. Gen- 
 eral Oglethorpe, well acquainted with the sad demoraliz- 
 ing influences of slavery, entertained a plan of a different 
 character. * He wanted the trustees to import at their own 
 expense laborers from England and Germany who might 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 69 
 
 serve for a time, and thus repay in wages the outlay of 
 their transportation and outfit. This plan the trustees never 
 adopted. 
 
 After having landed, Oct. 2d, at 8 A. M., Miihlenberg paid 
 his respects to Colonel Thomas Stephens, a gentleman in 
 the service of the trustees and the first in authority at Sav- 
 annah during the absence of Oglethorpe, who at that time had, 
 on account of the troubles with the Spaniards, gone south. 
 He proved himself at all times a friend to the Salzburgers, 
 and now at once made liberal provision, not only for Miahlen- 
 berg, but also for the Salzburger family which had arrived with 
 Miihlenberg, and consisted of father, mother, and three uned- 
 ucated girls. He had a son of the same name, from whom he 
 is to be carefully distinguished. This son, after having spent 
 some time in Georgia, returned to England, and there pub- 
 lished calumnies against the administration of Georgia by the 
 trustees, and especially against the Salzburg colonists. His 
 accusations were brought to the notice of the Parliament. 
 The result of an official investigation was the complete refu- 
 tation of his calumnies. Wednesday, July II, 1742, he was 
 brought before the bar of the House of Commons, obliged to 
 kneel down, and was there publicly reprimanded by the Speaker. 
 The Salzburger colonists, who in these years to a consider- 
 able extent depended on the good-will of benevolent friends 
 in England and in Germany, had reasons to be thankful for 
 this public indorsement of their good character and reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 The Rev. Gronau, sojourning at Savannah on that day, and 
 intending to hold on the following Sunday divine service with 
 the German settlers at Savannah, hearing of the arrival of 
 Miihlenberg, at once went to the inn where Col. Stephens 
 had meanwhile lodged him, and took him to the lodgings 
 which a patron of high standing had placed at the command 
 of the Ebenezer pastors whenever they visited Savannah. Ser- 
 vices had to be held in private houses. The finest and largest 
 building not, however, situated in the town, but at some dis- 
 tance from it was the Orphan-House, erected by George 
 
7O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Whitefield, and in the diary kept by the Ebenezer pastors in 
 1742 called "a princely castle." They say that it was unfor- 
 tunately situated in a most sterile locality, where on five hun- 
 dred acres of land, fenced in, subsistence for neither cattle nor 
 horses, and not even good drinkable water, could be found. 
 Under those circumstances the building and the whole insti- 
 tution were doomed to ruin. 
 
 Sunday, Oct. 3d, Miihlenberg heard two sermons preached 
 in the morning and in the afternoon by the Rev. Gronau, and 
 in the evening they held service in their own lodgings. Both 
 of them proceeded on Monday morning on a small boat toward 
 Ebenezer, meeting, however, on their way at various places 
 with many obstacles trees uprooted by the storms. At 
 four o'clock in the afternoon they arrived at the so-called 
 " Plantations," and viewed the flour-mill erected there by the 
 Salzburgers and driven by water, the first of its kind in the 
 whole province of Georgia. Thence they had about an hour's 
 walk to Ebenezer. 
 
 When in 1734 the first "transport," as it was called, of Salz- 
 burgers landed at Savannah, they settled on a locality some- 
 what distant from the Ebenezer which Miihlenberg now came 
 to visit. Tn the beginning of 1735 the second "transport" 
 arrived and settled in the same locality, as it was ordered by 
 the trustees. But it was soon discovered that the soil there 
 was very little suited for agricultural purposes, and that the 
 whole district was very miasmatic. The colonists suffered 
 terribly from fevers. It became more and more apparent that 
 without continued support from the trustees they could not 
 be sustained there. In the beginning of the year 1736 they 
 were permitted to quit that locality and to establish them- 
 selves in the neighborhood of what they called the " Red 
 Mount," which, when compared with the giant mountains of 
 the Alps, of which the Salzburgers had a mournful remem- 
 brance, little deserved that appellation. And here Ebenezer 
 began to flourish, though fevers and other hardships wqre not 
 wanting also in this locality. The former settlement returned 
 into the hands of the trustees, and they transformed it into a 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Jl 
 
 stock-farm to raise cattle. In Ebenezer in the year 1736 the 
 third "transport" of immigrants was received. In 1739 a 
 number of settlers began, with the permission of Oglethorpe, 
 to cultivate the rich bottom-land on the neighboring Abricorn 
 Creek, a locality afterward denominated " the Plantations." In 
 1742 a bridge was built across the creek running between the 
 "town" and the plantations. In December, 1741, the fourth 
 " transport " had arrived. Already, in the month of February 
 of the same year, the erection of a regular church-building, 
 at that time the first one in all Georgia, was undertaken, and 
 its solemn dedication took place on the seventeenth Sunday 
 after Trinity. At that time there was, with the exception of 
 the two Ebenezer pastors, no regularly appointed pastor in 
 the province. The Germans of whom some were already 
 settled in Frederica in 1741 called a pastor, the Rev. J. U. 
 Driesler, from the dukedom of Wurtemberg, who, having 
 sailed from London in Sept., 1743, arrived safely at Frederica, 
 and entered upon his labors, but died a few years later. There 
 was a sort of chaplain appointed by Whitefield in behalf of 
 his orphan-house, but he could not be called a regular pastor. 
 The pastors of the Salzburger congregation Ebenezer, Rev. 
 J. Chr. Gronau and Rev. J. M. Boltzius, had been educated at 
 the Francke institution and the University of Halle, had been 
 employed for a time as teachers in the Orphan-House there, had 
 joined the first "transport" at Rotterdam, and had not only 
 the spiritual care of the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, but were the 
 general counsellors of them, and, by order of the trustees, 
 also at the head of the municipal administration. Among 
 the settlers were a number not exiles from Salzburg. Gro- 
 nau died Jan. n, 1745, and was succeeded by the Rev. 
 Hermann Henry Lembke, a graduate of Halle University. 
 These men, all of the Halle type of Lutheran Pietism, 
 were faithful servants of the Lord, unceasingly caring for 
 the temporal and spiritual welfare of every individual entrust- 
 ed to their care. They also mediated between the Salzburgers 
 and the civil government, enjoyed the high respect of its rep- 
 resentatives and the love and esteem of their flock, and exer- 
 
72 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 cised a strict congregational discipline. It may well be asked 
 whether without their self-denying labors Ebenezer would ever 
 have been a success or could even have maintained itself in 
 any manner. 
 
 That the settlers in those parts had to undergo not only 
 much hard labor, but also many privations and disappoint- 
 ments, needs no explanation. The Indians, of whom there 
 were in Georgia and the vicinity various tribes, proved trou- 
 blesome at all times, but especially when they were at war 
 among themselves, or when, as during the conflicts with the 
 Spaniards, the government had to indulge them, fearing the 
 corrupting influences of the enemies in the immediate neigh- 
 borhood. Cattle, horses, and swine were exposed to the rav- 
 ages of the wolf and the bear. Inundations damaged the 
 newly-cultivated fields. Agricultural implements and other 
 necessary mechanical appliances were wanting. Ploughs were 
 first introduced in 1742. 
 
 But the energy and assiduous application of the settlers 
 conquered all difficulties. Of course, assistance in various 
 ways coming from the trustees in England and from friends 
 in Germany, at the head of whom stood the venerable Url- 
 sperger at Augsburg, were not only welcome, but in the begin- 
 ning of operations indispensable. But the nerve and muscle 
 of the settlers had, under the providence of God, to do the 
 work. Trees were to be felled, lands to be cleared, fences to 
 be erected, houses to be built, gardens to be cultivated, and 
 the old and the young were as busy as bees. An orphan- 
 house was established, in which, in January, 1742, four boys 
 and eight girls were supported, and which often was used 
 as a refuge for sick single persons, who there were properly 
 nursed. To this orphan-house Whitefield who was favor- 
 ably inclined to the Salzburgers, though they disliked very 
 much his ultra-predestinarian views and his Methodistic man- 
 ner of converting sinners had at one time contributed twenty 
 pounds sterling, and in other ways shown himself a warm 
 friend. Provision was also made for the schooling of the chil- 
 dren of the colony as well as means and circumstances per- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR * MUHLENBER G. 73 
 
 mitted, and the pastors assisted in teaching. To the church 
 erected in the " town " Whitefield presented a bell of eighty 
 pounds weight. In the " plantations " a separate church was 
 erected in 1742. 
 
 It is quite encouraging to read the reports the Salzburgers 
 sent to old friends and to benefactors in Germany. J. G. 
 Kocher, one of the settlers, who had arrived with the fourth 
 "transport," says in a letter of Feb. I, 1742: "I should be 
 sorry to live one hour longer in Germany, for of the excellency 
 of this country not the half was told us. We have here the 
 most salubrious air, the very best water, all sorts of excellent 
 fruits and vegetables, the very best soil, wherein I have thus 
 far not met with one stone. To every one of us fifty acres 
 of land was allotted, also land already prepared for giving a 
 harvest this year. Adjoining my house is my garden, where 
 I have sown some wheat and planted various vegetables, and 
 also seven peach trees, which in this country bear much sweeter 
 fruit than in Germany, and are just now literally covered with 
 blossoms. I have not the language to depict all that God 
 does for us in these things, and much more in spiritual things, 
 for we have here two pastors, who, so to say, with hands, 
 words, and hearts bring us before God and nearer to him." 
 This is gushing language, but came from an honest heart. 
 Various attempts were made to improve by new experimental 
 enterprises the financial condition of the settlers. Among 
 these were the planting of vineyards and the culture of silk, 
 also, at a later period, that of indigo. Silk at first promised 
 to become a staple product. A settler by the name of J. Fr. 
 Vigera of Salzburg in Alsace, who had accompanied the 
 fourth " transport " from London across the sea as a super- 
 visor, and now lived in Ebenezer, took much pains to raise 
 silkworms. A part of the Orphan-House was used for this 
 purpose. From there fourteen pounds and fourteen ounces 
 of raw silk were taken to Savannah in May, 1742, and paid 
 at the storehouse with 2 pounds 19 shillings 6 pence ster- 
 ling. Bancroft says that " in a few years the produce of raw 
 silk by the Germans amounted to ten thousand pounds a 
 
74 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 year, and indigo became a staple." The very changeable 
 character of the climate offered, however, great obstacles to 
 the success of silk-culture. J. Fr. Vigera, who had a com- 
 mercial education and made himself in various ways useful 
 to his fellow-citizens, was a great sufferer by the fever, and 
 resolved in 1743, in compliance with the- desire of his 
 mother, who lived at his native place, to return to Europe 
 by the way of Pennsylvania; he arrived there, but never 
 returned to Europe. In Pennsylvania we shall again meet 
 him. 
 
 That Miihlenberg had received and accepted a call to 
 the Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania the brethren 
 in Ebenezer knew already in May, 1742. At a later day they 
 were informed that he would pay a visit to .Ebenezer. We 
 know that Ziegenhagen at London not only desired Miihlen- 
 berg to visit the Salzburg settlement, but expected Boltzius 
 to accompany Miihlenberg to Pennsylvania to assist him in 
 his first missionary efforts in organizing congregations. 
 
 At Ebenezer, Miihlenberg was received in the kindest man- 
 ner. After first visiting Gronau's house, he was lodged with 
 Boltzius. He did not come with empty hands. After hand- 
 ing over to Boltzius a letter of Ziegenhagen, he delivered a 
 costly gift entrusted to him in Germany, and by him carefully 
 guarded throughout his voyage viz. a chalice of solid silver, 
 but heavily gilt, to be used by the congregation at the admin- 
 istration of the Lord's Supper. Certainly, a welcome gift, 
 coming from a friend in Germany, a godly young man of 
 the town of Nordlingen, George Matthias Kiderlin, who 
 on his death-bed in October, 1741, had ordered that out of 
 various articles of silver in his possession this cup should be 
 made by an artist and sent to Ebenezer. Now his request 
 was fulfilled. That cup is still in the possession of that 
 church, and from time to time, in agreement with the will 
 of the kind donor, used for the sacred purpose for which 
 he had intended it. 
 
 When, a few days later, the Salzburger family who had 
 crossed the Atlantic with Miihlenberg arrived, they were 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. f$ 
 
 for the present lodged in the Orphan-House, and there all 
 their necessities were attended to. Miihlenberg suffered dur- 
 ing his stay at Ebenezer with attacks of fever, and, according 
 to the medical theory then prevailing, was bled, and received 
 from his colleagues and their families all possible kindness. 
 He visited all places of particular interest the Orphan-House; 
 also, in company with J. F. Vigera, the ruins of old Ebenezer. 
 He held, Oct. 8th, services at the " plantations " and in the 
 church in the " town." In both places the members of the 
 congregation were informed of Ziegenhagen's proposition, 
 that Boltzius should accompany Miihlenberg on his journey 
 to Pennsylvania, and there for a limited time assist him. We 
 learn that the most intelligent members took a very sensible 
 view of this plan, and though they would be deprived for a 
 time of the services of a beloved pastor, they did not wish to 
 resist the will of Providence. On Sunday, Oct. loth, the 
 Lord's Supper was celebrated, and among the sixty guests 
 at the sacred table was Miihlenberg. At the conclusion 
 of the last service of the day Boltzius addressed words of 
 admonition and farewell to the congregation, and in his 
 prayer laid the intended departure of Miihlenberg and him- 
 self before the throne of grace. There was much feeling 
 among the assembly, and it was very apparent that the 
 strongest ties of love and esteem bound the preacher to the 
 people whose spiritual welfare, with other interests, was en- 
 trusted to his care. It was equally observable that Miihlen- 
 berg had during the days of his sojourn among the Salzburg- 
 ers greatly endeared himself to them and to their pastors. 
 
76 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 Benefit derived from the visit at Ebenezer. Boltzius accompanies Miihlenberg to 
 Charleston. They hold religious services in their lodgings Visitors from 
 Purrysburg Boltzius returns to Ebenezer. Miihlenberg reads reports of 
 Count Zinzendorf in Pennsylvania. He is a guest of Mr. Theus. Holds 
 religious services with the Germans at Charleston. Departure for Philadel- 
 phia. Incidents and hardships of the voyage. 
 
 THERE can be no doubt that the visit at Ebenezer, 
 though it was a short one, was of service to Miihlen- 
 berg in various and important ways. Here he moved the 
 first time among a German-American congregation, cut loose 
 from state influences and from control by the secular author- 
 ities in its inner life and management, governing itself 
 under the guidance of two worthy pastors men of fervid 
 devotion to their office and of excellent Christian character. 
 With them Miihlenberg, coming from the same school of 
 piety and theology, viewing Christian life and the relation 
 existing between the kingdom of Christ and the world sur- 
 rounding it essentially as they did, could fully sympathize ; 
 and they, having already gathered the experience of years, 
 could point out to him many difficulties to be expected and 
 ways and means to avoid or to meet them. His intercourse 
 with them could not but be profitable, instructive, and en- 
 couraging to him, and to some extent better prepare him for 
 the task awaiting him in Pennsylvania. True it is that 
 the " Salzburgers " offered a type of a congregation not fre- 
 quently met with. But since they were no longer an ecclesia 
 pressa, an oppressed, persecuted flock, their spiritual condition, 
 as may be expected, had incurred many and great dangers. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 77 
 
 Changes of outward circumstances are always a trial to the innl^ 
 man. The Ebenezer pastors had ample opportunity to expe- 
 rience this in the fulfilment of their duties. To this must be 
 added what we formerly alluded to, that the name " Salz- 
 burgers," as it is commonly used, included even at that time a 
 considerable number of such characters as could neither geo- 
 graphically nor historically, nor in other respects, lay claim to 
 it, but had settled at Ebenezer and become members of the 
 Salzburger congregation. From the conditions under which 
 congregations in America usually exist Ebenezer was totally 
 exempt, in so far as there no other denomination was in any 
 official way represented. Ebenezer knew at least in those 
 years no other creed and no other service than the Lutheran. 
 Monday, Oct. I ith, was the day appointed for the departure 
 of Miihlenberg and Boltzius. A goodly number of hours had 
 passed before all had been said and arranged, when, in the 
 presence of a large number of friends assembled on the mem- 
 orable occasion, Boltzius conclujded with prayer. Quite a 
 large company went with the two departing friends from 
 Ebenezer to the river, where the last words of farewell were 
 exchanged under considerable commotion of heart and feel- 
 ings. When they entered the boat which was to convey them 
 to Savannah, Miihlenberg, whose melodious voice and fine 
 musical taste served him excellently on many occasions of 
 his life, struck up, all the company present at once joining 
 him, the last verse of a well-known German hymn admirably 
 suited to the circumstances of the hour, and expressing the 
 sentiment that we Christians must follow our Lord and ac- 
 knowledge him as our Captain even in times of trial, knowing 
 that without the cross there is no crown. Little did Muhlen- 
 berg think that more than thirty years later he would once 
 again stand on that very shore, return to Ebenezer, there to 
 meet a few who would remember his first visit. Of that first 
 visit the Rev. Gronau speaks in his diary in the following 
 manner : " I hope the Lord will reunite and once more bless 
 us. A more blessed season we never had at Ebenezer, for 
 such special benefit he never before granted us, to lead to us 
 
78 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tffce of the dear friends in Germany one who had loved us 
 in spirit before he personally knew us, and whom we now can 
 regard and esteem as a true friend and brother in Christ. I 
 do trust that still closer ties will connect us. God in his 
 mercy will help that through the preaching of the gospel 
 many in Pennsylvania will be gathered, with whom we may 
 be of one heart and one mind." Miihlenberg in his diary does 
 full justice to the two brethren Boltzius and Gronau, and to 
 their people, especially to their self-denying spirit and good- 
 will toward him in permitting Boltzius to accompany him to 
 Pennsylvania. He mentions especially that Boltzius had to 
 expect on this journey many hardships and many dangers, 
 owing to the approach of the winter and to the war, at that 
 time making the sea and the coast unsafe ; that he left at home 
 a wife who was in a frail condition and two sick children, and 
 that he did not know whether he would be able to return 
 before the following spring or summer, since the Delaware 
 River during winter was oft^n frozen many miles in the neigh- 
 borhood of Philadelphia. These and other weighty consider- 
 ations Miihlenberg mentions, showing that he fully appreciated 
 the kind service Boltzius was doing him. He deeply felt that to 
 leave a congregation for such a length of time was, under all 
 circumstances, fraught with danger, while it was exceedingly 
 uncertain what success they might meet with in Pennsylvania. 
 He says that he prayed God more clearly to reveal to them 
 whether it were his will that Boltzius should go with him to 
 Pennsylvania or not, even if the brother should have to return 
 when but a portion of the voyage had been completed. These 
 and other similar sentiments moved the heart of Muhlenberg 
 when he, Boltzius, and another companion, during a quiet and 
 bright night, glided in their boat down the waters of the river 
 to Savannah, where they arrived early on Tuesday, October 
 1 2th. Of the farewell taken at Ebenezer, Muhlenberg says 
 that it was a picture en miniature of a blessed departure from 
 this world. 
 
 At Savannah the travellers were detained "by unfavorable 
 winds until Friday evening, Oct. I5th. Various attempts to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 79 
 
 set sail were futile. Here already the impression was made 
 upon Miihlenberg that it was perhaps not the will of God that 
 Brother Boltzius should accompany him on this voyage. The 
 same boat which had brought them down from Ebenezer was 
 to take them to Charleston. Boltzius had for this purpose 
 employed the services of a steersman and of rowers. A check 
 in the possession of Miihlenberg could not be converted into 
 money in Savannah; trade the merchants were willing to give 
 for it. 
 
 Our travellers were happy, after leaving Savannah, to find 
 without any further trouble one of the channels running be- 
 tween the coast and the numerous islands of that region. 
 Sailing day and night with as little delay as possible, they 
 arrived, Wednesday, Oct. 2Oth, at Charleston, where a part 
 of the English fleet under Admiral Vernon, which upon the 
 news of the attack of the Spaniards upon Georgia had speedily 
 sailed thither, was at anchor. All the inns at Charleston were 
 occupied by the soldiers. Miihlenberg and Boltzms consid- 
 ered it a favor that a female German innkeeper took them in, 
 wishing to take advantage of them, but being satisfied with 
 two shillings sixpence sterling per head a day. They, on 
 their part, held daily morning and evening religious services, 
 in which some Germans participated who had come from 
 Purrysburg, a colony of Swiss people situated on the east side 
 of the Savannah River, some thirty miles from the sea, and 
 consequently only a few miles distant from Ebenezer. Encour- 
 aged by the promises of the English government, which for 
 every one hundred effective men who would settle there agreed 
 to pay four hundred pounds sterling and to give to them a 
 gratuity of land, John Peter Purry of Neufchatel, Switzerland, 
 invited his countrymen, by sending most charming descrip- 
 tions of the soil, climate, and government of South Carolina, 
 to this province, and in November, 1732, one hundred and 
 seventy of them arrived at Charleston, who not long after- 
 ward were followed by two hundred more. Forty thousand 
 acres of land were allotted to the new colony of Purrysburg, 
 the Indians having been driven off from that region. The 
 
8O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 town was situated on the somewhat elevated banks of the 
 river, and for a time promised desirable progress. The col- 
 onists had brought with them a pastor, Rev. Joseph Bu- 
 gnion, who during his sojourn in England received episcopal 
 ordination, had begun work at the colony, but had left it 
 in 1735. There were some Lutheran families among the 
 colonists, who connected themselves with the Ebenezer con- 
 gregation, and were occasionally visited by their pastors. 
 Going in 1734 to Charleston, Boltzius, taking his tour through 
 Purrysburg, was very kindly received there, and testifies to 
 the agricultural progress the colony had made during the 
 two years of its existence. But it seems that by and by the 
 inhabitants lost courage, and that a lack of strict social order 
 was observable. Already before the War of Independence 
 the colony was greatly reduced, and after many of the settlers 
 had removed to other parts of the Carolinas came to an inglo- 
 rious end. 
 
 The prospects of finding an opportunity of going by sea or 
 land to Philadelphia were rather discouraging. The most 
 experienced men said that it was too late in the season, and 
 that the Delaware River would, on account of the ice, not be 
 navigable. To go by land a distance of about nine hundred 
 miles through a country without roads and bridges, through 
 a wilderness and swamps, and to buy for such an undertaking 
 horses of the needful strength and endurance, was not advis- 
 able. Indeed, the two brethren, Miihlenberg and Boltzius, 
 were in perplexing circumstances. With money they were 
 not superabundantly supplied, and every day helped to reduce 
 the purse. Yet when, on Friday, Oct. 22d, the Ebenezer boat 
 set sail to return, Boltzius could not make up his mind to 
 leave Muhlenberg. But on the following day they resolved, 
 after prayerful consideration, that Boltzius should no longer 
 remain in this painful uncertainty, but return to his wonted 
 field of labor. Muhlenberg was willing to wait a few weeks 
 longer for an opportunity to reach Pennsylvania. If none 
 would offer, he intended to return to Savamiah, and thence 
 to proceed to Frederica, there to serve the Germans in spirit- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 8 1 
 
 ual matters until he could reach Philadelphia in the following 
 spring.* 
 
 Boltzius, having bought a horse on the previous day, on 
 Oct. 24th bade an affecting farewell, and, taking the route by 
 land, departed for Ebenezer. Miihlenberg was now left to him- 
 self, a stranger, at Charleston. In the evening of that same 
 day his thoughts were forcibly directed toward Pennsylvania. 
 Accidentally two documents fell into his hands which called 
 forth his serious attention. One was a printed report of seven 
 conferences which Count Zinzendorf, under the pseudonym 
 " Herr von Thiirnstein," had held with his brethren in Penn- 
 sylvania, especially at Germantqwn, Philadelphia, and New 
 Hanover. The other was a pamphlet giving an account of a 
 disturbance which had taken place, July i8th of that year, 
 between the Moravians on the one hand and the German Re- 
 formed and the Lutherans on the other, at Philadelphia in 
 front of an " old butcher-shop." As we shall have an occa- 
 sion to hear more of this, we do not now enter upon the cir- 
 cumstances to which that publication referred, but simply add 
 the remark Miihlenberg here makes in his diary : " Such 
 gourds of wild vines enabled me to see from afar death in the 
 pot (2 Kings iv. 39, 40), and to realize the serious nature of 
 my call thither." 
 
 On the following day a Swiss painter, Theus, moved by 
 Christian charity, invited Miihlenberg to his house and pro- 
 vided for him. About that time an Englishman who intended 
 to take the land-route to Pennsylvania arrived, and would 
 have been glad to have had a companion, but honestly advised 
 Miihlenberg not to undertake that expensive and very labor- 
 ious journey. Miihlenberg was obliged to wait for further 
 opportunity, but made, however, very good use of his time 
 by giving instruction to some children. He also wrote letters 
 to Ebenezer and to various individuals in Europe, continued 
 
 * Muhlenberg in his diary refers here to a report of the death of the Rev. J. U. 
 Driesler at Frederica. There must be a mistake in this matter, since Driesler did 
 not arrive at Frederica -before the year 1744, and died there at the end of 1746 or 
 in the beginning of 1747, as appears from a letter of Ziegenhagen of London, dated 
 May 24, 1747. 
 
82 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his diary, and on Sunday, Oct. 3 1st, the memorial day of the 
 Reformation, he twice held service in the German language in 
 his lodgings, and, seeing that English-speaking people also 
 were desirous of his attention, repeated the substance of his 
 sermon in English. He again preached twice on the follow- 
 ing Sunday. He was moved by pity for the Germans, who 
 there appeared to him like sheep gone astray, every one turn- 
 ing to his own way (Isa. liii. 6). There is a vague report that 
 in 1752 the first pastor of the Lutherans, Rev. Mr. Luft, 
 arrived at Charleston. We know, however, that about the 
 year 1755 or 1756, Rev. John George Friederichs arrived at 
 Charleston and gathered the Germans into a congregation, 
 and that "in 1759 they began to build a house of worship 
 themselves," having before this been hospitably treated by 
 the French (Huguenots) and permitted to worship in their 
 sanctuary. 
 
 Hearing, Nov. 1st, that a sloop carrying one mast had 
 arrived from Philadelphia, and would return in a few days, 
 Miihlenberg at once inquired about it, but was strongly ad- 
 vised not to sail on that frail vessel in such a boisterous 
 season of the year and when there was so much fear of 
 Spanish privateers. Downcast in spirit, he went to his lodg- 
 ings, retired into solitude, and humbled himself in fervent 
 prayer before the throne of grace, and, considering that he 
 was intended not for Charleston or Frederica, but for Penn- 
 sylvania, remembered the saying of that East India missionary, 
 Zeglin : " Shall death be my lot, here I am, my God. Is it 
 thy will that I should live, into thy hands I give my soul." 
 On the following day he went to Captain Child of the Phila- 
 delphia sloop, and though told by him that he was unable 
 on his small craft to offer the slightest comforts, that there 
 was only one cabin, just sufficient for himself to creep into, 
 and it was out of his power to accommodate him in any other 
 way, Miihlenberg paid at once three guineas for the passage, 
 bought for four guineas a bed and provisions, and received 
 orders to be on board on the I2th of November. On that 
 day he took farewell of his host, who had shown him much 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 83 
 
 kindness, and embarked in the sloop, which set sail, and, the 
 wind being contrary, anchored in the evening opposite the 
 fort. 
 
 Among the nine persons on board of the sloop was an 
 English gentleman who urged Miihlenberg to visit with him 
 the fort, the commander of which politely invited them to 
 supper. And here we take pleasure in recording an incident 
 which is calculated to give us an insight into the amiable 
 character of Miihlenberg. During the supper the sound of 
 a well-known German church-melody reached his ear from a 
 distance. To his inquiry about it the commander answered 
 that some time before he had bought a number of German ser- 
 vants from the ship which had brought them over that now 
 they were serving him for a number of years, and were em- 
 ployed as " constables " and for work in the house and on the 
 farm. He formerly had done military services in the Neth- 
 erlands, felt a love for the Germans, and had learned many 
 words of their language. These servants, he said, had at first 
 often quarreled among themselves, and used rather rough and 
 profane language. After having been reprimanded by him 
 they lived harmoniously together, sang and prayed, and 
 proved obedient and faithful in service. He intended here- 
 after to allot to each of them a piece of land, provided they 
 would remain faithful to the end of the time of their engagement. 
 Miihlenberg continues in his diary: "I forgot the supper and 
 begged permission to see those Germans. A servant, carry- 
 ing a lantern, led me down into a vaulted room, where I 
 found twenty-three men sitting in a circle, with their heads 
 uncovered, their hands folded. As soon as they learned that 
 I was a German preacher of the gospel they leaped up ; one, 
 two, or three at a time as they were able, embraced me, cried 
 for joy, and begged me to stay with them, or, if this were im- 
 possible, at least to give them a word of comfort. I answered 
 that to stay with them was impossible, but since they were 
 twenty-three I would explain to them the twenty-third Psalm, 
 pray with them, and, if they would send one of their number 
 with me to the sloop, I w r ould leave with them a book as a 
 
84 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 remembrance and for their edification. After having briefly 
 explained to them the twenty-third Psalm and prayed with 
 them, I took an affecting farewell, and once more recom- 
 mended them to their one Lord and Master, who had 
 bought them with his blood, beseeching for them the effi- 
 cacious influences of the Holy Spirit. On my return to the 
 commander I thanked him for his kindness, recommended the 
 German servants to his kind protection, took with me on my 
 return to the sloop one of these Germans, and as a remem- 
 brance sent to them the sermons of the Rev. Mr. Schubert 
 on the Sunday Gospels, giving them written advice on the 
 front page how they might use the book for the edification 
 of their souls." What a warm sympathy and interest for the 
 welfare of his countrymen, what a missionary spirit, is here 
 exhibited ! 
 
 After the sloop had entered upon the high seas the voyage 
 became exceedingly rough. The small craft was terribly 
 tossed up and down by the waves. Such sailing Miihlen- 
 berg had never experienced. Sea-sickness occasioned him 
 the greatest discomfort. The winds were violent and chill- 
 ing. There were some among the crew who had just been 
 released from captivity by the Spaniards. Their profane lan- 
 guage made Miihlenberg's hair stand on end, but his admoni- 
 tions, given as long as he was able to do so, were of no avail. 
 On Nov. 1 6th the storm became more violent and the rain 
 poured down in torrents. The sloop, being open on all sides, 
 in going up and down on the waves shipped and unshipped 
 large quantities of water. To protect himself against the cold, 
 Miihlenberg put on all his clothing available for this purpose 
 and laid himself down in the cabin, where the captain had 
 allowed him to repose. He was finally exhausted by sea- 
 sickness, too weak to rise and unable to eat or to drink. In 
 the night the men who had been prisoners of war, cold and 
 wet as they were, pressed into the cabin, laid themselves down 
 to save their lives around and even upon him " like herrings/' 
 while he willingly excused them and only wished that they 
 would cease cursing and swearing. On the following days, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 85 
 
 he says, the sloop seemed to be more below than above the 
 water, so that every garment was made soaking wet. To 
 Miihlenberg's petition to be put ashore the captain gave no 
 ear. In addition to all this terrible misery the vermin were 
 under these circumstances particularly troublesome. The 
 very thought that the sloop would go to the bottom of the 
 sea had, under such distress, an element of comfort and 
 relief for Miihlenberg. 
 
 However, there is an end to all misery on earth. On Nov. 
 1 9th the storm abated and the sun sent forth its welcome 
 rays. Miihlenberg was able to relish a cup of coffee and sit 
 up in bed, which gave joy to the captain. Saturday, Nov. 
 2Oth, they saw the " promontory of Pennsylvania," to which 
 province at that time the parts now forming the State of Del- 
 aware belonged. In the evening the anchor was cast near 
 Lewestown. On Sunday, Nov. 2i-st, Miihlenberg, at the 
 request of the captain and his other companions, addressed 
 them, sitting on his bed, since he was too weak to stand, on 
 the first part of Matt. v. On the two following days he was 
 by degrees able to rise. The provisions which he bought at 
 Charleston, and some of his under-clothing, he distributed 
 among the poor suffering sailors. 
 
 And now we see that sloop to which the life of the future 
 patriarch of the Lutheran Church of America had been en- 
 trusted, and which in spite of storms, billows, and Spanish 
 privateers had, under God's providence, brought him safely 
 hither, quietly sailing up the Delaware Bay and River. There 
 Miihlenberg's eye rested on the level shores of New Jersey, 
 continually approaching nearer, and on the wooded hills of 
 the western shore, here and there dotted with houses and the 
 smoke of many a fireplace curling up into the air. All was 
 quiet and serene. Our traveller's heart, soon forgetting the 
 fearful trials, dangers, and miseries of the past days, rejoiced 
 in the goodness of God, who had brought him hither, and in 
 whom he trusted for the future, not knowing what it might 
 bring forth. He now passed here and there farms and dwell- 
 ings of Swedish Lutheran settlers, and, coming nearer to Phil- 
 
86 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 adelphia, Tinicum Island, on which, just about one .hundred 
 years before, the first Lutheran house of worship in the New 
 World had been erected. 
 
 Thursday, Nov. 25, 1742, at eight o'clock in the morning, 
 the sloop arrived at its place of destination. Miihlenberg set 
 his foot the first time upon the field of labor to which he was 
 providentially called. There Philadelphia stretched out on 
 the high shores of the noble river, opposite an island which 
 divided the sheet of water, a mile in width. There were not 
 many stately buildings to be seen, no tall church-towers rising 
 in the air, no paved streets, no monuments telling of bygone 
 days and men. Everything had a plain, Quakerish appear- 
 ance, with ample room for a large city in the future. But it 
 was a busy place. And now one had arrived who in all this 
 traffic, in all the gains and losses, hopes and fears which 
 moved many a heart, had no interest, but whose mission it 
 was to care for the immortal souls of his brethren in the faith. 
 And to him also Philadelphia proved in years to come a busy 
 place. With true " brotherly love " in his heart, he was fully 
 prepared for the task awaiting him. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 8/ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1742 (continued}. 
 
 Miihlenberg's fitness for his life-work. His mental frame and physical condition. 
 Peculiar character of his field of labor. Political condition of Pennsylvania 
 since the times of William Penn. German settlers near and in Philadelphia. 
 Political influence of the Quakers. Mixed population of Pennsylvania. 
 Count von Thiirnstein. Val. Kraft and the German Lutheran congregation 
 at Philadelphia. Muhlenberg sets out for New Hanover. Preaches there, 
 and presents his pastoral call. Preaches at New Providence (Trappe). 
 Meets Val. Kraft at Philadelphia. Preaches there. Peter Kock. Henry 
 Schleydorn. Muhlenberg acknowledged as the legitimate pastor at New 
 Hanover, New Providence, a*nd Philadelphia. Rev. Pet. Tranberg. 
 
 AT the time (Nov. 25, 1742) when H. M. Muhlenberg 
 arrived at Philadelphia he had just ended the thirty- 
 first year of his age, and, though suffering from the conse- 
 quences of the terrible sea- voyage from Charleston to Pennsyl- 
 vania, was in the prime of life and vigor of health. We shall 
 have ample opportunity to see that, next to a good Christian 
 heart, a clear, practical head, and an energetic will, he needed 
 a very robust bodily constitution and an unusual amount of 
 vitality to enable him to undergo all the risks of health and 
 life to which he was exposed and to satisfy the heavy claims 
 made upon him in his sphere of missionary work. And a 
 missionary he had to be, and he was, in the full sense of 
 the term. For this peculiar office in the kingdom of God on 
 earth he was eminently well qualified, not only by the sin- 
 cere and warm piety of his heart, by his exemplary walk and 
 conversation, by his general education and his theological 
 attainments, and by his remarkable talent as a linguist and 
 as a public speaker, but by the whole composition of his 
 mental framework. There was a certain magnetism about 
 
88 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 him which everywhere won for him the good-will and 
 attachment of right-minded people. He could easily enter 
 into the feelings and ways of thinking of individuals of all 
 grades of society. While he was humble in his bearing 
 and perfectly gentlemanly in his intercourse with others, he 
 never flattered, and never forgot or allowed others to forget 
 his official character or his personal dignity. He felt keenly 
 ingratitude and malignity on the part of those to whom he 
 had been a benefactor, but the most harassing experience of 
 this kind never soured his unselfish, charitable disposition. 
 With his uncommon common sense and his penetrating 
 insight into all sorts of characters there was united a certain 
 humorous element calculated to protect him from pessimistic 
 views of men and life, to which many severe trials and expe- 
 riences in this New World might otherwise have led him. 
 Cheerfully he underwent the heaviest tasks, never losing 
 courage and never getting tired. Day after day he walked 
 before God, and his strong and child-like faith in a providen- 
 tia specialissima supported him. He reaped from his Chris- 
 tian convictions throughout all vicissitudes of life, in the 
 exercise of his arduous duties, the richest harvest. 
 
 As to his external appearance, we know that he was of a 
 robust frame, medium height, broad-shouldered when in a 
 standing attitude, at least in advanced years, slightly inclined 
 forward. In his face we observe a certain openness, a pleas- 
 ant smile, not without the traces of wit and humor, while 
 his forehead indicates no less than his eyes that happy com- 
 mon sense which, blended with his kindness and energy, 
 could not fail to put him in the front rank of those with 
 whom he came into contact, and enabled him to master the 
 situations in which he was placed. Thus pictures which 
 have come down to our times present him to us. All depict 
 him in the clerical attire, which, added to the well-fashioned 
 wig, according to the style of those times encircling his head 
 as a terrestrial halo, gives to the face a dignified and reverential 
 character. We are told that his voice, a tenor, was very 
 melodious and had a clear ring. That he made very good 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 89 
 
 use of it and of 'his musical attainments in his home-life and 
 official activity, many incidents on record bear witness. When 
 Miihlenberg arrived in Pennsylvania, henceforth the chief 
 field of his labors, he was experienced enough under all 
 circumstances to assert his manhood and to exercise an 
 independent judgment, and young enough to adapt him- 
 self to totally new circumstances and a state of society the 
 very opposite to that to which he was accustomed in his 
 native country. There, all official relations were regulated 
 by the representatives of the civil government, and with them 
 rested the main responsibility ; here, Muhlenberg was thrown 
 much more upon his own resources. There, too, office as 
 such gave weight to the incumbent ; here, the incumbent had 
 to magnify the office. There, the commonwealth with such 
 thorough control led the Church and the congregation ; here, 
 every congregation was, at least at the time of the arrival 
 of Muhlenberg, a totally independent private association, 
 acknowledging no higher ecclesiastical authority and exclu- 
 sively governing itself. There, society was, since time imme- 
 morial, divided into classes, some of them enjoying great 
 prerogatives and privileges ; here, the principle of social 
 equality was carried out to a very large extent, and all 
 claims of higher education and standing made little impres- 
 sion. The individual had only as much social influence as 
 others were inclined or willing to give and allow. Muhlen- 
 berg had ample occasion to find out how far the sentiment 
 was actualized which William Penn, when he became Pro- 
 prietor of his province of Pennsylvania, in a letter of April 
 6, 1681, expressed to its inhabitants: "You shall be gov- 
 erned by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if 
 you will, a sober and industrious people." Concerning the 
 affairs and condition of the Church, as he here found them, 
 Muhlenberg in his diaries and correspondence frequently 
 refers to the fact that in Germany it was ecclesia plantata, 
 here ecclesia plantanda. 
 
 Muhlenberg arrived in Pennsylvania sixty years after Wil- 
 liam Penn's first visit to his province. It is stated that about 
 
go LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the year 1688 there were in all the original twelve provinces 
 Georgia formed then a part of the Carolinas possibly two 
 hundred thousand white people. It is also stated that prior 
 to the year 1721 no less than fifty thousand foreigners, espe- 
 cially Germans, had emigrated to Pennsylvania. The condi- 
 tion of this province was a happy one. The relation with 
 the Indians, owing to the philanthropic spirit and the wise 
 tactics of Penn, continued a pleasant one for many years. 
 Troubles of a more serious character began in the years 
 1730-40. The war between England and Spain endangered 
 to some extent the peace and the progress of the English 
 colonies in America. In 1744 war was declared between 
 England and France. The French claimed possession of 
 Canada as New France, and made effectual efforts to estab- 
 lish themselves on the Ohio and Alleghany Rivers. Both 
 English and French endeavored to make allies of the Indians, 
 and each sought to buy their services. In Pennsylvania the 
 Indians felt themselves wronged by the manner in which on 
 some occasions they were treated. When they became trou- 
 blesome, preparations to defend the province in case of need 
 seemed necessary. Eastern Pennsylvania was then settled 
 to a considerable extent. Towns were building west of the 
 Susquehanna in the direction of the present Adams county, 
 toward the Maryland frontier. The question concerning the 
 boundary-line between Maryland and Pennsylvania during 
 the years 1730-40 had caused bloody conflicts and legal dif- 
 ficulties. It was not finally settled until 1763 by the royal 
 engineers Mason and Dixon, whose name it still bears. Lan- 
 caster county, formerly belonging to Chester county, was 
 organized into a separate district in 1729, and Lancaster city 
 was begun in the following year. A short time afterward 
 settlers were found near the Susquehanna in the direction of 
 the present capital of the State. It is a well-known fact that 
 immigrants coming from the shores of the Hudson and the 
 Schoharie Rivers in the province of New York had occupied 
 lands watered by the Swatara and the Tulpehoken. Settle- 
 ments, especially of Germans, were found before the middle of 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. gi 
 
 the last century in the districts adjoining the Schuylkill, the Le- 
 high, and the Delaware Rivers and their tributaries in South- 
 western Pennsylvania. There was some sort of a road then 
 between the Upper Delaware and the Hudson and terminat- 
 ing near Kingston. Of course roads were in those days gen- 
 erally of a very primitive character. There were no bridges 
 spanning the rivers, but here and there privileged ferries, and 
 farmers were obliged often to travel many miles to find a mill. 
 During the winter communication between New York, Phila- 
 delphia, and Baltimore ceased sometimes through weeks. 
 
 When William Penn came up in a boat from Upland 
 which name he changed into Chester and landed, Oct. 27, 
 1682, where now Philadelphia stands, he found there, on land 
 bought from some Swedish settlers, a few very primitive 
 houses. Some settlers even at a later time took refuge in the 
 caves which had been dug out at a much earlier period by 
 Indians in the high embankments of the Delaware. All the 
 land was covered with primeval forest. Horses lost in the 
 thicket were sometimes not found for many days. It is said 
 that in 1685, Philadelphia numbered some hundreds of houses 
 and a corresponding population, consisting essentially of 
 Quakers. In 1683, Germans under the leadership of Francis 
 Daniel Pastorius laid the foundation of Germantown. In Phil- 
 adelphia a school was opened in the same year; in 1686, Brad- 
 ford first used his printing-press. The first paper-mill was 
 erected at Wissahickon, near Philadelphia, in 1690 by Ritting- 
 huysen, the father of the celebrated astronomer. The State- 
 House now better known as Independence Hall was erected 
 between 1729-73, but was without its tower when Miihlen- 
 berg arrived. At that time the streets of the city were not 
 yet paved. Systematic efforts in this, direction did not begin 
 before 1753. Westward the more fully built-up parts of the 
 town extended to Fifth street between Mulberry and Wal- 
 nut streets, while here and there, at greater distances, some 
 houses were found in other directions. At that time the 
 town contained about thirteen thousand inhabitants, and 
 could hardly be considered what we now call a city. Yet 
 
92 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 it was in a commercial point of view then a much more im- 
 portant place than New York. 
 
 The administration of public affairs in Pennsylvania was 
 from Penn's time essentially in the hands of Quakers. They 
 formed largely the council of the lieutenant-governor and 
 greatly predominated in the Assembly, and during times of 
 peace the Quaker government, though not of a progressive 
 character, was on the whole satisfactory. It was economical 
 and honest. The interests of the governor, who was a repre- 
 sentative not only of the Proprietaries, but also of the English 
 Crown, naturally did not always coincide with those of the 
 Quakers, and the relation between the two authorities had 
 for some time not been of a pleasant character. But when 
 the clouds of war arose on the provincial horizon the princi- 
 ples maintained on each side came into serious conflict. 
 
 In May, 1746, the government in England thought the con- 
 quest of Canada indispensably necessary for the security of 
 its possessions in America. The American provinces were 
 expected to send their quota of soldiers for this purpose. 
 Anything directly in aid of warlike preparations the Penn- 
 sylvania Quaker Assembly, true to their moral and religious 
 principles, positively refused. After considerable delay, under 
 the pressure of popular excitement, these non-resistants in the 
 previous year had voted " four thousand pounds to John Pole 
 and John Mifflin, trustees, to be laid out for purchase of bread, 
 meat, wheat, flour, and other grain for the king's service, as 
 the governor shall think best." The governor took the " other 
 grain" in the sense of gunpowder. But when, in 1747, Span- 
 ish and French privateers entered the Delaware, took some 
 prizes, and threatened the houses, villages, and towns on the 
 shores, and the majority of the Quakers in the Assembly 
 again refused to take decisive measures of defence, the Quaker 
 policy and regime in Pennsylvania could not much longer 
 escape their doom. Other elements, best represented by Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, by and by moved into the foreground. 
 
 The population of Pennsylvania was at that time a very 
 mixed one. There were Swedes, found in West Jersey, but 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 93 
 
 also on the shores of Pennsylvania along the Delaware from 
 Trenton down to the " Lower Counties," now forming the 
 State of Delaware, and Swedes had settled on the Neshaminy 
 and had passed up the Schuylkill as far as the present Potts- 
 town and the Manatawny Creek, and some miles above it. 
 The Quakers of England were strongly represented in the 
 neighborhood of Philadelphia, in Chester and Bucks coun- 
 ties, and in the present State of Delaware. Immigrants from 
 Wales were found in divers localities, especially as servants 
 or tenants of owners of large tracts of landed estates. Other 
 representatives of the English dominion, especially Scotch- 
 Irish, were about the middle of the last century settled west 
 of the Susquehanna, toward the frontiers of Maryland, and in 
 the western portions of the present Lancaster county and in 
 neighboring parts. Exceedingly strong in South-eastern 
 Pennsylvania was the German and Swiss- German element. 
 It was intermixed with a sprinkling of French Huguenots, 
 who, on account of their being persecuted as Protestants, had 
 fled from France, and had first taken refuge in the Palatinate, 
 and then with the Palatines had emigrated to Pennsylvania. 
 Decidedly the strongest contribution of immigrants up to the 
 middle of the last century had come from Germany, and espe- 
 cially from the shores of the Upper Rhine and adjacent parts. 
 We read that in 1752 Pennsylvania had, out of one hundred 
 and ninety thousand white inhabitants, ninety thousand Ger- 
 mans. It is impossible to estimate the number of Indians 
 and of colored people many of the latter slaves in those 
 times living in Pennsylvania. Three years later the white 
 population had increased, especially under the influence of 
 continuous and powerful immigration, to two hundred and 
 twenty thousand, the half of whom were Germans. Some 
 individuals belonging to the English stock felt considerable 
 concern about this increasing percentage of the German ele- 
 ment in Pennsylvania. There was no cause for alarm. Penn- 
 sylvania proved, as Penn had intended it, a refuge for those 
 who in Europe had suffered persecution on account of their 
 religious tenets. Here the Quakers of England and other 
 
94 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 dissenters found a peaceful home, and also the various shades 
 of Christian belief, which in those times, exclusive of the Ro- 
 manists, were represented by Reformed and by Lutherans, and 
 by parties opposed to both those traditional churches the 
 Mennonites and kindred fragments, the Inspired, the Schwenk- 
 felders, the Gichtelians, and others. At that time there 
 were in Pennsylvania about two thousand Romanists, and 
 also some Israelites. Numerically, the Lutherans were the 
 strongest party. While all these were of absorbing interest 
 to Miihlenberg, and opened to him a very extensive field for 
 missionary work, he had a direct and special call to three 
 congregations, and it was his first care to present himself to 
 these. 
 
 When he 'arrived in Philadelphia he had, as it appears, no 
 recommendation to any individual family or business-firm of 
 the city. This clearly indicates how little connection there 
 was at that time between the Old and the New Worlds. How- 
 ever, we think that it would not have been difficult in London 
 to have procured for him an introduction to some one, which 
 might have been of value to him. As it was, he found himself 
 now a total stranger in Philadelphia. He had, probably at 
 Ebenezer, heard of a druggist, John Andr. Zwiefler, who had 
 settled in Philadelphia. After having deposited his baggage 
 in an English inn he inquired for him. Zwiefler, whose native 
 country was Hungary, had reached Georgia in 1734 with the 
 first Salzburger " transport ;" for a time served the Ebenezer 
 people as physician and druggist; Sept. 6, 1736, declared his 
 intention of returning to Europe ; lost his wife Oct. 6th of the 
 same year, her constitution having been ruined by long-con- 
 tinued fevers; Feb. 20, 1737, for the last time partook of the 
 Lord's Supper at Ebenezer ; left there March 7th ; passed 
 through Charleston ; came to Philadelphia ; and was found 
 here by Miihlenberg, Nov. 25, 1742, a member of the Mora- 
 vian congregation organized there the same year by Count 
 von Thurnstein, alias Count von Zinzendorf. The count had 
 arrived in November, 1741, in New York, and on the 24th 
 of the same month in Philadelphia. Here he had introduced 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 95 
 
 himself as having ecclesiastical authority over the Lutherans 
 in the province, and had influenced a number of German 
 Lutherans, who were without a pastor, to give him a call to 
 their congregation. The call was in Zwiefler's handwriting. 
 Miihlenberg was kindly received by this man, and in answer 
 to his inquiries about the German Lutherans was informed 
 that the most spiritual, and indeed the majority of them at Phil- 
 adelphia, had joined Zinzendorf, and that the rest of them had 
 given a call to a certain old preacher, John Valentin Kraft, 
 who, after having been dismissed from his charge in the duke- 
 dom of Zweibriicken in Germany, had come hither. Such news 
 was not encouraging to Muhlenberg, and could hardly induce 
 him to begin his operations at Philadelphia, where the Ger- 
 man Lutheran elements were already absorbed by two com- 
 petitors. We remember that of Zinzendorf 's efforts to change 
 the German Lutherans at Philadelphia into Moravians, Muhl- 
 enberg had received some knowledge on his second visit to 
 Charleston, S. C. He was, however, by no means willing to 
 give this part of the field of labor to which he had been called 
 into the hands of others. He rented a room in the house in 
 which Zwiefler lived, since no other could be found, and re- 
 turned to the English inn where he had first entered, and 
 inquired of the innkeeper about New Providence and New 
 Hanover, the two congregations which, together with Phil- 
 adelphia, had sent petitions for a pastor to Europe. The inn- 
 keeper, not knowing those localities, called in a German from 
 the country who was there at that time, but had his residence 
 at New Hanover. His name was Philipp Brandt. He told 
 Muhlenberg that it was useless to inquire about those places 
 with those names, since New Providence was much better 
 known by the name of Trappe, and New Hanover under that 
 of Falkner Swamp. He also gave information of the fact that 
 the Lutherans at the latter locality had " hired " as a preacher 
 N. Schmidt, whose profession was that of a quack doctor and 
 dentist : the latter branch was in those days essentially re- 
 stricted to pulling teeth in some way or another. Brandt 
 intended the same evening to return to his home, in spite of 
 
96 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the distressing condition of the roads. Miihlenberg had his 
 baggage transferred to his rented room, and though, in con- 
 sequence of the suffering during the sea-voyage from Charles- 
 ton, still enfeebled and swollen, set out on a hired horse 
 with Brandt, and lodged over night with a German inn- 
 keeper ten miles from Philadelphia, where some Germans, 
 in conversation with each other, said that "the old parson, 
 Valentin Kraft, had been accepted at Philadelphia, German- 
 town, and Trappe." 
 
 Friday, Nov. 26th, Miihlenberg and Brandt continued their 
 journey in company with some other Germans. They were 
 obliged to cross two creeks, Schippach and Perkiomen. From 
 the latter, which was so swollen that Miihlenberg's small and 
 feeble horse sank in up to the breast, he extricated himself, 
 though not without danger to life and limb. He was then, 
 at the beginning of his missionary career in Pennsylvania, 
 reminded of a frequent saying of good old Pastor Sommer 
 of Schortritz in Anhalt : Credo Providentiam. Riding along 
 ten miles farther in the dark night, Miihlenberg and Brandt 
 arrived at the latter's house in New Hanover, where Miihlen- 
 berg met with a kind reception and was hospitably provided 
 for a special blessing, since he had contracted a severe 
 catarrhal fever. On the following morning Brandt took 
 him still farther into the country, to one of the deacons, 
 where in the afternoon four elders and two deacons held a 
 meeting. Brandt read to them the letter of Ziegenhagen. 
 He had received in Germany a commercial education, was 
 well informed in matters of religion, and led a good Chris- 
 tian life in humble circumstances until, under the kind spir- 
 itual care of Miihlenberg, after protracteof sickness, he de- 
 parted in peace, having attained to somewhat more than 
 fifty years. Some of the men assembled on that occasion 
 said that Schmidt's services were already engaged, but that 
 they would not oppose Miihlenberg, neither show disrespect 
 to Ziegenhagen's letter, provided the members of the congre- 
 gation were satisfied. They thought, however, that one pastor 
 couid not well serve the three congregations, New Hanover 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 97 
 
 being thirty-six miles distant from Philadelphia, the roads in 
 winter very bad, and two creeks increasing the difficulty. 
 Others thought that Miihlenberg should .come to an under- 
 standing with Kraft, so that Kraft should serve Philadelphia 
 and the neighboring Germantown Miihlenberg, New Provi-' 
 dence and New Hanover, or vice versa. Miihlenberg said 
 that his call excluded Germantown, and was directed to the 
 three other congregations as long as they did not refuse him. 
 They saw a difficulty in the connection already formed 
 between Kraft and the congregations at Philadelphia, Ger- 
 mantown, and New Providence. Miihlenberg, allowing things 
 to rest for the present moment, asked that he might be per- 
 mitted to preach the following day, the first Sunday in 
 Advent, and that Schmidt also should be notified. He closed 
 the meeting with prayer, and remained in the deacon's house, 
 where he learned through private conversation that the con- 
 gregation was in a confused, dismembered condition. Some 
 were attached to Schmidt, others had separated themselves 
 from it on his account; some had withdrawn from the congre- 
 gation at an earlier period, and were unwilling to have any- 
 thing to do with churches or parsons; some had acceded to 
 Zinzendorf's new arrangements, and many others had lost 
 all faith. " Poor consolation !" exclaims Miihlenberg in his 
 diary. It required courage and faithfulness under this first 
 experience in the field of labor to which he was called to tri- 
 umph over the difficulties. 
 
 On the following day a number of people came to the dea- 
 con's hduse, where a Jew kept a store, and began to traffic and 
 to barter without the least regard for the sanctity of the day. 
 The Jew was involved in a difficulty with a cabinetmaker, a 
 member of the congregation, and the matter was expected to 
 end in a lawsuit. Miihlenberg acted as a peacemaker. His 
 efforts to reconcile them were crowned with success, and they 
 forgave each other, as they said, " out of love for him." To 
 the Jew, Miihlenberg gave a special lesson on account of his 
 offensive language, but he suggested that Miihlenberg did not 
 yet know the manners of this country. 
 7 
 
98 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 At 9 A. M. Miihlenberg, with the deacon, rode on horseback 
 to the church, a log building not finished within. Men and 
 women came to the place of worship on horseback. Schmidt 
 also came, and took his seat with Miihlenberg, who unreserved- 
 ly told him that he now intended to preach an inaugural ser- 
 mon, with the view of relieving Schmidt of his office. Schmidt 
 behaved politely, and said that he did not intend to offer any 
 objections. Miihlenberg's text was 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. The 
 remembrance that just a year before he had preached his 
 farewell sermon at Grosshennersdorf peculiarly affected his 
 feelings. 
 
 After the service Miihlenberg read to the congregation the 
 call and instructions he had received from Ziegenhagen, as 
 the elders and deacons had requested. In the afternoon, as 
 different members of the congregation came as visitors, he 
 had an opportunity of speaking with them on diverse subjects 
 referring to their spiritual life and the condition of the con- 
 gregation, and to learn the views of the people. Some were 
 glad, hoping that the congregation would now gradually be 
 brought into good order. Those attached to Schmidt sug- 
 gested that it would not be proper to discharge him alto- 
 gether, though he was not ordained and sometimes was given 
 to drinking, " yet not in an unchristian manner, since even 
 among the saints there were none without fault :" he might 
 be kept as an assistant and preach in the absence of the new 
 pastor. Others, who had long been separated, intended to 
 wait and to see what turn things would take, since they had 
 been deceived time and again : nobody knew, they maintained, 
 whether the letters were not Miihlenberg's own fabrication. 
 Some also had taken offence that in the call forty pounds ster- 
 ling were demanded as the yearly salary ; they viewed this as 
 an effort to settle on them in this manner a perpetual tax, and 
 would rather not entangle themselves. Miihlenberg, while 
 listening to all this, rejoiced that Providence had kept back 
 the beloved Boltzius, and saved that good man such a dis- 
 tressing and discouraging experience. Miihlenberg in his 
 peculiar way suggests in his diary that sea-sickness had 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 99 
 
 happily influenced his physical condition, but that now he 
 had taken moral emetics and felt their salutary effect. 
 
 Monday, Nov. 29th, Miihlenberg, accompanied by three 
 elders, paid a visit to New Providence, or Trappe, in a south- 
 ern direction nine miles distant from New Hanover, to meet 
 there the church-officers. With his companions he enjoyed 
 the hospitality of a truly Christian woman, the widow Schrack, 
 whose husband was one of the officers who had sent the peti- 
 tion for a pastor to Ziegenhagen, but had died during the pre- 
 ceding summer. The oldest officer then living was requested 
 to appear. Seeing the papers laid before him, he at once rec- 
 ognized Ziegenhagen's handwriting, and was glad that Miihl- 
 enberg had come. He said that as no answer had been given 
 to the last letter since 1739, they had lost hope, did not expect 
 that a pastor would be sent, and had petitioned for one to the 
 consistory of the church of Hesse-Darmstadt that a short 
 time before an old preacher, Valentin Kraft, arrived, and main- 
 tained that the consistory had sent him, though he brought no 
 testimonials, but said that they would be sent. There were also 
 some people here who had known Kraft as a pastor in Ger- 
 many. It was the opinion of this officer that Miihlenberg 
 should converse with the Rev. Kraft, and should serve either 
 the congregations at Philadelphia and Germantown or the 
 two farther up in the country. Miihlenberg left matters un- 
 decided. 
 
 Tuesday, Nov. 3Oth, at 7 p. M., he again arrived at Philadel- 
 phia. Entering an English inn to pay for the horse he had 
 hired, he was addressed by a number of gentlemen assembled 
 in a large room with the question whether he were a Moravian 
 or a Lutheran or a Presbyterian or a Church (Episcopal) minis- 
 ter. When -they received the answer that they should first 
 learn better manners, and not address such questions to a 
 stranger, they apologized. On the following day a deacon 
 of New Providence, who had accompanied him, took Miihl- 
 enberg to a German inn, there to pay his respects to Rev. 
 Kraft. In the presence of some Germans, Kraft reprimanded 
 Muhlenberg for having on the day of his arrival gone to the 
 
100 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 country without seeing himself, but with a patronizing air 
 added that he would be able to assist him and to put him into 
 a place for which he would be best suited. Miihlenberg held 
 his peace for the present. Kraft continued to enlarge upon 
 his travels through the country, his establishment of a general 
 and of a special presbytery, his appointment here and there of 
 elders and deacons, of a consistory organized and to be pre- 
 sided over by him. Miihlenberg says that this man enjoyed 
 then a considerable respect, since the poor, ignorant Luther- 
 ans on the one hand were harassed by the Moravians, and on 
 the other were overawed by Kraft's impudent boasting. Kraft 
 even added that he had already reported his ecclesiastical 
 arrangements through an honest man, Thomas Mayer, to the 
 consistory of Hesse-Darmstadt, and expected to have them 
 confirmed. Muhlenberg, desirous of showing the letter of 
 Ziegenhagen to the elders and deacons of the Lutheran con- 
 gregation at Philadelphia, was informed that all was subject 
 to Kraft's direction, and that the reading of that letter could 
 only take place with his consent. Kraft in the afternoon even 
 sent for two of his special presbytery and read to them Zie- 
 genhagen's letter, again asserting with pretended official dig- 
 nity that he would place Muhlenberg where it might be neces- 
 sary. The man's whole behavior was reckoned by Muhlen- 
 berg among the " moral emetics." Before all those present on 
 the occasion he declared that from the directions which were 
 given to him in Europe he would not deviate, and in case 
 the three congregations to which he had been sent would 
 not accept him, he would be obliged to get permission of his 
 superiors to take charge of others. This made a perceptible 
 impression upon Kraft. He ordered the two members of his 
 special presbytery to make arrangements that on the follow- 
 ing Sunday, the second Sunday in Advent, while he would 
 attend to public services in Germantown, Muhlenberg should 
 preach at Philadelphia in the old butcher-shop which Luther- 
 ans and Reformed had rented to hold their services there alter- 
 nately. Finally, Kraft informed Muhlenberg that a respect- 
 able Swedish merchant, Peter Kock, expected both of them 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENbEllti, '.**! -- 16 
 
 on the following day to take dinner with him. Kock had 
 heard of Miihlenberg from Captain Child, whose sloop had 
 brought him from Charleston. 
 
 On the following day Kraft called at Muhlenberg's lodg- 
 ings to escort him to Kock's house. He advised him to be 
 quite merry, lest Kock might suspect him of Pietism; he 
 also intimated that many thought he was secretly a Mora- 
 vian. During dinner the conversation turned upon ecclesi- 
 astical subjects. The merry-making of Miihlenberg consisted 
 in his presenting to his host, who was an intelligent man and 
 a patron of Lutheranism, the writings of Ziegenhagen an 
 act pleasing to Kock, but not at all to Kraft. Kock rejoiced 
 in Muhlenberg's safe arrival, and requested him on the next 
 Sunday to preach a German sermon in the Swedish Lutheran 
 church, vacant since the death of the pastor, Rev. John Dy- 
 lander, who departed this life Nov. 2, 1741. Since Miihlen- 
 berg had already promised to preach in the other building, it 
 was arranged that in the afternoon he should officiate in the 
 Swedish church. On the following day he was invited to a 
 German sugar-refiner's, an intimate friend of Kock's and a de- 
 vout Lutheran, who was opposed to Zinzendorf s plans and 
 to Kraft's presbyteries, but was much pleased with Ziegen- 
 hagen's letters. This man was Henry Schleydorn, formerly 
 of New York, who at that time was one of the few members 
 of the German Lutheran congregation who were not living 
 in poverty. He was highly respected among his brethren 
 in the faith. 
 
 December 5th, the second Sunday in Advent, Miihlenberg 
 preached his first sermon in Philadelphia. He had, as may be 
 expected, a large audience there and in the Swedish church, 
 where he preached in the afternoon. The meeting-house of 
 the Germans was in Mulberry (now Arch) street near Fifth, 
 in the northern part of the city as it then was. The Swedish 
 church was beyond the southernmost limit of the then built- 
 up part of the city. This sermon gave the German Lutherans 
 in Philadelphia an opportunity to know and understand 
 what sort of a man had now appeared among them to take 
 
102 > - LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 care of their spiritual interests. Kraft found it opportune to 
 persuade Miihlenberg to join his consistory, of which he had 
 appointed the Rev. John Caspar Stoever a member ; he also 
 intended to ordain a worthless German schoolmaster as a 
 pastor. In the presence of witnesses Miihlenberg begged 
 to be excused, and advised Kraft to desist from his plans, 
 which were nothing but empty pretences. It could not escape 
 Kraft's observation that all intelligent people recognized the 
 legitimacy of Muhlenberg's call. He therefore tried various 
 ways to bring about some sort of an official connection with 
 him. He advocated a division of labor between the city 
 and the congregations in the country. He also offered, in 
 a patronizing manner, to introduce him at Lancaster and at 
 other places. Meanwhile, he continued to perform pastoral 
 duties in the Philadelphia congregation, sent directions con- 
 cerning divine services to the country congregations, forced 
 himself upon Miihlenberg as his companion when, on Satur- 
 day, Dec. nth, Miihlenberg again went to New Providence, 
 and exhibited on the road the disgusting meanness of his 
 character by his manner of associating with individuals of 
 his stamp. When Miihlenberg preached there the first time, 
 Dec. 1 2th, in a barn which then had to serve as a church, 
 Kraft read the letter of Ziegenhagen, which was received by 
 the people with joy, and tried his best to recommend Miihl- 
 enberg in the strongest terms, simply with the intention of 
 keeping him away from Philadelphia. 
 
 Miihlenberg found in that neighborhood individuals who 
 had received good Christian instruction in Hesse-Darmstadt, 
 their native province. Some of them came to see him in the 
 evening and engaged in edifying conversation. On Monday, 
 Kraft left for New Hanover, to continue there his machina- 
 tions before the arrival of Miihlenberg, who followed in the 
 evening, and learned that Kraft had now made himself busy 
 about procuring a wife for him. Things had reached a climax. 
 On the following day Miihlenberg was requested to baptize 
 a child of one of the members of the congregation. Here 
 also Kraft proved very officious, made arrangements, and gave 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 103 
 
 orders. Leaving Muhlenberg in the house, he addressed the 
 elders, deacons, and other members assembled outside, tell- 
 ing them that he had introduced this new pastor because 
 he wished them to be well provided for, and that now they 
 should keep him and take care of him and give him suitable 
 lodgings ; also, that he intended to unite another congrega- 
 tion, eight miles higher up in the country, with this one : if 
 the people here would not thankfully take Miihlenberg, he 
 would at once take him to Lancaster and there install him as 
 a pastor. These boasts of Kraft produced some commotion, 
 and some of the elders and deacons asked Muhlenberg what 
 the meaning of all this was whether the old man Kraft were 
 his superior, whether the call framed by Court-preacher Zie- 
 genhagen were not genuine. The time had come when Muhl- 
 enberg could spare Kraft no longer. He now read his call 
 again to the assembled people, and proved that he was in- 
 tended as pastor of Philadelphia, New Providence, and New 
 Hanover. To his question whether they gave their consent 
 to it, they responded with a unanimous Ay. Continuing, he 
 told them that with Kraft he had no connection whatever, 
 that Kraft had no authority over him save the one he assumed 
 illegitimately, and that he could not place him at Lancaster 
 or any other locality. In reply to this decisive declaration 
 of independence, Kraft endeavored to excuse himself and to 
 smooth things over. The people were glad, and the elders 
 took Muhlenberg to a member of the congregation who up 
 to this time had, on account of the prevailing disorders, kept 
 aloof from its affairs, but now, hoping better things, was 
 willing to reunite with the church, and offered Muhlenberg a 
 sort of booth attached to his house where he could study and 
 sleep, but not walk about, as it was not much larger than the 
 cabin on the Charleston sloop or the tub of Diogenes. The 
 elders thought Muhlenberg might say farewell to Philadelphia, 
 since it was too distant. To this proposition he did not con- 
 sent, since that city was included in his call. They desired him 
 at once to stay with them for a time, because there were some 
 who after Muhlenberg's first sermon had demanded during his 
 
IO4 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 absence that Schmidt should again preach to them ; to which 
 Schmidt had consented on condition that they would obtain 
 for him Miihlenberg's permission in writing. This moved 
 Muhlenberg to stay and to preach the following Sunday. 
 
 After having taken a survey of his new habitation, Muhl- 
 enberg held a private conversation with Kraft. He censured 
 him severely because he had done great wrong, and had in- 
 deed not taken the right road to do credit to the Lutheran 
 cause. Kraft, knowing that he could no longer figure there, 
 departed, Dec. I5th, for Lancaster. The following day, Thurs- 
 day, Muhlenberg moved to his lodgings, and thanked God that 
 here he could be by himself, collect his mind, and meditate. 
 
 And now his pastoral work began. Visitors came, among 
 them some who were in a suitable spiritual condition ; others 
 who thought that in his sermons he should tell the truth to 
 their neighbors. Sunday, Dec. iQth, he preached before a large 
 assembly, many having come from the surrounding country ^ 
 and afterward baptized, and, since many opposed baptism, and 
 especially paedobaptism, he took occasion to explain the mean- 
 ing of it and to remind many of their own baptismal covenant. 
 Directly after the close of the exercises, having announced 
 that service would be held on Christmas, he went on horseback 
 to New Providence, and there preached, to a large assembly 
 gathered in and around the barn, on the Epistle of the day ? 
 the last Sunday in Advent. He found the people very atten- 
 tive. With some of them he engaged in the evening in 
 conversation on spiritual matters. The people seemed to be 
 desirous of hearing the word of God. 
 
 Monday, Dec. 2Oth, one of the officers of the New Han- 
 over congregation came to take Muhlenberg back to that 
 place. By direction of Kraft it had been announced at 
 Philadelphia that on Christmas the Lord's Supper would 
 be there administered to the congregation. Muhlenberg, 
 however, considering the relation now existing between him 
 and the New Hanover and New Providence congregations, 
 thought it proper to celebrate Christmas with those who had 
 accepted him, and not with the Philadelphia Lutherans, who 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 105 
 
 had not taken any steps in that direction. Having arrived at 
 Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, he informed Peter Kock 
 and other friends of these circumstances and of his resolu- 
 tion. These friends, feeling embarrassed, blamed the officers 
 of the Philadelphia congregation that they had not paid more 
 respect to Miihlenberg's call. These officers were reproached 
 also by different members of the congregation when Mlihlen- 
 berg insisted on it that the proposition to hold the Lord's 
 Supper on Christmas was an arrangement of Kraft's, whose 
 claims upon them they had acknowledged, while he could 
 spend Christmas only with those whom he could call his own. 
 Assenting, however, to the advice of Kock and other friends, 
 he promised to come again to the city on the third day after 
 Christmas to preach in the Swedish church, and there to have 
 the documents connected with his call examined before the 
 people in the presence of the Swedish pastor, Rev. Peter 
 Tranberg, then serving the congregation at Christina, now 
 Wilmington, Del. On the evening of the same day, Kraft, 
 having returned to the city, hearing of the state of affairs, 
 became very indignant and used harsh words and various 
 threats. Miihlenberg told him his fault lay in having assumed 
 official duties which he was not entitled to perform ; he also 
 invited him to come on the third day after Christmas to the 
 Swedish church, where they could compare their respective 
 credentials as pastors. On the following morning Kraft also 
 treated roughly Muhlenberg's companion, an officer of New 
 Providence, who up to that time had been kindly inclined to 
 Kraft. Miihlenberg with his companion left for New Provi- 
 dence. On Friday, Dec. 24th, he arrived at New Hanover. 
 Here he preached on Christmas to a large assembly, two 
 officers of the New Providence congregation being present. 
 After preparatory services, confession, and absolution he 
 also administered the Lord's Supper to one hundred or more 
 communicants. In the evening of the same day the elders 
 and deacons of both congregations met and gave their signa- 
 tures to the following document viz. : " We, the elders and 
 deacons of the Protestant Lutheran congregations at New 
 
106 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Hanover and Providence, do testify and affirm by subscription 
 that we have accepted with a thankful heart the Rev. Henry 
 Melchior Miihlenberg as a lawfully-called and ordained minis- 
 ter of the gospel, and through our supplications sent by the 
 Rev. Frederick Michael Ziegenhagen, His Majesty's German 
 chaplain and member of the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge ; and promise to provide our minister with the ne- 
 cessaries required for his living in his lawful vocation, and to 
 assist him in every good disposition and direction which he 
 gives for our and our children's spiritual welfare, etc. Dec. 25th, 
 1742. Deacons and elders of New Hanover: Christopher 
 Withmann, Matthias Ringer, Peter Conrad, Valentine Geiger, 
 Jacob Aister,* Martin Keblinger, George Jiirger; deacons and 
 elders of Providence: John Nicol. Groessmann, Frederick 
 Marsteller, John Geo. Beuter, Nicolaus Bittel, Geo. Groess- 
 man, Jacob Miiller, John Geo. Groessmann the saddler." 
 
 In his diary Muhlenberg says that in the document then 
 and there subscribed to there was also a section wherein these 
 representatives of the congregations promised that they would 
 permit no man who could not show a regular call and ordina- 
 tion, according to Article XIV. of the Augsburg Confession, 
 publicly to preach or to adminster the sacraments in their 
 congregations. 
 
 On Sunday, Dec. 26th, after having preached to a large 
 assembly in the barn during a great storm, he went with 
 Frederick Marsteller, who, as well as his family, through 
 many years proved a faithful friend, to this officer's house, 
 and on the following morning rode on " bad roads " to Phila- 
 delphia. Near the city he met the " old Herr Kraft," who 
 was going into the country, though he was specially invited 
 to be present in the Swedish church, about a mile and a 
 half distant from the centre of the city. There Muhlenberg 
 met in the afternoon Rev. P. Tranberg, Peter Kock, and H. 
 Schleydorn, who had a country-seat in the neighborhood of 
 Germantown, and by whose advice some members of the 
 
 *An ancestor of the Rev. H. E. Jacobs, D. D., professor in the Theological 
 Seminary of the Lutheran Church at Philadelphia. 
 
HENRY ME LC HI OR MUHLENBERG. 1 07 
 
 Lutheran congregation at that place had come with the hope 
 that Miihlenberg would, to some extent at least, serve them 
 also. He told them that he was not unwilling to serve both 
 Philadelphia and Germantown, provided he could find an 
 assistant who would take care of the other congregations. 
 
 After preaching a short sermon he was requested by the 
 Rev. Tranberg, who stood before the altar, to show his cre- 
 dentials. Tranberg read to the assembly the letter and the 
 call given by Ziegenhagen, the certificate of ordination at 
 Leipsic, the matriculation certificate and testimonials of Got- 
 tingen University, and the documents subscribed by the 
 church-officers of Providence and New Hanover. He gave 
 also suitable explanations in the English language, as he 
 was not very ready in the German, though he occasionally 
 preached to the German Lutherans in their native tongue. 
 Having arrived in this country in 1726, he had served Swe- 
 dish congregations in Pennsneck and Raccoon, N. J., and 
 then accepted a call to Christina in 1741. He died sud- 
 denly at a funeral at Pennsneck, Nov. 8, 1748. On this 
 occasion, at the Swedish or Wicaco church at Philadelphia, 
 at the conclusion of his remarks he asked the officers of the 
 German church whether they acknowledged Miihlenberg's 
 call and ordination as genuine. To this the elders and some 
 others, considering the question hardly necessary, without 
 direct answer replied that they had as much share in that 
 call and mission as the congregations at New Hanover and 
 Providence, and in answer to a question of Kock also said 
 that they never had either accepted Kraft as a pastor or given 
 him a call ; and then with glad faces they pressed forward, 
 gave Miihlenberg and Tranberg their right hands, and in this 
 manner on their part confirmed the call as the other united 
 congregations had done. 
 
 When, on the following day, Miihlenberg paid his respects 
 to Governor Thomas, he was kindly received, and, having seen 
 the official documents and credentials of Miihlenberg, given 
 in Latin and in English, since he did not understand German, 
 the governor gave promises of assistance, while some unpleas- 
 
IO8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ant remarks which His Excellency at such a very wrong 
 place and time allowed himself to make concerning the Ger- 
 mans were answered very happily and the visit brought to 
 an end. Miihlenberg called also on the commissary of the 
 Anglican Church in Pennsylvania, at that time the Rev. Rob. 
 Jenney, LL.D., who after the death of his predecessor in the 
 office, the Rev. Archibald Cummings (died April 17, 1741), 
 for a time performed the functions of the office, but Jan. 4, 
 1743, was formally appointed its incumbent by the l,ord bishop 
 of London, under whose care the congregations and presbyters 
 in the American colonies were. Rev. Jenney hoped that his 
 relations with Miihlenberg would be as pleasant as they had 
 at all times been with the Swedish missionaries. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 109 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1742 (continued']. 
 
 Count Zinzendorf in Philadelphia. Moravian emissaries and settlers in Pennsyl- 
 vania. Bethlehem. The nine conferences in Pennsylvania. The German 
 Lutherans in Philadelphia before Zinzendorf s arrival. Rev. Jac. Fabricius. 
 Rev. J. Chr. Schultze. Rev. J. C. Stoever. Zinzendorf and the German Lu- 
 theran congregation at Philadelphia. Rev. J. Chr. Pyrlaeus. Rev. Pet. 
 Boehler. Muhlenberg meets Count Zinzendorf. 
 
 ONE great obstacle to Miihlenberg's activity and useful- 
 ness was removed when Kraft quitted the field of labor 
 to which Muhlenberg had a legitimate call. The unfortunate 
 Kraft, by his faults, unspiritual character, and loose habits, 
 stood in his own way, and, as we shall find hereafter, lost 
 his standing and influence wherever the necessities of the 
 times allowed him for a brief period to occupy the pulpit and 
 the pastoral field. But another antagonist, and one of a much 
 higher order as to character, talents, and means, Count Zin- 
 zendorf, had made inroads upon the Lutheran material in 
 Pennsylvania, and especially in Philadelphia. Here, adroitly 
 acting under a name assumed for this purpose, and an official 
 title to which he could make no legal claims, he had since the 
 beginning of the year 1742 toward the end of which year 
 Muhlenberg arrived in his peculiar way influenced the Lu- 
 therans and induced a portion of them to give him a " lach- 
 rymose " call, as he describes it. He had obtained possession 
 of the records, the sacred vessels, the keys to the money-box of 
 the congregation; and in all this, though undoubtedly intend- 
 ing to benefit spiritually those who trusted in him, by his doc- 
 trines and methods which, especially at that period of his life, 
 were exceedingly extravagant and morbid he had taken ad- 
 
IIO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 vantage of the ignorance of the people no less than of their 
 desire for spiritual food, of which they, unfortunately, had been 
 in want for a long time. Zinzendorf had no call to the Lu- 
 therans. But through a number of years his emissaries had 
 informed him of the open field in Pennsylvania, and he knew 
 that an answer to the united petitions of these three congre- 
 gations had been given in writing, but that a pastor had not 
 been sent from Halle. Quite a number of Moravians arrived 
 in Pennsylvania as early as 1736 and 1737. Others came in 
 the following years, and settled at various points in the eastern 
 part of the province. Finally, in 1741 the foundations of 
 Bethlehem, the " American Herrnhut," were laid. Spangen- 
 berg, who became at a later period bishop and the restorer 
 of more sober and more sound principles and practices to his 
 brethren in the faith, arrived in Philadelphia county in April, 
 1736, to labor among the Schwenkfelders settled along the 
 Schippach : here David Nitschman, coming from Georgia, 
 had joined him for a short time " to ascertain the religious 
 condition of the German population." Consequently, Count 
 Zinzendorf was well informed as to the ecclesiastical and spirit- 
 ual state of the province, and in addition to this he felt a deep 
 concern for the conversion of the Indians. It is not to be denied 
 that in those years Zinzendorf and his adherents had taken 
 a decided position against the Lutheran Church, and against 
 the Pietist party in it no less than the orthodox conservative 
 wing. Yet Zinzendorf, when he arrived in Pennsylvania, took 
 the attitude of an inspector and supervisor of all the Lutheran 
 congregations in the province. Moravianism had already given 
 proof enough of being sui generis y and its leaders and members 
 were fully convinced that, compared with the existing churches, 
 they presented to the world a higher, a more spiritual, a more 
 apostolic, and a more perfect form of Christianity. Zinzen- 
 dorf introduced himself at Philadelphia as a Lutheran, but 
 it admits of no doubt that he was trying to do good by intro- 
 ducing there a form of faith and life in various respects not 
 Lutheran. Showing outwardly a certain indifference to de- 
 nominational distinctions, and endeavoring to bring all spir- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. \ 1 1 
 
 itual-minded members of different ecclesiastical bodies into a 
 certain higher union, of course he could not offer to them 
 anything better than his own peculiar views as they were 
 embodied in the Moravianism of those days. His efforts in 
 the North American colonies in this direction ended by add- 
 ing Moravianism to the then existing denominations. 
 
 Zinzendorf, after landing at New York, arrived Nov. 24, 
 1741, at Philadelphia, consequently just a year before Miihl- 
 enberg. He proceeded to Germantown, Schippach, New 
 Hanover; then to Bethlehem, Oley, and Ephrata, the seat 
 of the Seventh-day Dunkers. The emissaries of Herrnhut 
 had found access to families of diverse parties, and the way 
 was thus paved for him. Invitations to a general conference 
 composed of delegates of all Christian parties were sent out, 
 and the meeting was held in Germantown, in the house rented 
 by the count, Jan. I, 1742. These representatives of differ- 
 ent Christian parties did not meet in any official capacity. 
 Practically, this conference had as little effect as eight similar 
 ones held in Pennsylvania in 1742, though Zinzendorf tried 
 to attach great weight to them. We know that published 
 reports of them fell into the hands of Miihlenberg at Charles- 
 ton. During 1742, Zinzendorf made three missionary tours 
 to the Indians and preached at various localities. He brought 
 letters of recommendation from the bishop of London, but 
 was not permitted to preach in the Episcopal Christ Church 
 at Philadelphia. It cannot be said that the impression which 
 he generally made was an agreeable one. In spite of his 
 specious humility by a solemn act at Philadelphia he even 
 renounced his aristocratic titles and allowed himself to be 
 called Ludwig Nitschmann, or simply Brother Ludwig his 
 whole demeanor, with all its peculiarities, savored of arro- 
 gance ; and here in free Pennsylvania the people, and gener- 
 ally even sincere Christians, were not disposed to submit to 
 his personal views, feelings, and will. He was able by his 
 personal appearance, his preaching, and varied activity to 
 create occasionally a transient sensation. But the compara- 
 tively few whom he attached to himself and to his cause were, 
 
112 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 most of them, enthusiasts, servile, and of little mind and culture. 
 Some of his assistants, of whom a number made themselves 
 busy in Lutheran and in Reformed congregations in Pennsyl- 
 vania, created painful disturbances, and finally established 
 Moravian congregations. 
 
 When Zinzendorf arrived in Philadelphia there was cer- 
 tainly no German Lutheran pastor there. German Lutherans 
 had been there for years. It is reported that blind old Fabri- 
 cius, who had been pastor of the Dutch (Hollandish) Luther- 
 an church at New York, and from 1677 for fourteen years 
 officiated for the Swedish Lutherans at Philadelphia, had also 
 served in spiritual things the German Lutherans there. Ger- 
 mantown was begun by Germans alienated from the Luther- 
 an Church in 1683. It appears most probable that about that 
 time also some German Lutherans came to Pennsylvania and 
 landed at Philadelphia, and that some of them remained here. 
 We know that in 1703 a beginning of Lutheran congrega- 
 tional life was made in New Hanover. As to Philadelphia, it 
 is well known that the Swedish Lutheran pastors at the Wicaco 
 church occasionally preached to the German Lutherans in 
 Philadelphia. It is stated that the Rev. John Dylander, as 
 his duties permitted him, preached regularly to the German 
 Lutherans. When the Rev. J. Chr. Schultze came to Phila- 
 delphia in 1732, he certainly found at that time no organized 
 congregation of German Lutherans there. Rev. J. C. Stoever, 
 whom Schultze ordained before his return to Germany in 
 1733, began in Philadelphia, and also in a considerable num- 
 ber of other localities,- the first congregational records, and 
 without doubt performed services for the German Lutherans, 
 here as well as in other places, in his capacity as an itinerant 
 preacher. It is a fact that in 1735 a man, J. A. Langerfeld of 
 Halberstadt, who had studied at Halle, but was not ordained, 
 promised to hold public services every other Sunday for the 
 German Lutherans. How long he carried out his promise 
 we know not. It is possible that under J. C. Stoever there 
 was a certain organization, elders and deacons. Certain it is, 
 that Zinzendorf gave to the flock of German Lutherans which 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 113 
 
 he found at Philadelphia some sort of organization and con- 
 stitution, according to which essentially all power was in the 
 hands of the pastor, as he also, with some of his assistants, 
 organized a " consistory " at the same place. But we are safe 
 in saying that a regular, normal organization and congrega- 
 tional order was not established among the German Luther- 
 ans at Philadelphia before Miihlenberg. When he arrived the 
 Lutheran congregation was small in numbers, and among 
 them were at that time, with hardly any exception, no mem- 
 bers blessed with this world's goods or maintaining any high 
 rank in society. 
 
 On Christmas, 1741, Zinzendorf began to preach to the 
 German Lutherans at their meeting-house. He may have 
 been invited to do so by officers of the congregation, since 
 there was no pastor there, and the members would rather 
 hear a preacher than in the absence of one have a printed 
 sermon read to them. Every fourth Sunday the house was 
 open to the German Reformed, of whose pastor, the Rev. J. 
 Phil. Boehm, Zinzendorf had asked for permission to preach 
 there. When, about the end of the Lent season, he felt that 
 by his preaching the spiritual condition of the Lutheran flock 
 had advanced to a certain degree, on Easter Monday he cel- 
 ebrated the Lord's Supper with the congregation. The ser- 
 mons which he delivered at Philadelphia and at other localities 
 of Pennsylvania appeared in print in various editions. The 
 style is the German of those days, stiff, heavy, and frequently 
 intermixed with terms taken from the French. 'The peculiar 
 character of his theological views is strongly brought to light 
 by a sermon delivered at Germantown Dec. 20, 1741, on I 
 Tim. ii. 6. He there describes three form's of religion as pre- 
 sented in the Scriptures the first, the paternal economy in the 
 times of the patriarchs ; the second, the regal form, God's re- 
 lation to the people of Israel ; the third and only saving one, 
 the blood-religion, established by Christ. We willingly ac- 
 knowledge the count's religious fervor, his talent as a poet, 
 to which the Germans owe some excellent spiritual songs, and 
 as an organizer, for he gave his adherents a form for their 
 
114 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 society which up to this time proves a safeguard against dis- 
 solution. We also give him credit for the self-denying spirit 
 and the energy wherewith he in his way labored for the cause 
 of Christ. But the manner in which he dealt with some of 
 the fundamental truths of Christianity we cannot approve of, 
 and for his sermonizing, which in those days offered much 
 charm to many on both sides of the Atlantic, we have lost 
 the taste. 
 
 Intending to devote his time and strength to the mission 
 among the Indians, and to be free from official duties in a par- 
 ticular locality, June 6, 1742, the count delivered his farewell 
 sermon to the German Lutherans at Philadelphia. We know 
 that from the beginning of his activity among them there were 
 some who did not like his preaching nor his influence and 
 manners. His offers to serve them without receiving any 
 salary, and to erect a substantial house of worship, which he 
 fulfilled in the second half of the year 1742 in behalf of those 
 who clung to him, were calculated to silence the dissatisfac- 
 tion of some. When he discontinued his services in the old 
 meeting-house he put in his place the Rev. John Christopher 
 Pyrlaeus, born of Lutheran parents at Pausa in Saxony, 1713, 
 who in the years 1733-38 had studied theology at Leipsic, 
 and then attached himself to the Moravians. As a missionary 
 appointed by them Pyrlaeus came in 1740 to Pennsylvania, 
 was ordained at Oley, married July 10, 1742, Susan, youngest 
 daughter of Zinzendorf's host at Philadelphia, the merchant 
 John Stephen Benezet, and began to preach to the German 
 Lutherans. Like many in those days enthusiastically admir- 
 ing Zinzendorf, he on one occasion declared that he was as a 
 speck of dust to a mountain in comparison with the count. 
 Zinzendorf was used to such adulatory terms. Pyrlaeus had 
 no success in Philadelphia. The Lutherans were loath to 
 hear him preach. The Reformed, who were embittered 
 against Zinzendorf since he was reported to have said that 
 the Lutherans should no longer allow them to worship in 
 the same building, and had through one of his converts, the 
 Rev. J. Bechtel, formerly a mechanic, disturbed the congre- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 115 
 
 gation of the Rev. J. Ph. Boehm at Germantown, and been 
 engaged in a public controversy with this high-spirited gen- 
 tleman, took it upon themselves, July 18, 1742, forcibly, with 
 much noise and tumult, and certainly not without the consent 
 of the majority of German Lutherans, to drive Pyrlaeus from 
 the pulpit and out of the meeting-house. This lawless act 
 moved Zinzendorf at once to repair to Philadelphia to bring 
 the matter before the civil court, and to make an attempt him- 
 self to preach again in the same meeting-house. He met, 
 however, with such decisive opposition that he had to desist. 
 When his new church-building was finished his faithful ad- 
 herents worshipped in it not, however, as Lutherans, but as 
 Moravians. The book and other articles belonging to the 
 Lutheran congregation he obstinately retained, until by 
 decree of court they had to be restored to the Lutherans. 
 His total separation from the German Lutheran congrega- 
 tion at Philadelphia being accomplished, the congregation 
 was without a pastor. This condition of things gave Valen- 
 tin Kraft an opportunity soon after his arrival to palm him- 
 self as pastor upon the German Lutherans. 
 
 When Miihlenberg arrived here, Nov. 25th of the same 
 year, there existed, of course, no official relation whatever 
 between the German Lutheran congregation and Zinzendorf 
 and his adherents. But just then some legal questions were 
 in dispute between them. The position also of a number of 
 individuals and their relation to either of the two sides were 
 not settled. 
 
 Wednesday, Dec. 29th, Miihlenberg held the first meeting 
 with the elders and deacons of the congregation. One of 
 the deacons, who had joined the Moravian party, now returned 
 to -his former connection, and, with some other articles and a 
 book of church records, handed over the key to a chest con- 
 taining a trifling sum of money given in aid of needy mem- 
 bers. All the officers present, seven in number, now signed 
 the call to Miihlenberg. It was resolved that on the next 
 Sunday they should be presented to the congregation as its 
 lawfully constituted council. An eighth one was missing, a 
 
Il6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 brewer, who formerly had served the congregation as a leader 
 in singing and as a reader. He had followed Zinzendorf, and 
 was not expected to return, since, as was reported, he had 
 been installed in an office among the Moravians. 
 
 On the following day two deacons were sent to this brewer 
 to demand of him another book belonging to the vestry and 
 a copper cup which he had taken. He answered that he had 
 handed both of them to Zinzendorf. Before these two deacons 
 addressed him the count had sent the Rev. Peter Boehler to 
 Miihlenberg to inform him that " he thought it very strange 
 that Miihlenberg when in Philadelphia did not come to visit 
 him." Boehler was of Frankfort-on-the-Main, born 1712, had 
 studied theology at Jena, 1731-37, joined the Moravians, was 
 in the fall of 1737 ordained and sent as a pastor to the Mora- 
 vians settled in the vicinity of Savannah, Ga., and as a mis- 
 sionary to labor among the negro slaves. He led the Mora- 
 vians thence to Pennsylvania in April, 1740, and was for a 
 time living with them on the tract of land then belong- 
 ing to George Whitefield, but afterward sold to them. 
 From this sale arose the towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem. 
 Boehler returned, Jan., 1741, to Europe, and from there, June, 
 1742, to Pennsylvania with a colony of Moravians, accom- 
 panied Zinzendorf in September of that year on his tour to 
 the Indians on the Susquehanna, and for a time had charge 
 of English Moravians at Nazareth, and then at Philadelphia. 
 After Zinzendorf's return to Europe he was acting superin- 
 tendent of the Brethren's Church in America, until Spangen- 
 berg reappeared here in Nov., 1744. Boehler returned to 
 Europe, in his religious community was created a bishop, 
 paid two more visits to America, and was from 1764 active 
 in the Moravian service in Germany, England, and Ireland, 
 and died at London Apr. 27, 1775. 
 
 Boehler as an emjssary of Zinzendorf had visited Miihlen- 
 berg already on Dec. 8, 1742, and inquired about his inten- 
 tions. The close proximity of Grosshennersdorf to Herrnhut, 
 through which Miihlenberg once had passed in travelling, the 
 near relation between the count and the Baroness von Gers- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 1 1/ 
 
 dorf, and other circumstances make it extremely probable that 
 Zinzendorf knew of Miihlenberg before. After a short'discus- 
 sion of the respective principles governing each side, Boehler 
 finished by saying that Miihlenberg should have a conversa- 
 tion with the count. In the afternoon the count sent another 
 messenger, politely requesting a visit. Miihlenberg acceded to 
 the proposition, expecting to have a private interview, other- 
 wise he would have taken two church-officers with him as 
 witnesses. But he was led into a large hall where a multitude 
 of Zinzendorf's tools and workers were assembled, the count 
 presiding at a small table. Opposite to him Miihlenberg' was 
 requested to take a seat, and had to stand an " examen rigor- 
 osum." From Miihlenberg' s minute narrative of the whole 
 colloquy it appears that the count tried to impress Miihlenberg 
 with his higher social and official rank ; he also changed dur- 
 ing the conversation the form of his address from a more 
 polite style of etiquette to one which, while at that time it 
 was not directly offensive, served to place Miihlenberg, com- 
 pared with the count, in an inferior social situation. In Eng- 
 lish this change cannot be represented. As this meeting be- 
 tween these two remarkable men was the only one of which 
 we know and have a record, we give the conversation in full, 
 as we have it in the handwriting of Miihlenberg : 
 
 Count. On what conditions are you here ? 
 
 M'it/ilenberg. I have been called and sent here by the rever- 
 end the court-preacher Ziegenhagen in accordance with the 
 commission of the congregations. 
 
 C. What commission had Ziegenhagen ? 
 
 M. The three Lutheran congregations anxiously solicited 
 him for a number of years to send a pastor. The copies are 
 deposited in Providence, the letters in London; which, if 
 deemed necessary, may at any time be printed. 
 
 C. When did the congregations petition the last time ? 
 
 M. This I do not know ; it can be found in the copies. 
 
 C. You [here the count changes the form of his address, 
 using the term " Er" instead of " Sie "] must answer at once 
 when the last letter to Ziegenhagen was written. (To this 
 
Il8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the brewer and some other friends of the count's people as- 
 sented, but said the last letter may have been sent about 
 
 I/39-) 
 
 M. I am not in condition to answer this question just now. 
 Neither is it of any weight, for I am called, sent, and accepted. 
 The deacons and elders of the three congregations gave their 
 signature to a " recepisse." 
 
 C. Here in Philadelphia there are no officers of the Luther- 
 an congregation to give signatures. For before me here in 
 this place the officers of the Lutheran congregation are seated, 
 and there is no other Lutheran congregation or church be- 
 sides the one we have. Did you not see the church which we 
 lately erected ? 
 
 M. I know nothing of it, since I am convinced that I 
 preached to Lutherans and was accepted by them. 
 
 C. Those are not Lutherans, but rebels, disturbers of the 
 peace. And of such people you have become the head, and 
 preached to them in the house from which they expelled my 
 adjunct Pyrlaeus. The rebels must first come to us and beg 
 pardon. 
 
 M. My opinion, count, is that your people must first come 
 to us Lutherans and beg pardon for having broken the lock 
 off of our church and commenced the tumult. 
 
 C. This is not true. 
 
 M. This is quite true, for this is the very reason that both 
 parties are now involved in a lawsuit. 
 
 C. I know of no lawsuit. 
 
 M. Well, indeed, everybody does know what happened last 
 summer, July i8th. 
 
 C. Let us stick to the subject. At my last meeting with 
 Ziegenhagen I asked him about Pennsylvania. He answered 
 that he could not send any preacher, since the congregations 
 were not willing to determine the salary. As Ziegenhagen 
 knew that I was coming here, why did he send you ? 
 
 M. I am sent here to inquire into the condition of things 
 and to see whether order can be established. 
 
 C. Herr Ziegenhagen is an arch-liar and hypocrite. When 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 119 
 
 I am in his presence he is quite humble and submissive ; 
 when I am gone he uses his tongue and scolds. This is an- 
 other trick which he and Herr Francke are playing off on me. 
 I shall tell him of it when I reach London. 
 
 M. It is a shame to speak of the absent in such terms. I 
 have often heard in Germany that you are in the habit of 
 calling people L. L. L. [liars]. Now, how can I avoid be- 
 lieving it ? 
 
 C. I am informed that you read all my writings. Did you 
 not read that I had established a Lutheran consistory in 
 Philadelphia ? 
 
 M. I read in Charleston reports of seven conferences, and 
 learned that a certain Herr von Thurnstein had occasioned dis- 
 turbances at various places ; I did not know the Herr Count 
 had formed a Lutheran consistory. 
 
 C. Oh, these are Jesuitical tricks ! 
 
 M. I heard once in Germany that you were installed by a 
 Reformed preacher a Moravian bishop. How could you in 
 this capacity form a Lutheran consistory ? 
 
 C. I am inspector of all Lutheran congregations in Penn- 
 sylvania and Lutheran pastor in Philadelphia. I held synod- 
 ical meetings here in this city and in the country. I have 
 ordered pastors to some places, and one pastor, Caspar Stoever, 
 I have deposed. [J. C. Stoever's life was in those days cer- 
 tainly not without serious blemish, but Zinzendorf acted 
 with two of his adjuncts altogether as a self-appointed judge. 
 Stoever and his many adherents cared very little for his 
 decision.] 
 
 M. Can a Reformed preacher give such authority to you ? 
 
 C. Do you not understand the canonical law ? Do you not 
 know that in Wittenberg the highest dignitary of the Luther- 
 an Church is ordained by a Catholic? 
 
 M. But how is this, that you are sometimes a Moravian 
 bishop, sometimes an inspector and a Lutheran pastor? 
 
 C. In Holland in the presence of lords and princes I re- 
 signed my episcopal office. 
 
 M. You change frequently. 
 
I2O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 C. I have a call in writing from the Lutheran congregation 
 here in Philadelphia, as also my adjunct Pyrlaeus has. 
 
 M. Had your call the proper signatures ? 
 
 C. There is no need of this. 
 
 M. My call has them. I shall carry out my instructions. 
 If you find fault with this, you can settle it with my superiors 
 in Europe. 
 
 C. But is it not contrary to all fairness and decency that 
 after I have been so long in this country you should not have 
 come to visit me ? If you were sent to inquire into the con- 
 dition of things here, why did you not inquire into my affairs ? 
 Any one who hears that there is a consistory and an inspec- 
 tor in any place, even if the thing be illegal, should go and 
 try to inform himself. 
 
 M. If I, as a stranger, had called on you, you would not 
 have been present. I was told you had gone to the Indians. 
 One meets here with a good many parties. To call on all of 
 them would be impossible for me. To the Lutherans I am 
 sent, and with them I have work enough. 
 
 C, I am the Lutheran pastor ; why did you not come to 
 me? 
 
 M. I was not advised to do so, and I am not now. 
 
 C. Did Herr Ziegenhagen say that you should pass by the 
 inspector and Lutheran pastor ? 
 
 M. No, sir. This thing was not mentioned at all. Herr 
 Ziegenhagen did not know that there was an inspector and a 
 Lutheran pastor. 
 
 C. Did Herr Ziegenhagen not know that I was in Pennsyl- 
 vania ? 
 
 M. Yes, sir. 
 
 C. Do you not see now, from this, my brethren, that this 
 man contradicts himself and lies, since to the same thing he 
 says both yes and no ? (The whole brotherhood assented 
 with submissive bows.) 
 
 M. Herr Ziegenhagen knew well enough that Count Zin- 
 zendorf had gone to Pennsylvania. He did not know that, the 
 count intended to be a Lutheran inspector and pastor. 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 121 
 
 C. Did you not know that I was inspector and pastor ? 
 
 M. I heard in Germany that you went to Pennsylvania with 
 a definite intention. 
 
 C. What was that intention ? 
 
 M. You had certainly an intention. 
 
 C. Just speak out : what was it ? 
 
 M. I do not know. 
 
 C. Do you hear, brethren ? The man is insane. 
 
 M. Not so quick ! In your answer to the publication of 
 Ad. Gross you say at the conclusion, " Brethren, I am now 
 going to Pennsylvania ; pray the Saviour to reveal to you my 
 intention." Consequently, who can know what your purposed 
 intention was ? 
 
 C. As soon as I arrive in London I will go to the arch- 
 bishop [at London there is only a bishop] and tell him that 
 I established order among the Lutherans, and that when 
 order was established Herr Ziegenhagen sent some one who 
 spoiled all and made confusion. 
 
 M. You may do as you please. The fact is, that you have 
 now put all in confusion. I hope, with the help of God, to 
 establish some order. 
 
 C. Go on with your work. If you succeed, it must event- 
 ually serve for the increase of my Church. You have my 
 good wishes. It is not to be denied that you were a Lutheran 
 student in good standing, that you had a pastoral charge, as 
 was reported to me nine months ago from Herrnhut. No 
 more is expected of you than that you beg pardon, since you 
 are an intruder here and passed me by. 
 
 M. It will come to pass that you will be compelled to beg 
 pardon of the whole Lutheran Church. 
 
 C. How can you, a young parson, a village preacher, talk 
 thus? 
 
 M. You must not wax warm. 
 
 C. Make haste to consider and to acknowledge that you 
 have done wrong ; if not, on my return to Germany I will 
 make it all public. 
 
 M. In case I sin against God, I will in the name of Christ 
 
122 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 beg for forgiveness. But I do not see why I should beg your 
 pardon. You may publish in Germany what you please : your 
 affairs are well known there. 
 
 C. What is published there against me is nothing but pas- 
 quils, to which no one ventures to put his name. I am will- 
 ing to give you time to beg my pardon. You are ambitious, 
 and that is the motive by which you are governed. 
 
 M. *Your brain is very fertile in suggestions. Indeed, I find 
 it as your aunt [Baroness von Gersdorf at Grosshennersdorf] 
 told me. 
 
 C. Say not a word f of her or I shall be compelled to expose 
 her. I might speak very differently to you if I wanted. 
 
 M. I am willing to hear. 
 
 C. The Hallenses are Pietists. Were you not educated at 
 Halle? 
 
 M. I was educated in Hanover, studied at Gottingen, and 
 also at Halle. I am a Lutheran, and shall so remain. 
 
 C. Are you such a Lutheran as Herr Ziegenhagen ? 
 
 M. I have had intercourse with him for some time, have 
 become acquainted with his character, and hope to become 
 more and more such a Lutheran. 
 
 C. It will not take a year, and I will bring forward more 
 than a hundred witnesses to prove that Herr Ziegenhagen is 
 not a genuine Lutheran. 
 
 M. Herr Ziegenhagen is not afraid of it, and will not be 
 disturbed. But it is strange that you wish to entrap me with 
 your questions to find out a charge against me. 
 
 C. Oh, I am casting a hook into your conscience. 
 
 M. Not at all. You do not touch my conscience. But this 
 I gather from your questions, that your heart is not sincere. 
 If you had a guileless spirit you would not put those ques- 
 tions. 
 
 C. You came here to speak about a church record-book 
 and a cup? 
 
 M. Yes ; I wanted to ask whether you would return them 
 or not. 
 
 C. What should we return ? Those things belong to our 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 123 
 
 Lutheran church and congregation. But in case you stand 
 in need of them we will present them to you, provided you 
 give a receipt in writing. 
 
 M. I desire no present from you. I only claim what belongs 
 to us. The book and cup have been paid for out of our col- 
 lections. (Here I rose up.) 
 
 C. Consider well the matter of begging our pardon. Oth- 
 erwise you will regret it. 
 
 M. I need no consideration. I do not acknowledge you as 
 a genuine Lutheran, much less as an inspector or Lutheran 
 pastor. 
 
 C. Do you hear, brethren ? Now there is revealed what 
 the man has in his heart. (Now much murmuring arose 
 among the brethren, and hearty assent to his words by nod- 
 ding their heads.) 
 
 M. It is also revealed what is in your heart. If you are 
 such a genuine Lutheran, why were you prevented from 
 preaching in the Swedish church ? 
 
 C. Only one man, Kock, the Swedish merchant, inter- 
 fered. 
 
 M. Mr. Kock is an officer in the Swedish church. Certainly, 
 he did not prevent you from preaching without the knowledge 
 of the only Swedish pastor, Rev. Tranberg. 
 
 C. Can you say that Mr. Tranberg refused me permission ? 
 
 M. I cannot say it positively. Enough, you were refused. 
 
 C. There, brethren, you hear it again, that the man contra- 
 dicts himself and lies ! (The assent of the brethren became so 
 strong and noisy that I could not reply.) 
 
 In conclusion, the count said : You will not preach in the 
 Swedish church more than twice or thrice before they cast 
 you out as they did my adjunct, Pyrlaeus, from the old meet- 
 ing-house. 
 
 M. I am willing to wait. I wish you a happy voyage to 
 Europe. Farewell ! 
 
 Thus ended the meeting. P. Kock gave the advice that the 
 officers of Muhlenberg's congregation should demand the book 
 through the city mayor. To the letter addressed to him through 
 
124 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 this official the count responded in the following ambiguous 
 manner (we give the letter verbatim) : 
 
 "SiR: I know no other Lutheran regular church in this 
 province than those in which I have served hitherto. I know 
 of no book belonging to others than to our church. I know 
 no Lutheran parson in Philadelphia but myself, and who is 
 ordained to this office. I know no church-wardens but the 
 same who did their duty faithfully. I shall deliver no book 
 except to the magistrate himself, and I protest against which 
 is done and .will be done to the prejudice of our regular 
 church, founded publicly in Philadelphia last spring. This 
 is all which I can do and say. I am, sir, your humble 
 servant, " LODEWYK OF THURNSTEIN, 
 
 "Pastor and Inspector of the Lutheran Church in Philadelphia^ 
 
 To a second letter of the mayor, demanding the book (the 
 cup was no particular object of desire) and using stronger 
 language, the count answered declaring his willingness to de- 
 liver it to one of the church-officers. On the same day, Dec. 
 3 1st, at 5 P. M., the count sent for Daniel Seckler, who, with 
 the knowledge of Miihlenberg and the advice of the mayor, 
 Mr. Till, went to him, but was told by the count that the 
 mayor had commanded him to deliver the book, otherwise he 
 would not be allowed to leave the city ; but that, indeed, he 
 knew of no book, could not say where it was hidden, and 
 could not deliver it ; one or the other of the officers might 
 have it. The count's behavior in this whole transaction was 
 worse than charlatanism. On the following day, Jan. I, 1743, 
 he left Philadelphia, at New York took ship for England, 
 arrived by the way of Yorkshire at London, and in March 
 preached during a number of days in the Moravian chapel in 
 Fetter lane, James Hutton acting as his interpreter. His 
 threats against Miihlenberg he never carried out. 
 
 No one acquainted with the history of Zinzendorf s life 
 and labors can doubt the sincerity of his Christian convic- 
 tions. It was not an empty phrase or hypocrisy when he 
 called Jesus his " only passion." No man sacrificed more 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 12$ 
 
 of his worldly goods, of his social standing, of the ordinary 
 comforts of life to the cause of Christ than he did. But, 
 admitting all this, we feel sorry that he not only very erro- 
 neously and frequently took his personal views and feelings 
 for divine revelations, but expected others to consider him a 
 kind of infallible oracle, allowed their undue adulations, and 
 used very doubtful means for mere show and for the accom- 
 plishment of his plans. There is no blame to be attached to 
 him for his interest in the spiritual condition of the German 
 settlers in Pennsylvania. But that before sailing for the New 
 World he formally and ostentatiously relinquished his dignity 
 as bishop of the Moravians to find access to the Lutherans in 
 Pennsylvania, and thus pretended to have official authority 
 over the Lutheran congregations while his peculiar Moravian 
 principles, views, tastes, and manners of working were with 
 him of supreme interest, this cannot be successfully defended. 
 Zinzendorf, after 1736 bishop of the Moravians as a separate 
 ecclesiastical body, had formally disconnected himself from 
 the Lutheran Church as an ecclesiastical organization. What 
 a pretence that he appointed himself inspector of the Lutheran 
 churches in Pennsylvania ! It was done for stage-effect when, 
 as James Logan, secretary of Pennsylvania tells us, " he framed 
 an instrument to resign all his honors and dignities to some 
 relative Several gentlemen, Governor Thomas, Wil- 
 liam Allen, recorder of the city, Th. Lawrence, one of the 
 governor's council, Dr. Patrick Bard, the governor's secretary, 
 James Hamilton, prothonotary of the court of common pleas, 
 Rev. En. Ross, pastor of Episc. Christ Church at Philadel- 
 phia, Mr. Benezet, Rev. Pyrlaeus, and others, met, when he 
 "read the instrument ; he gave each of them a printed copy, 
 but after all withdrew his papers and also himself, saying, 
 on reflection, he must first advise with some of his friends 
 in Germany." Such proceedings only served to give these 
 sober citizens of Philadelphia and others the impression that 
 the count had a mind not well balanced. Miihlenberg with 
 his straightforward, honest, and manly character could not fail 
 to be offended by the tortuous, insincere ways used by a man 
 
126 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 who 'fully knew the principles of Christ, but to accomplish 
 his designs made use of means unworthy of himself and detri- 
 mental to the cause he defended. We cannot but admire the 
 decisive manner of Miihlenberg in his conversation with the 
 count. Instead of being frightened by the situation purposely 
 arranged by Zinzendorf, and by the supercilious arrogance 
 of the man, "he carried the war into Africa," and the count 
 was compelled to listen to such plain words as probably he had 
 never heard before. And so little did Miihlenberg lose his- 
 temper that the count himself in his remarks to others ad- 
 mitted that Miihlenberg had on that occasion behaved with 
 commendable moderation. On some other occasion also he 
 could not avoid endorsing his character as a Christian and as 
 a pastor, though this did not prevent him from describing his 
 rival as a heretic in a letter to the Rev. Tranberg. 
 
 Miihlenberg would rather have avoided any collision with 
 Zinzendorf. But faithfully to carry out his mission and trust 
 he could not allow the rest of the German Lutheran con- 
 gregation at Philadelphia, which placed a confidence in the 
 count's intentions and arrangements, to be dispersed. In the 
 Lutheran field the count was an intruder, and the Lutheran 
 cause, for which he pretended so deep an interest, had in him 
 a friend more dangerous than an open foe. Miihlenberg could 
 discriminate well between a Zinzendorf and a Valentin Kraft. 
 But the Lutheran congregations, as such, were no less in dan- 
 ger in the hands of the one than in those of the other. With 
 the same cool firmness he withstood both of them. When 
 Kraft had returned to the city, and proposed in the afternoon 
 of Sunday, Jan. 2, 1743, to preach in the old meeting-house, 
 Miihlenberg took the keys and kept them, little caring for 
 the murmuring of some who sentimentally pitied Kraft, sim- 
 ply declaring that order must be sustained and that Kraft 
 had no rightful claims ; whereupon Kraft fell into a consider- 
 able rage, gave himself the low satisfaction of becoming intoxi- 
 cated, associated openly with unworthy individuals, some of 
 them former schoolmasters, at that time here and there acting 
 the part of pastors. He left the city, and by his scandalous 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 1 2 / 
 
 life justified more and more the course which Muhlenberg 
 had taken. On that same Sunday, after having preached on 
 the preceding day, Jan. 1st, morning and afternoon, in the 
 Swedish church to " our Lutherans," Miihlenberg again 
 preached in the same locality and formally installed the 
 elders and deacons of his congregation. Using his habitual 
 openness, he said that these men were by no means without 
 fault, but they were a fair representation ; for as was the con- 
 gregation so also were the officers, and vice versa : they all 
 needed improvement. He reminded both sides of their duties, 
 and finally called out the members to show their acquiescence 
 by giving their hands to the officers. 
 
 That a man of such decided character and resolute meas- 
 ures would rouse the hatred of all with whose interests or 
 conduct he interfered needs no proof. Some malicious indi- 
 viduals even laid a scheme to defame Miihlenberg's character. 
 The low moral standing of the person who was to be used as 
 a witness was fortunately discovered in good time, and she 
 had to beg Miihlenberg's pardon publicly in the church be- 
 fore the assembled congregation. Kraft made efforts to 
 arouse hostility against Muhlenberg among the Lutherans at 
 Germantown and Philadelphia. Schmidt, the quack doctor, 
 made a feeble attempt to organize a separate congregation 
 near New Hanover. J. C. Stoever, in those years not at all 
 exemplary as a pastor in his walk and conversation, and some- 
 what rough and censurable all his life, tried to influence the 
 people by declaiming against Ziegenhagen and Muhlenberg, 
 the inspiration for this coming, most probably, from the worthy 
 Valentin Kraft. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 1743- 
 
 Miihlenberg enters upon his pastoral work in the three united congregations. He 
 opens schools at Providence and New Hanover, and maintains church disci- 
 pline. Halle Reports, Charitable gifts from Germany. Miihlenberg's unsel- 
 fish labors appreciated. Resolutions passed at Providence and at Philadelphia 
 to erect churches ; at Hanover, to build a school-house. 
 
 WE perceive that Miihlenberg entered upon his legiti- 
 mate field of labor under very peculiar circumstances. 
 He had, indeed, to begin his pastoral work against pronounced 
 libertinism on the one side, wild fanaticism on the other, both 
 of which had representatives preoccupying the field and try- 
 ing to maintain it. A few weeks were sufficient to demon- 
 strate the power of a lawful, just claim against usurpation; 
 the might of a firm, blameless, honest character against frivo- 
 lous or .sanctimonious presumption ; the triumph of law and 
 order over lawlessness and arbitrary conduct. Of course, 
 similar foes, as well as difficulties of a totally different cha- 
 racter, were yet to be conquered. In fact, a pastor can never 
 Iky aside his spiritual weapons of attack and defence. And 
 no one knew better or experienced more thoroughly that he 
 was living and laboring in the " ecclesia militans " than Muhl- 
 enberg. 
 
 Yet we may well imagine that he felt thankful and greatly 
 relieved when the three congregations to whom he was sent 
 acknowledged him as their legitimate pastor, and learned to 
 esteem and to love him more and more. And with a firm 
 will and an unreserved devotion he began and continued his 
 pastoral work. Various symptoms of awakening life and a 
 vigorous sympathy on the part of the souls entrusted to his 
 care did much to encourage and to make him cheerful in 
 his work. 
 
 128 
 
HENRY MEL CHIOR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 On Tuesday, Jan. 4th, the officers of the congregation at 
 Providence appeared with a horse for Muhlenberg, and con- 
 ducted him to their houses. In harmony with the practice of 
 the Lutheran Church on the continent of Europe, he celebrated 
 Epiphany with the congregation on the following day. On the 
 6th of January he began to give instruction to the children. 
 For some years public services had been held in the barn al- 
 ready mentioned. The officers of the church began even then, 
 so soon after the arrival of Muhlenberg, to consider the ques- 
 tion of erecting a church-building. It seems that a frame 
 school-house was at once erected. Wood was, however, 
 not a lasting material, and, as Muhlenberg writes, " soon 
 decays in this country." It was therefore resolved to use 
 freestone in the erection of a church. This would, of course, 
 occasion a heavier outlay. But the number of attendants at 
 public services greatly increasing, and the members showing 
 a praiseworthy liberality, there was much encouragement. 
 Muhlenberg says that the people had no want of the neces- 
 sary provisions, but money was scarce among them, since they 
 were obliged to carry their produce to Philadelphia, and did 
 not there get remunerative prices. 
 
 From the 7th .to the I5th of January, Muhlenberg contin- 
 ued his work at New Hanover. In a very unselfish but ef- 
 fective manner he now opened the campaign against those 
 frauds who called themselves pastors and were found in 
 many localities throughout the settled parts of the province, 
 and who tried everywhere to counteract the influence of men 
 like Muhlenberg, while they used the sacred office simply with 
 a view to make money and to drag out a scandalous existence, 
 to the disgrace and detriment of the Church. Let us hear 
 what Muhlenberg in his diary says on this subject: "Sunday, 
 Jan. Qth, I preached at New Hanover to a large assembly; had 
 also to baptize before the congregation after preaching. Learn- 
 ing that the schoolmasters already described intended to estab- 
 lish at various places opposition congregations, I announced 
 to the congregations that they were not to pay anything for 
 having their children baptized, and also that at the celebration 
 
I3O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the Lord's Supper they should lay no money on the altar 
 for the pastor. Since those vagabonds (infesting German con- 
 gregations and calling themselves pastors, of whom we shall 
 hear more anon), when baptizing or administering the Lord's 
 Supper, care only for the money, produce nothing but strife, 
 and in doing so give occasion to the sects to slander, I abol- 
 ished that abominable custom, considering that there is no 
 need to pay the pastor's salary just at the occasion of sacred 
 services ; but any one who desires to give his share to the 
 necessary support of the pastor can easily find a more suit- 
 able time and occasion. Since ignorance among the youth is 
 great in this country, and good schoolmasters are very rarely 
 found, I had to take this matter also into my hands. Those 
 who might possibly teach the children to read are lazy and 
 given to drink, use all sorts of books to make their sermons, 
 waste their time, preach, and administer the Lord's Supper 
 merely to get cash in hand. It is a shocking sin and shame. 
 I requested the congregation to send me first the older chil- 
 dren, as I intended to go about among the three congrega- 
 tions, remaining in each successively one week. On the fol- 
 lowing day, Monday, Jan. loth, the parents brought me some 
 of their children. It does not look very .promising to see 
 youths of seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years of age 
 appear with the A-B-C book. Yet I rejoice in seeing the 
 desire to learn something. Singing also has totally died out 
 among the young people." 
 
 These words give Us a clear insight into the condition of 
 things, the evils Miihlenberg had to contend with, and the 
 animus he carried into the work before him. That he at once 
 began to some extent to fill the office of the school-teacher 
 made his services eminently valuable to the rising generation, 
 and brought him nearer to them a matter of the highest im- 
 portance. In addition to the German language which even 
 in our times is the ordinary medium among thousands of the 
 population of Eastern Pennsylvania he had to teach also 
 the English. He says : " Some young fellows came to the 
 school who wished to learn the English. This also affords 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 131 
 
 me an opportunity to do some good. I read with them the 
 New Testament in English." The frame church-building 
 at New Hanover was at that time used, though it was not yet 
 quite finished. It was resolved to erect a school-house. Some 
 members at once gave in their names as contributors for this 
 purpose. 
 
 Having on Saturday, Jan. I5th, returned to Providence, 
 Muhlenberg met with the officers of the church and inquired 
 into the character of those who had handed in their names to 
 them as participants of the Lord's Supper, to be celebrated 
 here the following day. This indicates his respect for proper 
 discipline in the congregation and his interest in the individ- 
 ual souls. Throughout the whole of his protracted career as a 
 pastor he proved himself conscientiously faithful also in such 
 apparently minor things. This is amply demonstrated by the 
 large number of narratives about individual cases which came 
 under his pastoral observation, and are embodied in his reports 
 periodically sent to Halle, and there published under the title, 
 " Reports from the United German Evangelical Lutheran Con- 
 gregations in North America, principally in Pennsylvania," and 
 gratuitously distributed among those who took an interest in 
 the growing German Lutheran congregations in Pennsylva- 
 nia and charitably assisted this mission-work. These chari- 
 table gifts were in those days indispensably needed, not only 
 to sustain to some extent the missionaries, of whom Muhlen- 
 berg was the leader or the pioneer, but also to assist in the 
 erection of churches and school- houses, in the distribution of 
 Christian literature, and in other useful purposes. The ac- 
 counts for this extensive interest, kept in Halle under the 
 supervision of the directors of the great charitable institutions 
 in that place, clearly show that considerable active sympathy 
 was given to the young Lutheran Church growing up in the 
 far-off land in the West and to its struggling congregations. 
 The reports sent from Pennsylvania, showing the work there 
 undertaken by the missionaries, its difficulties, impediments, 
 and progress, were calculated to keep up the interest in the 
 work and secure the benefactions of godly souls in the Father- 
 
132 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 land. These reports form the main substance of the Halle 
 Reports, that most important source of the history of the 
 Lutheran Church in this country, published from time to time 
 in sixteen continuations from the year 1745, and finally com- 
 piled and re-edited in two volumes in 1787, the year of the 
 death of H. M. Miihlenberg, by Rev. J. L. Schulze, D. D., 
 professor at the Halle University and one of the directors 
 of the Francke Orphan-House. The contributions of Miihl- 
 enberg form the most prominent and most important part of 
 those reports. 
 
 When, on January i6th, Miihlenberg again preached at 
 Providence, the concourse of the people was so great that he 
 had to hold public service under the open sky. After preach- 
 ing he held preparatory services, confession of sins, and abso- 
 lution, and then the Lord's Supper. There was deep feeling ) 
 accompanied with many tears, among those present. Finally, 
 he baptized a child. As many Anabaptists were present, 
 he explained the meaning of paedobaptism. When he an- 
 nounced that during the coming week he intended to instruct 
 the children, a rivalry broke out between two members, each 
 of whom desired to board him and to have the school in his 
 house. He poured oil upon the troubled waters by saying 
 that he would be in the one house in the morning, in the 
 other in the afternoon, the distance between them being one 
 mile and a half. It seems that there was no lack of provisions ; 
 the people loaded him down with their good things, and he 
 says, "They do not know how to make their good-will toward 
 me sufficiently manifest." These things, trifling as they are, 
 show us how valuable his services appeared to the people. 
 It certainly was an encouraging sign that in a short time 
 one hundred pounds were subscribed toward the building of 
 the church. 
 
 In consequence of preaching under the open sky whilst the 
 cold winds of January were blowing, Miihlenberg contracted 
 a severe cold, which seriously affected his throat an evil to 
 which he was frequently subject through the course of his 
 life. He nevertheless opened his school on Monday, January 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 133 
 
 1 7th. At noon the officers of his congregation came, accom- 
 panied by some members of the Reformed Church. Among 
 the Lutherans a proposal to build a church had already been 
 discussed here and there. The Reformed wanted to have a 
 share in this undertaking, and corresponding privilege to use 
 at certain stipulated times the building for their services. For 
 this reason they desired to consult with Muhlenberg. They 
 were willing to assist in building the church. They were told 
 that there were two ways possible the way of equity and the 
 way of charity : if they claimed a certain portion of the 
 rights, they Would have to pay a proportional share of the 
 expenses. To this they would not consent, since they were 
 few in numbers. The other way, the way of charity, was 
 this : that if they would now as good neighbors assist to 
 some extent in building this church, the Lutherans would 
 put it in their written records for the succeeding generation ; 
 if, however, during the present generation they were able 
 and willing to erect a church-building, the Lutherans would 
 not stand back, but assist them. In this, way the building of 
 a so-called union church, so often the cause of disunion and 
 other attendant evils, was avoided and good feeling between 
 the two sides preserved. The Reformed of Providence and of 
 an extended district in the neighborhood were in those days 
 under the care of the Rev. G. M. Weiss, who had arrived 
 from Europe in the year 1727, and settled the same year at 
 Schippach, four miles south of Providence. With* him about 
 four hundred immigrants had arrived, many of whom settled 
 in the same neighborhood, organized under Weiss a congre- 
 gation, and immediately built a frame church. He was 
 sent as a missionary by the authorities of the Reformed 
 Church in the Palatinate. In two years he moved to Goshen- 
 hoppen, Montgomery county, Pa. 
 
 Muhlenberg had intended to continue during that week his 
 instruction of the children at Providence. But as two of the 
 officers of the congregation at Philadelphia had come and 
 requested his presence there, he was obliged to go with them. 
 In cold, stormy weather he arrived on Tuesday evening in the 
 
134 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 city. During the preceding week two ships had arrived there 
 from London. He learned that one of the ships had brought 
 two boxes which nobody claimed. It was found that they were 
 directed to him, and contained a large number of books and 
 a quantity of medicines sent from the drug-store connected 
 with the Orphan-House at Halle. The medicines prepared 
 there were of high renown in those days, sold in all lands, 
 and formed an important source of income to the charitable 
 institutions at Halle. Muhlenberg rejoiced especially in the 
 possession of the books. Many of them were of a popular 
 edifying character. He sold them at cheap prices among the 
 members of the three congregations. But the more important 
 subject now before him was that here also the members of 
 his flock were engaged in efforts to build a church. Other 
 denominations had their churches; should the German Lu- 
 therans of this city be without one? Muhlenberg was fully 
 convinced that the progress of the congregation depended 
 greatly on the possession of a church-edifice. The members 
 took great interest in the matter, and more than two hundred 
 pounds (Pennsylvania pounds, three of which were about equal 
 to eight dollars) were subscribed before Easter, 1743. A 
 proper locality for the building to be erected was found and 
 bought. It was the north-east corner of Fifth street and 
 Appletree alley, north of the present Arch street. There was 
 also next to the church the cemetery. 
 
 Sunday, Jan. 24th, in the afternoon, Muhlenberg again 
 preached to his German Lutherans in the Swedish church, 
 and on Monday, accompanied by some church-officers, re- 
 turned to Providence, where on Tuesday, the memorial day 
 of the Conversion of St. Paul, he held public services. He 
 states that one of the self-appointed preachers, a former 
 schoolmaster, was present, and after the services told Muhl- 
 enberg that he intended to leave that neighborhood and not 
 to be henceforth in his way ; he, however, desired Muhlen- 
 berg to ordain him, as he had a call from a number of people 
 higher up in the country : he had a single Latin phrase at his 
 command as a proof of his qualifications. Muhlenberg told 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 135 
 
 him that he had no authority to ordain him, and would not 
 act against Church order ; at the same time, he advised him 
 to devote himself again to teaching, to instructing children to 
 /ead and to learn and understand the Catechism. He himself 
 during the rest of the week continued to give instruction to 
 the young people, who exhibited an encouraging zeal, and 
 yas pleased to see the members of the congregation bring- 
 ing load after load of stones for the intended church-build- 
 ing. Saturday, Jan. 29th, in stormy weather, he went to New 
 Hanover, where he held services on Sunday. On Wednesday 
 morning he hurried off to Providence, and, as the day was 
 the memorial day of the Purification of St. Mary, preached 
 there in the afternoon. We see that, in harmony with the 
 custom of Germany, some of the saints' days were then held 
 by the Lutheran Church in the American provinces. 
 
 In New Hanover the church-officers had a difficulty among 
 themselves and with some other members of the congrega- 
 tion. Some wished to build a school-house, and under the 
 same roof a parsonage. Others opposed this plan, saying 
 that the pastor should not be disturbed by the noise of chil- 
 dren, but ought to be by himself; they would rather build the 
 parsonage after some time, and buy at the same time a piece 
 of ground for the benefit of the pastor, but now erect a school- 
 house of moderate dimensions. Having returned on Friday, 
 Feb. 4th, from Providence to New Hanover, Miihlenberg 
 held on Saturday a meeting with the vestry and the congre- 
 gation, which he opened and closed with prayer. Various 
 propositions were laid before the meeting. He was asked 
 for his views on each of them, but requested the individual 
 members to give the congregation the benefit of their opin- 
 ions. The voting on the subject before them proceeded in 
 good order. In a few hours everything was finished, and a 
 contract with a carpenter entered into, one item of which was 
 that the building of the school-house was to be begun in May. 
 The meeting adjourned in peace, joy, and harmony. The 
 officers having on this occasion presented their accounts, 
 the congregation requested Miihlenberg henceforth to have 
 
136 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 an oversight over the account-books. Sunday, Feb. 6th, he 
 preached to a large assembly, gathered in and outside of the 
 church, on the parable of the Sower, Luke viii. 4-15. On 
 this occasion a certain female, the daughter of a widow who 
 had been in the house of an English Quaker, where during a 
 sojourn of fifteen years she had forgotten her German moth- 
 er-tongue without acquiring any religious knowledge, came 
 forward and gave in the English language sufficient proof in 
 the presence of the congregation that within a few weeks, 
 under the tuition of Miihlenberg, she had made satisfactory 
 progress in Christian knowledge. On a profession of faith 
 and after proper examination she was confirmed by him and 
 received from him the Lord's Supper. This opportunity Miihl- 
 enberg made use of for a special and impressive admonition 
 to the whole assembly, after which he at once set out for 
 Providence, preached in the afternoon of the same day to a 
 large gathering, installed six elders, whose names he had at 
 his last visit given to the congregation, requesting those who 
 objected to any of them to come forward. Nobody having 
 objected, he proceeded with the act, and closed with special 
 prayer. It appears that he selected the persons himself a 
 manner of choosing church-officers which was in use for a 
 number of years in Lutheran congregations. On Tuesday, 
 Feb. 1st, in the New Hanover congregation he was called 
 upon to attend the funeral of a member who had sud- 
 denly died, leaving five children, not one of whom, though 
 the oldest had reached its twenty-fifth year, had received 
 Christian instruction or had been confirmed. Miihlenberg 
 had a ride of four miles to the house whence the funeral 
 started. " There they put the corpse upon. a wagon, and all 
 who could followed it through the thicket. As various sorts 
 of people were at the house, I addressed them. Then we 
 proceeded to the church. I almost met with a mishap, as 
 the people had put me on a wild colt. After the ceremo- 
 nies I preached a funeral sermon. Such occasions must 
 be improved, when the natural feelings are favorably im- 
 pressed." 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 137 
 
 We have thus far purposely gone into considerable detail 
 as to Miihlenberg's first steps and experiences in his new and 
 unusually difficult field of labor. We have gained a nearer 
 insight into the peculiarities of his situation, and into those 
 qualities which so eminently fitted him for that trying posi- 
 tion. There was united to the dignity of his whole deport- 
 ment and to the seriousness of his official character a certain 
 irresistible charm which attracted others to him in such a 
 manner that, while they felt his superiority, they loved him 
 and now took courage, since they saw that without the least 
 personal vanity, without any egotistic interest, he magnified 
 his office, which, through the shameful behavior of selfish, 
 mean pretenders in those parts and days, had been brought 
 into contempt. He himself found the best reward for 'his 
 exertions in the signs of a new and better life stirring among 
 his people. Such a position would have been intolerable 
 to many a man of literary education and of refined taste 
 among people who for years had been deprived of the 
 proper spiritual care and of educational agencies and instru- 
 mentalities. But it seems that for that very position Provi- 
 dence had in various ways prepared him in advance, and he 
 found satisfaction not in such pleasures and interests as the 
 world desires, but in being useful and making himself valu- 
 able to others. 
 
138 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1743-1745- 
 
 Difficulty in doing justice to the three united congregations. External circum- 
 stances of Miihlenberg's office. His sphere of action begins to extend. 
 The west side of the Schuylkill. Germantown. Tulpehoken. Conrad 
 Weiser. Casp. Leutbecker. A. Eschenbach. Zinzendorf s interest in Tul- 
 pehoken. G. Buttner. J. Ph. Meurer. Corner-stone of Christ Church laid. 
 Miihlenberg's first visit to Tulpehoken.: Rev. Tob. Wagner. J. C. An- 
 dreae. Miihlenberg's interest is claimed in behalf of the Lutheran congrega- 
 tions on the Upper Raritan, N. J. J. A. Wolf and his troubles. Rev. W. 
 Chr. Berkenmeier. Rev. M. Chr. Knoll. 
 
 DURING the years 1743 and 1744, Miihlenberg continued 
 as the only pastor and laborer in the three congrega- 
 tions united under him. The work, though encouraging in 
 various respects, was a very laborious one. In each of those 
 congregations the erection of buildings in New Hanover a 
 school-house, in Providence and Philadelphia churches occa- 
 sioned much care and attention, which to a large extent fell 
 upon the shoulders of the pastor. The necessity of going on 
 horseback week after week from one of the congregations to 
 another, not counting casualties, which often called for addi- 
 tional travel, consumed much time and strength, and on 
 bad roads and at the crossings of rivers, which not un- 
 frequently were swollen, particularly during dark nights, ex- 
 posed him not only to much discomfort, but also to actual 
 danger. In consequence of this arrangement, though under 
 the circumstances it was the only one possible, it was plain 
 that such care could not be bestowed upon each congrega- 
 tion and upon its adult and young members as was desirable. 
 Miihlenberg had, as he says, to keep house in three places. 
 Not one of them afforded him the necessary comfort, while 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 139 
 
 they increased his expenses. To some extent he was relieved 
 in this respect by the kindness of the people toward him. 
 He says in his diary : " One man brings me a sausage, another 
 a piece of meat, a third a chicken, a fourth a loaf of bread, a 
 fifth some pigeons, a sixth a rabbit, a seventh some eggs, an 
 eighth some tea and sugar, a ninth some honey, a tenth some 
 apples, an eleventh some partridges, and so forth. The parents, 
 especially of the children I instruct, when they have anything 
 which appears to them of superior excellence, bring it as a 
 gift to the pastor. T attach no value to these dainties, but 
 by loving sympathy I wish to gain their hearts. " At a later 
 period, Oct. 30, 1746, Miihlenberg writes concerning his finan- 
 cial affairs to the Fathers at Halle that which may properly 
 be inserted in this place : " In the first year I had yet a small 
 sum, a few pounds, left in my hands when I came here from 
 Charleston. In the New Hanover charge eleven [twelve he 
 says at another occasion] pounds were presented to me with 
 which to buy a horse. In the Philadelphia congregation in the 
 first and second year I did not receive enough money to pay 
 my house-rent, because they had undertaken such a large and 
 extensive church-building, and always maintained that the dear 
 Fathers at Halle had been requested by letter during the first 
 year to pay out of the charity collection the pastor whom 
 they would send. When, without getting my full consent in 
 advance, they had undertaken that expensive building, they 
 clamored for the collection-money [from Germany], and prom- 
 ised they would rather take care of the pastor themselves. 
 At Providence also I received in the first year no money at 
 all, since they also were heavily burdened with the erection 
 of the church, and also maintained that they had begged 
 the Fathers at Halle they should at least during the first year 
 pay the pastor's salary. But my clothes were during the first 
 and second years so totally worn out by my continuous travel- 
 ling that I had to contract a debt of sixteen pounds to buy 
 under-clothing and outer garments. In the second year I 
 settled accounts with my landlord : he would take no money, 
 but, feeling myself under obligation, I presented each of the 
 
I4O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 two mothers [two families living the house] with a saddle at 
 an expense of five pounds. My first horse becoming useless 
 in the second year, I Was obliged to buy a stronger one for 
 thirteen pounds sterling. I had ridden him hardly four times 
 to Philadelphia during extremely bad weather when he died, 
 whereupon I bought for eight pounds sterling a large, heavy 
 draught-horse. In the second year I paid at Philadelphia to 
 my landlord for house-rent six pounds sterling, for saddle 
 and bridle four pounds, not counting many smaller outlays, 
 so that I was finally at least sixty pounds sterling in debt. In 
 the second year the country congregations with much exertion 
 raised thirty pounds for me, wherewith I paid a part of my 
 debts and bought indispensable necessaries. When all the 
 three congregations were engaged with their building enter- 
 prises and sadly longed for the collection-money [from Europe], 
 the news finally came, through the Rev. Boltzius from Herr 
 Court-preacher Ziegenhagen, that there was left of former 
 collection-money the sum of two hundred pounds. I an- 
 nounced this to the church-officers as a long-expected mes- 
 sage. The oldest of them, [John Nicolaus] Groessmann of 
 Providence, who knew all the circumstances connected with 
 these collections, said that each of the congregations had a 
 right to an equal share of those two hundred pounds, since 
 they had had equal expenses and labor. The officers at 
 Providence resolved that I should at once appropriate forty 
 pounds to myself as my salary, since the congregations had 
 not paid me, and the Fathers had in my call settled the point 
 that they would in the first years provide for my salary that 
 the remaining one hundred and sixty pounds should be 
 divided in equal shares. The Providence congregation con- 
 sequently received sixty pounds for their building outlay, as 
 the receipt will prove. The Philadelphians were in most 
 harassing embarrassment, and most willingly would have 
 taken all the money. To avoid strife, they did receive one 
 hundred pounds, whereof the country congregations were kept 
 ignorant. The New Hanoverians wanted their share viz. fifty 
 pounds for their school-house building : after they learned 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 1 4 1 
 
 that I had deducted my salary they cheerfully acquiesced in 
 it. As debts troubled me and there was no other feasible 
 way, I took thirty pounds, paid my indebtedness, gave twenty 
 pounds to New Hanover, and owe them thirty more. My 
 salary had gone to the Philadelphians, who cannot repay it, 
 yet those thirty pounds must be paid." And paid they were. 
 
 This statement shows sufficiently with what poor remune- 
 ration Miihlenberg began and continued to labor. But we do 
 not find that he was dissatisfied or discouraged. He knew 
 that no salary could ever be an equivalent for his services, 
 but he had proof that his labors were appreciated. With 
 this he was satisfied. As to the rest, he trusted in God. 
 
 There was no stronger proof for Muhlenberg of the 
 appreciation of his labor than that more pastoral work was 
 continually expected of him. Encouraging as this was, it 
 soon became entirely too much for one man. Indeed, the 
 three congregations united under him were too much for the 
 care of one pastor, who, in addition to it, performed the 
 offices of school-teacher. 
 
 A small beginning of the enlargement of his sphere of 
 labor took place when (Feb. 3, 1743) he was called upon 
 to visit a female member of the Providence congregation 
 living six miles from that place, on the west side of the 
 Schuylkill River. In that direction a number of members 
 were settled. At his visit Muhlenberg was requested by 
 those who during the winter season could cross the river 
 only with difficulty, to preach to them a request which he 
 granted then and there in the house of the sick woman. 
 
 Toward the end of February he caught a very severe cold, 
 lost his voice, and was for a number of days confined to his 
 bed at Providence. From New Hanover, and even from Phila- 
 delphia, some church-officers came to see him. Friday, March 
 lith, he undertook to travel to Philadelphia. On Sunday, 
 March I3th, he preached again, though with a hoarse voice, 
 in the Swedish church, in spite of Zinzeridorfs doleful predic- 
 tions. The Moravian missionaries - tried all means to get the 
 privilege of preaching there also, but in vain. A party of 
 
142 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Reformed wished to unite with the Lutherans in building one 
 church for both bodies. Miihlenberg wisely resisted their offer, 
 wherein he had the consent of his membership. 
 
 In the same month, Friday, Feb. i8th, the officers of the 
 Philadelphia congregation took Miihlenberg to Germantown, 
 in a northerly direction a few miles distant from Philadelphia. 
 We know that the Germans who in 1683 laid the foundation 
 of Germantown were Quakers and Mennonites, averse to the 
 existing Church. In the course of time, however, a consid- 
 erable number of members of the Reformed and Lutheran 
 churches of Germany had settled .there. The Reformed 
 erected for themselves a church-building in 1719, and, as well 
 as those living in Philadelphia, were regularly served for 
 many years possibly from 1728 by the Rev. J. Ph. Boehm, 
 who resided at Witpen (Whitpain), about fourteen miles dis- 
 tant from Philadelphia. Of him we know that he was decid- 
 edly opposed to Zinzendorf, but equally so to Halle Pietism. 
 Acrelius, the historian of New Sweden, tells us that the 
 Swedish pastor, John Dylander, who with John Malander, a 
 student of theology, arrived at Philadelphia Nov. 2, 1/37, 
 and on the 6th of the same month was inducted into his 
 office by the Rev. P. Tranberg at Wicaco, or Gloria Dei 
 Church, which for four years had been without a regular 
 pastor, preached at their request to the Germans [Lutherans] 
 at Philadelphia, "as he was well versed in their language," and 
 that he " also frequently supplied those who resided at Lancas- 
 ter with divine service;" that he "did the same in Germantown, 
 where he consecrated a stone church which had been built by 
 the Germans in the year 1730." He died in 1741, the year in 
 which Zinzendorf arrived. Why that stone church was not 
 consecrated at an earlier time we are unable to say. Possi- 
 bly the building was not finished or the members of the con- 
 gregation did not wish the services of G. Chr. Schulze or of 
 J. C. Stoever, who during a part of that period officiated as 
 pastors in Philadelphia and at other places. The building of 
 a stone church, which after some years was enlarged, plainly 
 proves that there was a considerable Lutheran interest in 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 143 
 
 Germantown. Yet we read that in 1740 all the inhabitants 
 of the place numbered no more than about four hundred, and 
 Muhlenberg calls the building he found there a " Kirchlein," 
 a diminutive church. Unfortunately, at the time of his arrival 
 he found the Lutherans, of which there was a respectable 
 number, divided by party strife. After he had preached to 
 them on the second chapter of Jeremiah the elders wanted 
 his advice. He told them that as soon as an assistant was by 
 the grace of God sent him from Europe the Lutherans at 
 Germantown could unite with those at Philadelphia and be 
 served by one pastor. To this some at once agreed, giving 
 their signatures. The Philadelphians also gave their consent. 
 This appeal from Germantown was also indicative of the 
 ever-increasing extension of the work which Muhlenberg 
 had under his hands. 
 
 In the summer of 1743 his attention was unexpectedly 
 directed to Tulpehoken, west of Reading, in the wide and 
 fertile valley between the Blue Mountain chain and the South 
 Mountains. There those Palatines had settled in 1723 who, under 
 distressing circumstances and in consequence of oppressive 
 governmental measures, resolved to leave the Schoharie Valley 
 and the farms and houses owned there by them, and to move 
 into Pennsylvania. Coming down the Susquehanna River, 
 they followed the course of the Svvatara, and finally settled 
 on the Tulpehoken Creek, which empties near Reading into 
 the Schuylkill. Among them were a goodly number of 
 Lutherans. In 1727 they were joined by the family of 
 J. Conrad Weiser, formerly also an inhabitant of the Scho- 
 harie Valley, whose father had been a very prominent man 
 during the conflicts of the Palatines with the provincial gov- 
 ernment of New York. Both father and son came originally 
 from Wurtemberg, in the south-western part of Germany, 
 near the Palatinate. Weiser the son, who came to America 
 as a youth, had acquired a rare knowledge of the Indian lan- 
 guage, and proved very valuable to the government of Penn- 
 sylvania as Indian interpreter. 
 
 The Lutherans in the Tulpehoken district built in 1727 for 
 
144 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 themselves a small frame church, met there on Sundays, 
 sung and prayed, had the gospel and a sermon read to them, 
 and were willing to allow any straggler who seemed fit for 
 the work to preach to them a sermon, since a regularly pre- 
 pared and ordained pastor was in those times not to be had. 
 They also erected a school-house, a proof of their interest in 
 the education of their children. The church and the school- 
 house were erected east of the present Stouchsburg, and the 
 church was known by the name of " Reed's Church." 
 
 In 1733 they became acquainted with a certain Caspar 
 Leutbecker, a tailor residing at Matescha, near Schippach, 
 some miles south of Providence. He was employed by them 
 as a school-teacher. Desirous of having the services of a regu- 
 lar pastor, they addressed themselves to Rev. Dr. Ziegenhagen 
 at London, and promised to give the person he would send a 
 yearly salary of thirty pounds. Leutbecker was requested to 
 send the letter containing this petition to Dr. Z.'s address. In 
 1734 he reported that a suitable pastor had been found and 
 was on his way ; he also advised the erection of a parsonage. 
 When his proposition was carried out, he reported the death 
 of the pastor expected, maintained that he himself had been 
 ordained by the Rev. A. W. Boehme, the predecessor of Zie- 
 genhagen, and that he consequently could serve as pastor. 
 He also took possession of the parsonage. We cannot won- 
 der that suspicions were awakened about the veracity of the 
 man, and, collisions between him and members of the congre- 
 gation taking place, he soon had to deal with a strong party 
 of opponents, who in 1735 called as their pastor Rev. J. C. 
 Stoever, who then resided at Conestoga, Lancaster county, 
 Pennsylvania. The result was a strife which grew very acri- 
 monious, occasioned the publication of bitter party pamphlets, 
 and lasted through a number of years. Leutbecker, who was 
 treated very roughly by his opponents, died in 1738. Party 
 spirit continued the strife, and Stoever remained until 1743, 
 without being able by his preaching or manners to recon- 
 cile his antagonists. Among these, a well-known Moravian 
 adherent and emissary, Andrew Eschenbach, began from 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 145 
 
 1740 to exercise an influence. He may have come into con- 
 tact with J. Conr. Weiser, who would not be an adherent either 
 of Leutbecker or of Stoever. We find that Weiser, a man of 
 unimpeachable honesty, but of an excitable mind, strong feel- 
 ings, and energetic will, had during the times of Leutbecker 
 for some months joined the society of the Seventh-day Dun- 
 kers, who, under the guidance of Conrad Beissel, in the con- 
 vent of Ephrata, twelve miles from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 
 practised very rigoristic asceticism. Not finding there a 
 permanent satisfaction, Weiser returned to his family, but 
 kept aloof from the Lutheran Church. We know that he 
 became acquainted with A. G. Spangenberg, next to Zinzen- 
 dorf the most prominent character of the Moravians during 
 the last century. Spangenberg, after his rst visit to America 
 in 1737, returned for a time to Europe. Weiser had awakened 
 in him an interest in the Christianizing of the Indians, who 
 accorded to Weiser such honor and confidence as a paleface 
 rarely enjoyed. It is natural that Zinzendorf, as soon as he 
 arrived in the autumn of 1741 in Pennsylvania, took an inte- 
 rest in Weiser and tried to attach him to his cause. Weiser 
 attended the first and the third of the nine general conferences 
 the count held in Pennsylvania. From the third one, held at 
 Oley, a few miles north of New Hanover, Zinzendorf accom- 
 panied Weiser to Tulpehoken, and had there a meeting with the 
 Iroquois on Aug. 3, 1742. There he was also made acquainted 
 with the distressing condition of the Lutherans in that locality, 
 and said that, being well acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Francke 
 at Halle, by correspondence he could easily procure for the 
 Lutherans at Tulpehoken a suitable pastor, in consequence 
 of which a regular call for such an one was entrusted to him. 
 Nobody knew better than the count that there was no mutual 
 sympathy at that very time between the leaders of Pietism 
 and himself and his friends, and that Francke would have 
 been greatly surprised to receive such an appeal from Zin- 
 zendorf. We are convinced that Zinzendorf did not for a 
 moment entertain the idea of sending the call to Francke and 
 recommending the sending of a Lutheran pastor. But with- 
 
146 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 out any delay he sent, for the time being, a man after his own 
 heart, G. Buttner, who had been ordained at the conference at 
 Oley, having arrived in this country in 1741. He became at 
 once the champion of the former adherents of the late Leut- 
 becker, claimed with them a title to the old (Reed's) church 
 and lands belonging to it, and succeeded in bringing the party 
 strife to such a fever-heat that Zinzendorf, on another visit to 
 Tulpehoken, hardly escaped personal insult. Buttner had, of 
 course, pretended to be a Lutheran pastor. So also, when 
 Buttner, after a few months, retired, did his successor, J. Ph. 
 Meurer, who, June 21, 1742, had arrived from Europe at 
 Bethlehem, Pa., and in September was sent by Zinzendorf to 
 Tulpehoken. In vain did he make efforts to remove Stoever, 
 who certainly through his conduct exposed himself to attack ; 
 in consequence of which, Zinzendorf, with three of his adhe- 
 rents and instruments, formed a consistory and deposed him 
 from his office an act to which we have already alluded. But 
 now a third individual appeared in the foreground Val. Kraft, 
 who first took the role of the peacemaker, pretended to be 
 solicitous to establish good feeling between Meurer and Stoe- 
 ver, and told the people that Stoever had promised him to 
 mend his ways. He succeeded, however, in forming a third 
 party attached to himself. It was also apparent that the 
 longer the people associated with the pastors sent by Zinzen- 
 dorf, the less were they willing to believe them Lutherans. 
 Those who did not like the Moravian rule and rulers, while 
 they did not feel respect for Stoever and Kraft, increased in 
 numbers, and, not being able loyally to get possession of 
 Reed's Church, on Ascension Day, May 12, 1743, laid the 
 corner-stone of Christ Church, three miles west of Reed's, a 
 short distance to the west of the present Stouchsburg. Traces 
 of the foundations of this church, erected on a hill which over- 
 looks the Tulpehoken and near a fine grove, are still visible 
 on the road now leading to the new church, erected 1785- 
 86. The road runs between the old graveyard to the west, 
 in which venerable monuments of a very hard, rough sand- 
 stone, placed there about the middle of the last century, may 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 147 
 
 be seen, and the new graveyard to the east, in which the 
 new church stands, and from its lofty spire presents a com- 
 manding view of the surrounding country. To this Christ 
 Church three Lutherans, Sebastian Fisher, Christian Sauer, 
 and George Unruh, had each given five acres as a glebe- 
 land. 
 
 There is no doubt that Buttner and Meurer, though their 
 Lutheranism was an empty pretence, were much better Chris- 
 tians and pastors than Stoever and Kraft, whose behavior, by 
 contrast, was an offence to a Christian conscience. The people 
 were not inclined to tolerate them any longer. Thus it hap- 
 pened that all the Lutherans who had no sympathy with 
 Meurer were deprived of the services of a regular pastor. In 
 this predicament they addressed themselves to H. M. Miihl- 
 enberg, begging him to assist them in procuring a pastor. 
 The words of Holy Scripture, "a city that is set on a hill can- 
 not be hid," were verified. Miihlenberg's good name had 
 already spread from the plateau east of the Schuylkill Valley 
 on which New Providence and New Hanover were situated 
 in the midst of the primeval forest, with their houses and 
 cultivated fields making from year to year larger inroads 
 into it, from a distance of about fifty miles through a dis- 
 trict even now called the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), south 
 of Reading which city in those days did not exist and 
 to the west of the Schuylkill Valley into the region irri- 
 gated by the limpid waters of the Tulpehoken and its trib- 
 utaries. 
 
 Miihlenberg tells us that in 1743 he was for the first time 
 invited to Tulpehoken, where his advice and assistance were 
 greatly needed. He found three parties there. Eight or 
 nine families held the old (Reed's) church with the " Beth- 
 lehemites," which in this case meant the emissaries from 
 Bethlehem, Pa., the Moravian pastors who in vain pretended 
 to be Lutherans. The second party was attached to Stoever 
 and held the new (Christ) church. The third party had no 
 particular attachment and claimed rights in the new church, 
 but needed help. It was not possible for Muhlenberg him- 
 
148 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 self to serve them. In other respects he was willing to do for 
 them what he could. 
 
 He was, as we know, standing alone in the extensive field 
 of his labor. It now happened that in the year 1743 a pastor, 
 Tobias Wagner of Wiirtemberg, a great-grandson of the 
 renowned theologian Tobias Wagner, who died in 1680 as 
 chancellor of the University of Tubingen, arrived in Penn- 
 sylvania and presented himself to Miihlenberg. He had been 
 pastor at Horkheim, near Heilbronn, in Southern Germany, 
 was married, and brought with him five children, to whom in 
 Pennsylvania three more were added. Through his sons he 
 is the ancestor of a widely-spread family bearing his name, 
 and through his daughters of the highly- respected families , 
 of the late Maj.-gen. S. P. Heintzelman, U. S. A., Stille, 
 and others. He had come in company with a number of 
 German immigrants to New England, most probably to the 
 colony of Waldoboro' in the present State of Maine, was not 
 satisfied there, and came to Pennsylvania in hope of finding 
 here a better field of labor and support for himself and his 
 family. 
 
 With Muhlenberg's consent, the third party at Tulpehoken 
 gave Wagner a call ad interim. Unfortunately, Wagner was 
 not attractive to the two other parties. Miihlenberg found 
 that Wagner's sermonizing was not pleasing to the people, 
 that there was no magnetism about his person, and that he 
 proved suspicious, censorious, and very impulsive. The third 
 party at Tulpehoken could not provide a sufficient support for 
 him and his large family, with which already in 1743 he had 
 moved thither. Dissatisfaction increasing, Miihlenberg made 
 vain attempts to associate Wagner with himself or to place 
 him in other localities. But the congregations were not will- 
 ing. Wagner ungraciously soon began to mistrust Miihlenberg 
 and to spread the untrue report that Miihlenberg received a 
 regular salary from Halle, where the Fathers were well in- 
 formed about Wagner, but placed no confidence in him. 
 Wagner also associated himself with Stoever. and other ene- 
 mies to ecclesiastical order and pastoral dignity, and under 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 149 
 
 the pretext of stricter orthodoxy even tried to undermine Miihl- 
 enberg's position and influence. He continued, however, to 
 perform his pastoral duties in Christ Church, Tulpehoken, and 
 at Heidelberg, where Conrad Weiser resided, some miles east 
 of Christ Church, and at other localities, until 1746. Yet 
 during 1745 he accepted a call to Zion Church (now Mosellem), 
 Berks county, Pa., moved at Easter in 1746 into the neighbor- 
 hood of the present city of Reading, served about that time 
 also the Alsace congregation near that city, began the forma- 
 tion of the Lutheran congregation in it by preaching in a 
 private house, consented in 1748 to serve the Lutheran con- 
 gregation at Earltown (New Holland), Lancaster county, Pa., in 
 1751 that at Lancaster also for a short period, and remained 
 pastor at the Mosellem church until his return to Europe in 
 1759, where he most probably died (1775) as pastor of a con- 
 gregation in Wurtemberg. Muhlenberg, willingly admitting 
 the superiority of Wagner's personal character over those 
 vagabond self-made pastors with whom he and the congre- 
 gations were obliged to contend, tried to influence Wagner 
 and to benefit him as best he could. But a more intimate 
 association with a man of Wagner's whole mental framework 
 was impossible. Tulpehoken, however, now remained one of 
 the objects of Muhlenberg's care. In fact, in the spring of 
 1745, while Wagner for a time had absented himself, those 
 served by him called upon Muhlenberg to take them alto- 
 gether under his care, thinking that he could reunite all the 
 three parties. We add that during Wagner's residence at 
 Tulpehoken the Moravian party had erected, in place of their 
 old frame church, a new building of freestone, dedicated in 
 1746 by Spangenberg. Wagner's party used Christ Church, 
 which was also claimed by the friends of Stoever. Immedi- 
 ately after Wagner's first arrival in Pennsylvania, in July or 
 August, 1743, Muhlenberg had tried to induce the Lutherans 
 at Indianfield and Old Goshenhoppen, some miles north-east 
 of Providence, to give Wagner a call, since they were then 
 engaged in a strife with Streiter, a former school-teacher, 
 who served them as an unordained pastor. But they refused 
 
150 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to have him. Wagner paid a visit also at Lancaster, but there 
 also had no success, but met with Stoever and Kraft, with 
 whom he fell' into a dispute. Thereupon, Wagner returned 
 to New England, and in a short time afterward suddenly re- 
 appeared in Pennsylvania, bringing along his family. One 
 reason why Muhlenberg was glad to have him settle in Tul- 
 pehoken was that during the summer of the same year 
 (1743) another clerical impostor, John Conrad Andreae, who 
 had been summarily dismissed from his pastoral office at 
 Hornbach by the government of the principality of Zwei- 
 briicken in Germany, arrived in Pennsylvania, and, desiring 
 to impose upon Lutheran congregations, might have suc- 
 ceeded in getting in at Tulpehoken. We find this despicable 
 individual afterward settled at Goshenhoppen, and at a later 
 period at Germantown, where, after having done his best to 
 serve the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to prevent the prog- 
 ress of Christ's kingdom, he died the death of an evil-doer, 
 Jan. I, 1754. It was not the least of the cares of Muhlenberg to 
 defend congregations against the inroads of such unworthy 
 pretenders to the sacred office, while such unprincipled men 
 used all possible means to counteract his influence. 
 
 As early as the year 1743 some Lutheran congregations in 
 Hunterdon county, N. J., laid their grievances before Muhlen- 
 berg. He was then not in a condition to extend to them 
 a helping hand. The same took place in the following year ? 
 and found him in the same condition. In the year 1745 
 things had taken such a turn that Muhlenberg could not 
 avoid interesting himself for those congregations and taking 
 upon himself the care of a rather distant field. The circum- 
 stances were as follows : In the Reports which Muhlenberg, 
 and at a somewhat later period his colaborers also who had 
 been sent from Halle, transmitted to the Fathers those worthy 
 men at Halle, that centre of evangelical missions in Germany, 
 who in connection with Ziegenhagen at London took such a 
 warm and active interest in the spiritual condition of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran congregations in the American colonies we 
 frequently read of " the Raritan congregations." It seems that 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 151 
 
 Lutherans from Holland had at an early period settled on the 
 upper waters of the Raritan River, and that in the course of 
 time German Lutherans joined them in such numbers that they 
 gradually formed the overwhelming majority, so that finally, in 
 religious services, German only was used. It is probable that in 
 earlier times the pastors of the Dutch Lutherans at New York 
 occasionally attended to the spiritual wants of these brethren 
 in the faith, and it is related that Justus Falkner, already 
 known to us, moved from the Hudson in his later years to 
 that district, and died there in 1723. His successor in the 
 field of labor on the Hudson and at New York was the Rev. 
 Wilh. Christopher Berkenmeier, who after his arrival in the 
 New World in 1725 served both these branches of the Dutch 
 Lutheran Church, until, in 1732, the Rev. Mich. Christian 
 Knoll took charge of the congregations at New York and 
 the neighboring Hackensack, N. J. Berkenmeier had on 
 the occasion of a visit advised the Lutherans on the Upper 
 Raritan to address themselves to the ministry of the city of 
 Hamburg, and to petition for a suitable pastor. In following 
 this advice they put into the hands of that ministry a regular 
 call and the moneys needed for the sending of the individual 
 to be selected. They wanted a " German sludiosus theologies^ 
 whom the ministry was to ordain before he came across the 
 ocean. One of the members of that ministry, Rev. J. A. 
 Wolf, had a near relative of the same name, then a studiosus 
 theologice, who was called, and May II, 1734, ordained in St. 
 Nicolai Church at Hamburg. Whether this man was selected 
 because he was a near relative of Pastor Wolf, or because he 
 gave encouraging promise of future usefulness, or because he 
 did not give any such for Germany, but allowed a charitable 
 hope of a favorable development under totally different cir- 
 cumstances in a foreign land, we know not; but this we 
 know, that a more unsuitable individual could not have been 
 palmed upon the Raritan congregations. He was received 
 here by them with much joy and good-will. Of his ortho- 
 doxy there was no doubt. He had not even the faintest sem- 
 blance of Halle Pietism, so much abhorred by the adherents 
 
152 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the orthodox party, to which in these times the Hamburg 
 ministry, and, on this side of the Atlantic, W. Chr. Berken- 
 meier and M. Chr. Knoll, belonged. He was said to be a 
 man of fine classical and literary attainments. But that such 
 a scholar should, when preaching, be obliged to read every 
 one of his sermons from his manuscript was altogether op- 
 posed to the views and feelings of the Lutheran farmers and 
 other people on the Upper Raritari. He thought that his 
 method was good enough for " these peasants." The spiritual 
 gifts of humility, patience, kindness were totally wanting 
 in him ; other proclivities were offensively prominent. Fol- 
 lowing his matrimonial inclinations, he soon married, but in 
 a short time was separated before a civil court de mensa et toro 
 from his wife, whom he had scandalously maltreated. He 
 showed a lamentable indifference in the discharge of his 
 duties, would not listen to advice, was obstinate in his ways, 
 and fond of litigation. One year after entering upon his 
 duties here he had to such an extent lost all the esteem and 
 affection of his flock that Berkenmeier and Knoll came to 
 admonish him and to try to make an impression upon him. 
 Through their influence a new agreement was entered into in 
 1735 between Wolf and the people, but it led to no happy 
 result. The members of the small congregations of which 
 there were about four refused to pay Wolf's salary. Since 
 they had given their signatures in the call sent to Hamburg, 
 they were compelled to pay as long as Wolf was legally the 
 pastor, and Wolf made them pay by legal process. Through 
 a period of eight years lawsuits were carried on between him 
 and his members. Every attempt to eject him from the office 
 failed. The civil courts were not calculated to judge the case 
 on its proper merits, the lawyers were ever ready with their 
 services on each side, and the whole condition of things was 
 a scandal to the Church and to the whole community. 
 
 Finally, but entirely too late, the contending parties agreed 
 to lay the matter before a board of four arbitrators, two from 
 each side. Wolf called Berkenmeier and Knoll on his side j 
 the members, Miihlenberg and Tobias Wagner. Miihlenberg 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 153 
 
 was very averse to have anything to do with the detestable 
 affair, but the worried, distressed members of those congre- 
 gations allowed him no rest. He corresponded with Berken- 
 meier, and proposed that Wolf should be persuaded and 
 assisted to return to Germany. It seems that Berkenmeier 
 intimated such a course would be detrimental to the repu- 
 tation and honor of Wolf. When, in July, 1745, three repre- 
 sentatives of the Raritan congregations came again to Muhlen- 
 berg, informing him that an agreement had been made before 
 a justice of the peace between them and Wolf that whosoever 
 should show himself unwilling to carry out the conditions 
 should pay a fine of fifty-five pounds, and that a final decision 
 must be made by the arbitrators on or before the 1st of 
 August, 1745, Muhlenberg found himself unable any longer 
 to resist, and undertook with Tob. Wagner a journey of about 
 seventy miles Wagner had to go one hundred and twenty- 
 six miles and arrived July 3ist at the Raritan. Here they 
 found, to their great embarrassment, that Knoll was there, but 
 not Berkenmeier. This seemed to jeopardize the whole un- 
 dertaking. What excuse Berkenmeier had for his non-appear- 
 ance we know not, but in a letter of May 20, 1745, sent to 
 Muhlenberg before the whole transaction, he uses very am- 
 biguous language, brings unjust charges against the congre- 
 gations, and deals with Wolf in a manner which is more 
 calculated to hurt the writer of the letter than to help Wolf. 
 Even Knoll did not hesitate, in a letter of Oct. 1 6, 1745, to 
 demonstrate to Berkenmeier that he had in this matter taken 
 a standpoint which, in view of all the facts of the case, was 
 untenable, and showed an unfair mind biassed in favor of 
 Wolf. Under these circumstances the absence of Berkenmeier 
 on the day of arbitration was probably no disadvantage. Wolf, 
 who may have felt that under present conditions he could not 
 satisfactorily maintain himself for any length of time there as 
 pastor, and who needed money above all other things, ac- 
 knowledged the three arbitrators as competent to decide the 
 case. The arbitrators listened through five long days to the 
 testimony laid before them from both sides ; they made vain 
 
154 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 efforts to reconcile Wolf with his wife, who preferred to go 
 begging with her two children rather than to live again with 
 tyer husband. No less futile were the efforts to restore peace 
 between Wolf and his church-members, not one of whom 
 desired him any longer as pastor. Wolf finally proposed, for 
 the consideration of ninety pounds sterling, to give to the 
 congregations a full release and quit the office. It was no 
 easy task to persuade men who had lost money enough in 
 this long litigation by court and lawyers, and had been obliged 
 by a decision of the court to sustain for years a man whose 
 services could not benefit them, to sign their names to the 
 document and to pay that worthless pastor an additional and 
 high sum of money. But the arbitrators, though obliged to 
 hear many a sharp word, succeeded, and the document was 
 signed. The old papers on which the claims of Wolf rested 
 he now handed to those whose names were on them, and they 
 immediately tore the signatures from them. Wolf received 
 his ninety pounds ; the trouble was so far at an end, and the 
 arbitrators departed. 
 
 A report on the arbitration, written by Muhlenberg and 
 signed by the three arbitrators, was sent to the ministry at 
 Hamburg. That Wolf ceased to be pastor was .one step in 
 the right direction, but of a negative character. The congre- 
 gations were left in a totally destitute condition. In ejght 
 years the Lord's Supper had not once been administered nor 
 the rite of confirmation performed. The people were demor- 
 alized in consequence of the bitter strife and the lamentable 
 litigation ; they were unwilling to enter into any formal con- 
 nection with another pastor. There were other disturbing 
 and discouraging influences at work on either side. 
 
 Under these distressing circumstances Muhlenberg under- 
 took, in the autumn of the same year, to pay another and a 
 more protracted visit to these congregations. He instructed 
 the young, visited and encouraged the membership, adminis- 
 tered confirmation, awakened a new interest. Through him the 
 lost confidence in the clerical office and the respect for it were 
 restored, and twice he repeated his visits there in the follow- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 155 
 
 ing year. In all this he proved the intensity of his mission- 
 ary spirit. No wonder that also in that region a new life and 
 an interest in the word of God, and a love for it and for the 
 Church and her services, were aroused. That he endeared 
 himself to the souls whom he manifestly led out of dark- 
 ness we can easily understand. Future facts will prove it. 
 But he had now undertaken to cultivate a new field, and was 
 not the man to lay his hand to the plough and to look back. 
 We shall have ample occasion to see how solicitous he was 
 for the spiritual welfare of the Raritan congregations. 
 
156 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 1745-1747- 
 
 Further extension of Muhlenberg's missionary labors. Numerical increase of Luther- 
 ans in Pennsylvania. Their spiritual destitution. Irregularly appointed pas- 
 tors. Carl Rudolph. Moravian pastors intruding upon Lutheran congrega- 
 tions. In answer to Muhlenberg's petition, Rev. P. Brunnholtz and J. N. 
 Kurtz and J. H. Schaum arrive from Halle. Their respective fields of labor. 
 Brunnholtz takes charge of Philadelphia and Germantown. Miihlenberg 
 retains Providence and New Hanover and outlying charges. Kurtz begins to 
 teach at New Hanover, Schaum at Philadelphia. J. J. Loeser. Muhlen- 
 berg's marriage. He settles at Providence. Missionary work in Lancaster 
 and York. L. T. Nyberg. J. Conr. Weiser the elder. The Lutherans on 
 the Upper Hudson and in the Schoharie Valley. Interest in the Raritan con- 
 gregations. The catechists Kurtz and Schaum there. Progress of these 
 churches. 
 
 THE year 1745, which witnessed the extension of Muhlen- 
 berg's work and influence beyond the limits of Pennsyl- 
 vania into the neighboring province of New Jersey, was in 
 other respects one of the most memorable of his life. In the 
 Raritan congregations he had to disunite incongruous ele- 
 ments; in Pennsylvania he was engaged in effecting very 
 desirable unions. From the very first days of his labor in 
 the field to which he was called, the conviction that here was 
 any amount of work for the proper kind of men willing to 
 serve the Lutheran cause grew more and more strong within 
 him. Thousands of Lutherans were scattered over a field 
 extending several hundred miles in all directions. Immigra- 
 tion was toward the middle of the last century greatly on the 
 increase. It is stated that in one year nine thousand, in another 
 twelve thousand, German immigrants landed at Philadelphia. 
 Reports came to Miihlenberg from all directions that Lu- 
 theran pastors were wanted. In their destitute condition con- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 157 
 
 gregations would allow men to serve them who were devoid 
 of every quality necessary for spiritual advisers. Some of 
 that class have already come under our observation. Such 
 men had to be resisted and displaced and worthy men intro- 
 duced. 
 
 Among these rogues there was one particularly prominent 
 in those years, Carl Rudolph by name, prince of Wiirtemberg, 
 as he called himself, a consummate scoundrel, probably a desert- 
 er from some army in Europe, who carried on a cheating and 
 stealing expedition from Georgia through the seaboard prov- 
 inces as a pretender to the sacred office, foraging upon Ger- 
 man settlers, displaying anew in a short time in each locality 
 his utter dissoluteness, doing immense harm to the clergy, but 
 always finding people to inveigle by his persuasive arts. There 
 were here and there, in various congregations, better men 
 well qualified for the sacred work. Among the Germans 
 they were then " few and far between/' There was no organ- 
 ization, no unity of action, among them. Most active were 
 the Moravians. They seemed never to be in want of men to 
 serve their cause among Germans or Indians. But, while 
 Miihlenberg was willing to give them credit for their general 
 character and zeal, he could not allow the Lutheran congre- 
 gations to fall a prey to Moravianism or to be cut asunder by 
 the Moravian emissaries, as was sometimes the case. Under 
 these circumstances he would have been very glad to meet 
 with brethren in the office who could have shared his feelings 
 and views and co-operated with him. But neither Wagner 
 nor Stoever nor men like Berkenmeier or Knoll were properly 
 qualified for this end. Wagner was distrustful, had become 
 prejudiced against Miihlenberg, did not consider him soundly 
 orthodox, and even tried to raise suspicion against him by 
 pamphlets. Miihlenberg sought to exercise some influence on 
 Stoever, in whom he certainly recognized elements which, 
 properly directed, might have been used to great advantage. 
 But Stoever had no sympathy with Miihlenberg's spirituality, 
 no thorough-going personal experience of the operation of 
 the Holy Ghost upon his heart and life. Miihlenberg's efforts, 
 
158 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 by conversation or correspondence, to bring him nearer and 
 effect a better understanding and a closer sympathy were in 
 vain. Men like Berkenmeier and Knoll belonged to a differ- 
 ent theological school, and were especially Berkenmeier 
 prejudiced against the missionary of Halle. It is natural to 
 suppose that Miihlenberg greatly desired as his associates men 
 who would fully sympathize with him. From the very begin- 
 ning of his labors in his three congregations, knowing full 
 well how much should and could be accomplished here for 
 the Lutheran Church and for thousands of souls given to her 
 by Providence, he had sent petitions to Halle begging the 
 Fathers to send him colaborers ; and so pressing was he in his 
 entreaties that finally success crowned his efforts, and three 
 men were found who were willing to follow Miihlenberg as 
 missionaries from Halle to assist in his labors on the large 
 field in Pennsylvania. They were Peter Brunnholtz, John 
 Nicol. Kurtz, and John Helfrich Schaum. Jan. 26, 1745, 
 Miihlenberg had the pleasure of welcoming these three 
 brethren at Philadelphia to their new field of activity. He 
 knew that in union there is strength, and he had not the least 
 doubt that with these men he could in all the essentials of the 
 sacred service fully unite, and that a blessed progress in the 
 work before them might be expected. 
 
 The date on which these three brethren arrived here was so 
 memorable, and the joy they experienced on meeting Miihlen- 
 berg was so great, that for a number of years it was celebrated 
 in the circle of the brotherhood as a memorial day, serving 
 for the spiritual refreshment of them all. That joy was shared 
 fully by the members of the Philadelphia congregation, who 
 received these brethren most kindly. After it was known 
 that they had resolved to come, prayers were offered publicly 
 and privately for a safe voyage. That to them and to their 
 whole work Miihlenberg's experience, highly-respected posi- 
 tion, influence, and friendship proved invaluable, needs no 
 remark. He had been the pioneer and had done the hardest 
 work ; they willingly acknowledged his superiority and fol- 
 lowed his guidance. 
 
hENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 159 
 
 The most prominent of them was Rev. Peter Brunnholtz. 
 He was, when leaving Europe, still a subject of the Danish 
 kingdom, having been born in Nubiihl, in the Danish province 
 of Schleswig. Having received a good linguistic education 
 he mastered, among others, also the Danish and Swedish lan- 
 guages and having finished his course of theological study 
 at the university, for a time as a candidate for holy orders he 
 was engaged in performing pastoral services on the estates 
 of a nobleman, Hartmann von Gensau of Farrenstaedt, who 
 also used him as an instructor of the youth, thought highly 
 of his services and of his Christian character, was closely 
 connected with the directors of the Halle institutions, and, 
 in accordance with their wishes, laid, the call from Pennsyl- 
 vania before Brunnholtz, believing him to be well qualified 
 for the work, though he had some misgivings on account of 
 Brunnholtz's weak constitution. Brunnholtz, after taking the 
 matter into prayerful consideration, accepted the call Feb. 29, 
 1744. At Dr. Francke's solicitation, Count Stolberg of 
 Wernigerode permitted the examination and ordination of 
 Brunnholtz by the church authorities of his estates. On 
 Friday, May 10, 1744, he was examined, and on Sunday, 
 May 1 2th, publicly ordained. After having taken farewell 
 of his father and brothers, and of the Fathers and friends at 
 Halle and other places, he was joined at Hamburg by his two 
 companions, J. N. Kurtz and J. H. Schaum, both going to 
 America in the capacity of assistants to Muhlenberg and 
 Brunnholtz, or as catechists. Both were intimate friends, 
 as their fathers esteemed parochial teachers in Germany 
 had been for many years. They had made a beginning in 
 the work of preparation for the ministerial office, and were 
 expected to continue their studies under the tuition and guid- 
 ance of both their superiors, and at the same time to make 
 themselves useful as teachers in the schools connected with 
 the congregations under the care of the ordained pastors. As 
 such they were greatly needed in Pennsylvania, and proved 
 themselves at once valuable colaborers with Muhlenberg and 
 Brunnholtz. Kurtz took his lodgings in the recently-erected 
 
l6o LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 school-house at New Hanover as the teacher of the school 
 connected with that congregation ; Schaum, residing in Philadel- 
 phia with Brunnholtz, served there in the same capacity. Both 
 assisted the pastors also in preaching, since at various locali- 
 ties outside of the congregations united under the two regular 
 pastors, and taken care of by them, there were demands for this. 
 Sometimes, as the circumstances required it, the pastors them- 
 selves would serve those outlying stations (Filial Gemeinderi), 
 which in the course of time were raised to parishes having 
 their own pastors or forming, in connection with other similar 
 smaller settlements, new parochial charges. Thus it was at 
 Oley, a few miles from New Hanover in a north-eastern direc- 
 tion ; at Saccum, Upper Milford, and neighboring localities : 
 at Easton and its environs ; also in Chester county, on the 
 west side of the Schuylkill River ; at Cohansey in New Jer- 
 sey, about thirty-six miles south-east of Philadelphia ; in the 
 Schwarzwald, and in other localities added in the course of 
 time. Wherever Miihlenberg* found German Lutherans who 
 needed pastoral services he was willing to give a helping hand, 
 and Brunnholtz and the two catechists manfully assisted him ; 
 so that the influence of these increased and united forces, 
 working for one end, was felt over the field of action, which 
 continually expanded. Miihlenberg never lost sight of the 
 training of the children of the Church. As other responsi- 
 bilities continually increased, he could no longer devote him- 
 self to regular teaching. But he found also for the children 
 of his flock at Providence a young man who under his super- 
 vision carried on the work in the parochial school. This was 
 John Jacob Loeser, who before the arrival of J. N. Kurtz had 
 in New Hanover acquired some experience in the art of teach- 
 ing, enjoyed, on account of his excellent Christian character 
 and faithfulness in the performance of his duties, the con- 
 fidence of Miihlenberg, and Jan. 7, 1749, entered upon a new 
 field of labor as parochial teacher of the Lancaster congrega- 
 tion. Also J. Fr. Vigera, whose acquaintance we made at 
 Ebenezer, Ga., and who now resided in Pennsylvania, had 
 before the arrival of Kurtz served as a teacher at New Han- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. l6l 
 
 over, and had afterward for a time been active in the same 
 capacity at Philadelphia : he was also employed there, when 
 the regular pastor was engaged in other places and after J, 
 H. Schaum had been called to another field of labor, as a lay 
 reader in the congregational worship. 
 
 Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz began their united labors 
 cheerfully and with strong and lasting sympathy for each 
 other. At first they made bi-weekly changes: one served 
 for two weeks at Philadelphia and Germantown; the other, 
 in the country congregations. But already in June, 1745, an 
 arrangement was made, with the consent of the congrega- 
 tions, according to which Brunnholtz took special charge of 
 Philadelphia and Germantown; Muhlenberg, of Providence 
 and New Hanover, with the outlying smaller charges. He 
 had in the performance of his pastoral duties to spend a 
 considerable part of his time on horseback, going over the 
 roughest roads and byways, through thickets and swamps, 
 and to be exposed to all sorts of weather. These exertions 
 and dangers Brunnholtz's weaker physical constitution could 
 not endure. Muhlenberg, under circumstances soon to be ex- 
 plained, had his headquarters for about two months in Phil- 
 adelphia, where now his colleague began his bachelor house- 
 hold, while he himself resided at Providence, where, with a 
 view to a continued residence, he began to have a house built 
 for himself and took up a piece of land for cultivation, to 
 assist in sustaining himself and a family. 
 
 And this leads us legitimately to give the history of a 
 union in addition to the official clerical partnership of Muhl- 
 enberg with Brunnholtz, and in no manner affecting this most 
 necessary and salutary relation. We refer to a union which 
 contributed to supply a deeply-felt want and to complete the 
 man and the pastor for his work. 
 
 We know that already, in the fall of 1743, Muhlenberg 
 was requested to take an interest in the deplorable condition 
 of the Lutheran congregation at Tulpehoken, known in those 
 days as the " Tulpehoken Confusion." When, during his first 
 visit, he" became acquainted with J. Conrad Weiser, it seems 
 
1 62 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 that a mutual sympathy sprang up between the two. In a 
 short time Miihlenberg gained the full confidence of his new 
 friend, who, after various alliances in divers directions, came 
 nearer and nearer to Lutheranism as Muhlenberg represented 
 it, until finally his membership in the Lutheran Church was 
 fully established. Weiser was, when Muhlenberg became 
 acquainted with him, a man highly respected, not only by 
 his neighbors and a large circle of friends, but by the author- 
 ities of Pennsylvania and of neighboring provinces. He was 
 a self-made man, had gone through many hardships, was rich 
 in experience, and, while his interest in religious matters is 
 proved even by such an extravagance as his transient attach- 
 ment to the convent-life at Ephrata, and afterward by his short- 
 lived interest in Zinzendorf, he showed the greater soberness 
 of his judgment by his lasting respect and love for Muhlen- 
 berg and by the unremitting confidence he learned to place 
 in him. To Weiser's pen, in reply to questions made by 
 Brunnholtz, we owe one of the best delineations of Zinzen- 
 dorfs peculiarly-constituted character and of the methods 
 he pursued in his missionary work during his visit to Penn- 
 sylvania. Acknowledging what was great and good in the 
 count, Weiser, without any malice, with a totally unbiassed 
 mind, points out the weak sides of the man who in many, 
 but not in all, respects was the superior of thousands. That 
 Weiser, when Muhlenberg came to his house, had an open 
 ear not only for the well-seasoned conversation of his cler- 
 ical guest, but also for his melodious singing and his other 
 musical accomplishments, proves that the traditional love of 
 the German for music was vigorously alive in Weiser's heart. 
 Mtihlenberg's singing and playing on the family organ were, 
 however, listened to not only by Weiser, but by his whole 
 family. And we are not going too far in thinking that there 
 was among Weiser's children one who with a peculiar interest 
 listened to the manly singer's melodious voice, and could not 
 but admire his character and his whole bearing; and to her, 
 who could not escape his observation, Muhlenberg offered 
 his hand, which, with the parental consent, was lovingly 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 163 
 
 accepted. On April 22, 1/45, the Rev. H. M. Miihlenberg 
 and Miss Anna Mary Weiser were united in the bonds of 
 marriage at Tulpehoken by the Rev. Tobias Wagner. The 
 official record of the marriage is still to be seen in the well- 
 preserved church-record of the parsonage next to Christ 
 Church, near Stouchsburg. Brunnholtz and Scha'um had 
 accompanied Miihlenberg to Tulpehoken, and were wit- 
 nesses at the marriage. 
 
 Anna Mary Weiser was born June 24, 1727, was conse- 
 quently at the time of her marriage not yet quite eighteen years 
 old, always proved herself a faithful partner of her husband's 
 joys and sorrows, toils and cares, suffered in later years from 
 long-continued bodily infirmities, lost her beloved husband 
 after a happy union of forty-two years and five months, and 
 departed in peace Aug. 23, 1802. Her situation at the side of 
 her husband was a trying one. His mind and time were taken 
 up with the ever-increasing cares of his office, an extensive cor- 
 respondence, and the demands made upon him from all parts 
 of the Lutheran Church in the colonies. He was frequently 
 absent from home sometimes for weeks and months. This 
 was keenly felt by his wife, and the willingness with which 
 she submitted to her lot deserves our admiration. She knew 
 that in travelling to distant places and doing his best to gather 
 Lutherans into congregations, and for a time 'serving them or 
 giving them an organization, he was fulfilling the mission of 
 his life. Young and inexperienced as she was, after she had 
 given her hand to the beloved man she adapted herself ex- 
 ceedingly well to the duties of her arduous position, since all 
 the domestic affairs and the care of a growing family devolved 
 upon her. Her husband offered her his full sympathy. Once, 
 when he was away from her during a very critical period, she 
 said, referring to the distress then experienced, that indeed 
 many a poor laborer's wife with her husband with her from 
 day to day was more pleasantly situated than she was. Her 
 husband puts these words down in his diary in a way which 
 proves his tenderest compassion. But she rejoiced in his 
 manly, active, energetic character, in the divine blessings 
 
164 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 which manifestly rested on his labors, in the constant increase 
 of his usefulness, in the high regard that was offered to him 
 by the congregations, his clerical colaborers, and all right- 
 minded persons in the most varied positions in life. He 
 bears willing testimony to the good Christian principles which 
 ever guided her. One word from his pen and from his heart 
 which he enters in his diary after having happily lived in her 
 companionship for nearly thirty years may suffice in this direc- 
 tion. " Last night," he says, " my wife had a very severe 
 attack of sickness, and suffered greatly. She is now some- 
 what better. We had a conversation on spiritual matters. 
 Her great concern was, among other things, this that her 
 children, her relatives, and friends might be saved and attain 
 eternal bliss. This is proper and laudable : we must first in 
 humble anxiety and sincerity seek our own salvation, but 
 look also upon our children and friends as a property be- 
 longing to us, yet purchased by the Lord by the gift of his 
 own blood and life for them : to him we should recommend 
 them, presently and perseveringly praying for them." We 
 may add that the hospitality exercised by Mrs. Miihlenberg 
 was thankfully acknowledged by many pastors and friends 
 who in her house were kindly received and liberally treated. 
 When Miihlenberg, in June, 1745, moved from Philadelphia 
 to Providence, he not only acted so as to prove his good-will 
 toward his colleague Brunnholtz, but he followed the inclina- 
 tion of his own heart. He preferred the country to the city, 
 realizing that man had made the city, but God the country. 
 To his decided preference for the country he gives expression 
 on various occasions. The people of Providence were glad 
 to have him among their fellow-citizens and neighbors, and 
 a strong mutual attachment grew up, which made itself felt 
 whenever occasions arose which called him away to distant 
 fields of labor. That he built himself a house there on a 
 piece of land belonging to him indicated that he intended to 
 be permanently settled at Providence, and, although some- 
 times absent for extended periods, his headquarters were there 
 until he was by peculiar circumstances in 1761 necessitated to 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 165 
 
 move with his family to Philadelphia. In Providence eight 
 of the eleven children with whom his marriage was blessed 
 were born ; the first of them, John Peter Gabriel, born Oct. 
 I, 1746, was destined to make the name of the family re- 
 nowned by his patriotism. 
 
 When Miihlenberg already in 1745 was requested to stretch 
 out a helping hand to the Lutherans on the Raritan, he extend- 
 ed his influence in an eastern direction beyond the Delaware. 
 Soon afterward his sympathies were engaged in Lutheran con- 
 gregations to the west of his headquarters at Providence. 
 There disturbances had taken taken place similar to those ex- 
 perienced in Philadelphia, in consequence of the objectionable 
 position Zinzendorf and his assistants tried to take in the 
 Lutheran congregations. In the congregations at Lancaster 
 and York a Moravian emissary had also succeeded for a 
 time in palming himself upon them as a Lutheran pastor. 
 Here we simply state what Miihlenberg reports of his second 
 visit to Lancaster and first one to York. Lancaster he had 
 visited, in company with Brunnholtz, already in 1745.; now 
 he speaks of the year 1746. He says : " Toward the end of 
 April I was necessitated again to visit Tulpehoken, and from 
 there to go to the litigant congregation at Lancaster. This 
 I did with the consent of my colleague Brunnholtz and our 
 congregations. The circumstances forced me, though I fore- 
 saw that I would be rewarded with nothing but disgrace and 
 trouble ; for after about eighty protesting Lutherans had been 
 acquitted by the civil authority, and those tending to Mora- 
 vianism, with their pastor, Herr Nyberg, were nonsuited, the 
 Lutherans desired, for justice' sake, that one of us should 
 preach a sermon in the church, to which before they had no 
 access. The Moravian party opposed it, and their attempt 
 forcibly to prevent me almost created a tumult, one faction 
 impelling me to go to the church, the other resisting me. 
 All, however, passed off without a disturbance. The Mora- 
 vians, seeing that they could not carry out their purpose, used 
 the German newspaper to asperse my name ; the other side, 
 however, amply retorted. [This refers to Christoph. Sauer's 
 
1 66 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 German periodical published at Germantown.] After this 
 Nyberg with his party left the church to the Lutherans and 
 began to build a house of worship of their own. The fact 
 that the right reverend consistory of Sweden sent a response 
 testifying against Nyberg [who was a Swede] had greatly 
 contributed to this result." " From Lancaster I was called to 
 a large congregation on the other side of the Susquehanna 
 River, near the outmost borders of Pennsylvania, touching on 
 Maryland. This congregation had occasionally been visited 
 by Herr Nyberg so long as he was considered a genuine 
 Lutheran preacher. The congregation consists of one hun- 
 dred and ten families. Nyberg had promised to procure for 
 them another pastor from Sweden, but after the quarrel at 
 Lancaster had begun they would not have any further deal- 
 ings with him. In that congregation I had to baptize a num- 
 ber of children and to confirm some whom the parochial 
 teacher had instructed. From there I returned to Tulpehoken 
 a distance of forty-six English miles where I again 
 preached ; from Tulpehoken I had fifty miles more to Provi- 
 dence and my congregations." The town here spoken of is 
 York, and this is all the report Miihlenberg gives us of this 
 his first and most extended missionary-tour in the western 
 direction from Providence. 
 
 During the year 1746 the young family at Providence had 
 the opportunity of entertaining a very remarkable visitor. 
 The grandfather of Mrs. Muhlenberg, old John Conrad Weiser, 
 came to see his descendants in Pennsylvania and to look into 
 their circumstances. His life had been an unusually stormy 
 one. Coming from the dukedom of Wurtemberg along with 
 the thousands of Palatines who during the summer of 1709 
 reached London, he was encamped with them in tents given 
 for this purpose by the English government in the neighbor- 
 hood of the city, toward Greenwich. When, in the following 
 year, the government transported some three thousand of these 
 German emigrants to the shores of the Hudson, Weiser was 
 among them. In the troubles which a short time afterward 
 broke out between these new settlers and Governor Hunter, 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. l6/ 
 
 under whose injudicious and arbitrary measures they felt ex- 
 ceedingly uncomfortable, Weiser was one of the spokesmen. 
 Hunter considered him a seditious ringleader. Weiser was 
 conscientiously convinced that the Germans were wilfully 
 maltreated by Hunter, and he resisteo! this deeply-felt injus- 
 tice. Instead of trying wisely to pacify these strangers on 
 the Hudson, Hunter never ceased to irritate them. He wanted 
 them to repay the English government for its outlay in their 
 behalf by producing naval stores tar, rosin, etc. They de- 
 sired to be independent settlers, cultivators of the soil, to 
 establish comfortable homes for themselves by their industry. 
 As such there can be no doubt they would have been a much 
 richer source of advantage to the government. When a 
 number of them Weiser one of the foremost among them 
 in 1712 moyed from the Hudson to the Schoharie Valley, they 
 maintained that Mohawk Indians who in 1709 had been ex- 
 hibited in London, and had become acquainted with the Ger- 
 man emigrants, had given them that tract of land an asser- 
 tion which was not without some foundation. Hunter con- 
 sidered the exodus to the Schoharie a new rebellion in a new 
 form, and set up fictitious counter-claims of some Dutchmen 
 of New York to those lands. The Germans saw in this 
 only another fraudulent measure of oppression, and resisted 
 the government, sometimes with means not justifiable in the 
 eyes of the law. Hunter intended to put Weiser, as the most 
 outspoken and most obstinate rebel, in prison at New York, 
 and to hand him over to the criminal court ; but no officer 
 of the law had the courage to touch Weiser. He and the 
 Germans had a good understanding with the Indians. He 
 allowed his son Conrad to live for a period of six months 
 among them and to be on the most intimate terms with them. 
 There young Weiser gained his knowledge not only of the 
 language and manners of the Indians, but also of their pe- 
 culiar feelings and of their views of men and things, which 
 in his later life in Pennsylvania was of much advantage to 
 him and to the commonwealth. Father J. C. Weiser was 
 one of the three unfortunate delegates whom the Germans in 
 
1 68 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the Schoharie Valley in 1718 sent to the government in Eng- 
 land to report their grievances and seek for redress. These 
 three delegates found their way to Philadelphia, clandestinely 
 embarked here, fell into the hands of pirates, by whom they 
 especially Weiser were most cruelly maltreated, after hav- 
 ing landed at Boston, finally reached London, and were there 
 without friends and patrons. One of them, Wallrath, being 
 homesick, embarked for America, and died on the sea ; the 
 two others, Weiser and Schafif, became involved in debt, were 
 imprisoned almost a whole year, and of course in their cause 
 with the government were counteracted by Hunter, who in 1719 
 had been recalled from his office as governor of New York. 
 Weiser returned to America in 1722. The result of the mis- 
 sion to England was fruitless. The government of England 
 directed, however, its representatives in the province of New 
 York to parcel out to the Germans in the Schoharie Valley 
 other lands upon which no claims were made. In the course 
 of time many of the younger generation of Germans came 
 to an understanding with those Dutchmen who by showing 
 fraudulent titles pretended to have claims to the lands which 
 were cultivated by the Germans. The Germans agreed to pay 
 a trifling yearly rent. Other parties of the Germans moved, 
 as we have already learned, in 1723, to Pennsylvania, and set- 
 tled on the Tulpehoken. They were followed in 1729 by 
 young J. Conrad Weiser. His father would not then leave 
 the soil on which he had fought the long-continued battle 
 of his life. But now, in his extreme old age, his heart gave 
 him no rest. No doubt he had now and then heard of his 
 son, of the progress the Germans were making in their set- 
 tlements in free Pennsylvania, of the happy condition of the 
 members of his own family, and undoubtedly also of Miihlen- 
 berg, his position and influence, and his marriage with his 
 own granddaughter. All this was too much for the aged 
 father ; he could not quietly rest on the Schoharie. Like 
 the old patriarch Jacob, he desired once more to see with 
 his own eyes his son and his grandchildren, with all their 
 friends, and then to die. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 169 
 
 Of old Grandfather Weiser's visit at his house at Providence 
 Miihlenberg speaks in a very feeling way. He says that his 
 visitor came also with the special purpose of speaking with 
 him about the concerns of his soul. When he arrived he 
 was so much exhausted by the exertions of the long and 
 arduous journey undertaken in his old age that he was 
 brought to his house almost dead. After a day's rest he 
 revived to some extent, and began with half-broken voice 
 to repeat striking Bible passages referring directly to the 
 salvation in Christ, to the forgiveness of sins through him, 
 to Christ's call to all heavy-laden souls, and verses of the old 
 German church-hymns of corresponding character. His eyes 
 were dim, and his hearing was so defective that there could 
 not be much conversation. Miihlenberg takes occasion to 
 say : " Oh how good it is in our youth to lay up treasures 
 taken from the word of God ! Even if it does not produce 
 the proper fruit in practice on account of many impediments, 
 God remains true to himself and graciously shows his hand 
 in his own good time. Methinks this aged father offered me 
 a beautiful instance of this. I could here see how true it is 
 that the Spirit of God is directly united with the word. It 
 affords sincere joy to see how the old Evangelical Lutheran 
 teachings were revivified in the soul." Having regained some 
 bodily strength, the aged father received, after proper prepa- 
 ration, the Lord's Supper from the hands of Miihlenberg a 
 scene exceedingly affecting to all who were present. In con- 
 clusion he also united with all of them in praying the twenty- 
 third Psalm, and selected the fifth and sixth verses of it as the 
 text for the occasion of his burial. He remained a few days 
 longer at Providence, and was then taken in a wagon sent 
 by his son to Tulpehoken, where he rejoiced for a short 
 period to " live with his Joseph in Goshen," and fell asleep 
 while children and children's children sent up their prayers 
 in his behalf. He was at the time of his departure between 
 eighty and ninety years of age. To have undertaken, in 
 his enfeebled condition, at such an age, so arduous a jour- 
 ney from the Schoharie to Pennsylvania is a striking proof 
 
I/O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the longing of his heart and of the indomitable energy of 
 his will. 
 
 When Miihlenberg, in the summer of 1745, returned from 
 the Raritan congregations, he kept their interests and preca- 
 rious condition in his heart. They regained courage from the 
 thought that they were an object of his care. Their situa- 
 tion was a very trying one. Miihlenberg tells us that Wolf, 
 after quitting his office, was still there, " willing rather to rot 
 than to move." So was another individual, Langenfeld, who 
 years before had as a pastor served a portion of the whole field, 
 but now was farming. Both of them were spectators, curious 
 to see what turn things would take. Berkenmeier and the 
 ministry of Hamburg were unwilling to allow any " Hallen- 
 sis " to gain influence there. The congregations were deplor- 
 ably demoralized, and afraid, in consequence of their troubles 
 with Wolf, to put their signature to any call for a pastor ; they 
 had not yet church- and school-buildings, and for this ex- 
 pected help from the " Fathers " through Miihlenberg. We 
 know that during the fall of 1/45 he paid them a second, 
 more protracted visit. Twice he repeated his visits during 
 the following year. J. N. Kurtz was sent there toward the 
 end of the same year (1745), returned in January, 1746, and 
 spent also during the summer of this year three months with 
 them. In the spring of 1747, J. H. Schaum was delegated 
 to serve there, and spent a large part of the same year with 
 these congregations. But in the November of that year the 
 vagabond Carl Rudolph appeared there, brought greetings 
 from Miihlenberg which were, of course, wholly his own 
 invention and recommendations from the miserable scamp 
 Andreae, warning the people against any connection with the 
 Halle pastors. Fortunately, Carl Rudolph there, as in other 
 localities, succeeded in gaining adherents only for a short 
 time. It did not take many months to understand his abom- 
 inable character. But his presence had already proved a new 
 cause of disturbance. Kurtz was sent there again in March, 
 1748, to restore order by a sojourn of about four weeks. 
 Miihlenberg was greatly indignant at the carelessness and 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. I/ 1 
 
 want of judgment on the part of the leading men of the 
 congregations in permitting Rudolph to play for a time 
 there the role of a Lutheran pastor. He himself, accom- 
 panied by J. J. Loeser, again visited the Lutherans on the 
 Raritan in July, 1/48. The result of his labors among them 
 was that the congregations (Aug. 7th) resolved to build in a 
 central position one large church of freestone. The church 
 was built. Miihlenberg also gave them a proper organiza- 
 tion, each of the four congregations being represented in a 
 'common vestry by four elders and two deacons. Certainly 
 this was a striking result of Miihlenberg's visit and influence, 
 and promised good for the future. 
 
 From the fact that, in the year 1746, Lutherans settled in 
 the Mohawk Valley, in the province of New York, addressed 
 themselves to Miihlenberg and Brunnholtz petitioning for a 
 suitable pastor, we learn how far the good report about the 
 work begun among the German Lutherans in Pennsylvania 
 had spread. Such petitions the number of which increased 
 from year to year proved how large were the fields ripe 
 already to harvest, and how necessary the prayers that the 
 Lord would send forth laborers into his harvest. 
 
 These prayers were answered from time to time. The 
 Fathers in Halle, by an extensive correspondence and the 
 minute reports sent by the laborers in the American vine- 
 yard, were well informed about the circumstances existing 
 there. Dr. Francke especially ever had a watchful eye to dis- 
 cover men of the proper qualities for the American work. 
 He was prepared, two years after Brunnholtz, accompanied 
 by Kurtz and Schaum, had left Germany, to send two others. 
 He found one in whom he placed confidence, though he was 
 not of a strong physical constitution. This was John Fred- 
 erick Handschuh, born of godly Christian parents Jan. 14, 
 1714, at Halle, and baptized by Aug. Herman Francke, the 
 author of the charitable institutions of that place, the father 
 of Dr. G. A. Francke, the fatherly friend of, Miihlenberg. 
 Young Handschuh as a child was frequently attacked by 
 sickness, and sometimes thought to be dead, but, growing 
 
172 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 stronger, he made faithful use of the means of education 
 which the classical schools of his native city and its chari- 
 table and learned institutions afforded to him. That his 
 parents gave him a pious Protestant French teacher, under 
 whose tuition he became master of the French language, was 
 at a later period of his life of much advantage to him. After 
 having, subsequent to 1733, taken a complete four years' course 
 at the Halle University, he was called to Leipsic as tutor of a 
 young nobleman, gave also instruction to a number of chil- 
 dren of the nobility of the city, and at the same time profited by 
 the advantages offered by the university. In 1737 the Duke 
 Christian Ernest of Saxony- Saalfeld^ appointed him preceptor 
 of his court-pages at Saalfeld. Here Handschuh experienced, 
 under the teachings of Rev. Dr. Lindner and Herr von Bo- 
 gatzky the godly man whose small book for private edifica- 
 tion has made the tour of the globe and done more good than 
 many a learned and heavy volume of theology a religious 
 awakening which settled his convictions as to the course of 
 his life. After having been examined and ordained by the 
 consistory of Altenburg, he was appointed in 1744 pastor of 
 the widely-extended Graba parish. Here the call of the des- 
 titute Lutherans in America came to him, and was accepted. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 1747-1748. 
 
 Arrival of Rev. J. Fr. Handschuh. Disturbed condition of the Lancaster congrega- 
 tion. Miihlenberg's influence demanded. J. N. Kurtz, settled at Tulpehoken, 
 serves for a time at Lancaster. Handschuh placed there. Molatton. 
 Earltown (New Holland). A Liturgy. Muhlenberg, again on a missionary 
 tour, visits Tulpehoken, Northkill (Bernville), Lancaster, York, Monocacy, 
 Frederick, McAllistertown (Hanover). Jacob Lischy. L. T. Nyberg. B. 
 Maul. Articles of church order. Dissensions. Moravian influences. Rev. 
 J. C. Hart wig. Visits to Upper Milford, Saccum, and neighboring congrega- 
 tions. Missionary work branches out to Birkensee (Perkasie, N. P. R. R.), 
 Easton, Macungie, Salisbury, and other localities. Catechist J. H. Schaum 
 placed at York. Miihlenberg's account of his pastoral work. Correspond- 
 ence and diaries. 
 
 WHEN Handschuh, after a very tedious voyage from 
 London, arrived at Philadelphia, April 5, 1748, he paid 
 with Brunnholtz a visit to Muhlenberg at Providence on the 
 9th and loth of the same month. Having received from the 
 Lutheran congregation at Lancaster a call dated May 16, 
 1748, he entered upon his pastoral duties the 26th of the 
 same month. 
 
 Lancaster county was separated from Chester county in 
 1727 by the provincial government of Pennsylvania. From 
 the year 1710 there was a strong influx of immigrants, espe- 
 cially Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and Germans from the Pal- 
 atinate. The Germans, as the historian Dr. William H. Egle 
 tells us, usually made arrangements with the agents of the 
 Proprietaries, the Penn family, about buying lands before they 
 came ; as soon as they arrived they were naturalized at Phil- 
 adelphia and received patents for their lands. The Scotch- 
 Irish acted more independently, used squatter sovereignty, 
 and pushed out beyond the Germans to the extreme frontier 
 
174 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of civilization. Among the Germans were many Lutherans, 
 who in the course of time formed themselves into congrega- 
 tions in various localities. At Lancaster City, which dates its 
 origin from the year 1730, the first congregational record was 
 commenced by J. C. Stoever in the autumn of 1733. Stoever 
 entered in it some baptisms and marriages of 1729. In the 
 year 1733 or in the following year he took up his residence near 
 Earltown (now New Holland), on the road leading from Penn- 
 sylvania to Maryland and Virginia, and at that time much 
 frequented. The construction of a road from Philadelphia 
 directly to Lancaster was resolved upon in 1733 ; the work 
 was not completed until 1741. In December, 1732, Rev. J. 
 Chr. Schulze, who had arrived Sept. 25th of the same year, 
 and was accepted pastor by the congregations at Philadelphia, 
 Providence, and New Hanover, paid a visit to Lancaster, pos- 
 sibly with a view to secure the services of Stoever for his 
 congregations during his absence, since he intended to return 
 to Europe and to raise charitable collections for his people. 
 It is probable that Stoever, whom Schulze, before his depart- 
 ure for Europe, ordained at Providence in 1733, was the only 
 Lutheran minister at Lancaster until 1742. Toward the end 
 of this year Valentin Kraft, who during the summer had 
 arrived at Philadelphia, gained some influence at Lancaster, 
 and promised to preach there twice every month. Though 
 dismissed as pastor in- the following year, he retained a 
 certain influence for four or five years. It appears that the 
 pastor of the Swedish congregation at the Wicaco church at 
 Philadelphia preached for the Lutherans at Lancaster from 
 time to time during the years from 1742 to 1744. By his 
 advice they sent, through Peter Kock at Philadelphia, a 
 petition to the Church government of Sweden to supply them 
 with a pastor. A theologian, Rev. Hedstrand, was found will- 
 ing to go to Pennsylvania and to serve the Lancaster Lutheran 
 congregation. He was ordained by the archbishop of Upsala, 
 but, no money being sent to pay his travelling expenses, he 
 relinquished the call. Rev. Gabriel Naesman of Gestricia, who 
 expected to travel in company with Hedstrand, and was called 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 175 
 
 as successor of Dylander (who had died Nov. 2, 1741) to the 
 Swedish congregation at Philadelphia, arrived here Oct. 20, 
 
 I743- 
 
 Now it appears that Lawrence Thorstonsen Nyberg, whom 
 we have already mentioned, formerly an engineer, was induced 
 secretly to join the Moravians through the influence of A. 
 Gradin, one of the most energetic emissaries of Zinzendorf 
 both in other countries and also in Sweden, and, having 
 given some attention to theology and passed his examination 
 as a candidate for holy orders in the Lutheran Church, heard 
 of the vacancy of the Lutheran congregation at Lancaster, 
 Pa. After his arrival here he gave Miihlenberg and Peter 
 Kock at Philadelphia a decided assurance that in Sweden he 
 had made the acquaintance of Arvin Gradin, but knew nothing 
 of Zinzendorf, his peculiar teachings and plans. The fact is 
 that in London he had intimate intercourse with Spangenberg 
 and other Moravians. On the third Sunday in Advent, 1744, 
 he introduced himself at Lancaster as a Lutheran pastor, was 
 joyfully accepted, and began his pastoral work as the first 
 pastor residing there in the midst of his flock. The fairest 
 prospects were before him successfully to build up his con- 
 gregation and to further the cause of the Lutheran Church, 
 but it could not escape the notice of his hearers that instead 
 of teaching, as he had solemnly promised to do, the doctrines 
 of the Lutheran Church, he used phrases at that time quite in 
 vogue with the Moravians calculated to throw contempt upon 
 the old truths concerning faith, the law, repentance, and also 
 the person, the nature, the office of Christ, and in this way 
 to undermine the Lutheran faith among a Lutheran member- 
 ship. Being questioned, he denied having any affiliation with 
 the Moravians, while he secretly corresponded with them and 
 visited their conferences. Toward those whom he gained 
 over to his side by a deceiving show of a higher spirituality 
 he used most flattering language. Of Muhlenberg and his 
 associates he began here and there to speak as of a most dan- 
 gerous class of people, and so fully convinced was he of the 
 strength of his position that he not only married a Moravian 
 
176 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sister in the faith, but secretly made arrangements to hold a 
 large conference of the Moravians in his congregation during 
 the Advent season, 1745. This brought on a crisis. The 
 officers and members of the congregation who were averse to 
 his principles and dealings locked the church, which had been 
 built in 1/37, and finally an appeal was made to the civil au- 
 thority to decide the case. In accordance with a decision 
 given by the governor upon recommendations in favor of 
 Nyberg from some English friends, Nyberg and his adherents 
 were permitted to use the church on Sunday morning, while 
 it was open for his opponents in the afternoon. Peace was 
 not re-established by this arrangement. The opponents of 
 Nyberg demanded the use of the church for themselves on 
 a certain occasion for morning service. Their petition not be- 
 ing granted, they nailed up the doors of the church and posi- 
 tively refused Nyberg admission into the building ; thereupon 
 eight of the most prominent men among his opponents were 
 brought by his adherents before court as disturbers of the 
 public peace. The church was closed against each party 
 until the court had decided. It happened, when the trial 
 came off, that those eight men were declared " Not guilty." 
 The church, however, remained closed against both parties. 
 The Nyberg people maintained that they were true Luther- 
 ans ; the others denied it. Nyberg preached to his flock in 
 the hall of the court-house. J. Conrad Weiser, who at that 
 time was a justice of the peace, made efforts, in connection 
 with another magistrate, to unite the litigants by a private 
 agreement. In consequence of losing the good-will of an 
 English magistrate at Lancaster, Nyberg was no longer per- 
 mitted to preach in the court-house. The archbishop of 
 Sweden, to whom Nyberg had appealed as favorable to him, 
 sent letters declaring Nyberg to be unfit for the pastoral office, 
 and denying his assertion that the Moravians were acknow- 
 ledged in Sweden to be true Lutherans. 
 
 This was the condition of the Lutheran congregation at 
 Lancaster when Muhlenberg was brought into connection 
 with it. That he was advised of all the circumstances and 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 177 
 
 proceedings before he exercised any personal influence he 
 tells us himself. When the trial of those eight men before 
 the court was to come off, he was most urgently petitioned 
 to come to the defence of the Lutheran cause. He under- 
 took, in company with Brunnholtz, to go at the proper time 
 to Lancaster. He and his companion made the most stren- 
 uous efforts to bring about between the contending parties 
 some sort of understanding and agreement, but did not suc- 
 ceed. On the Sunday preceding the trial both preached to 
 the Lutheran party in a private house. By the verdict in 
 favor of the eight men they and the large number of those 
 who sided with them were no less surprised than Nyberg's 
 adherents. 
 
 In the beginning of the summer of the following year 
 (1746) Miihlenberg was most urgently requested by the 
 Lutherans who had protested against Nyberg and his in- 
 trigues again to come to Lancaster and to preach to them. 
 When he arrived there he learned that in case he made an 
 attempt to preach in the church disturbances would take 
 place. Some Moravians told him in plain language that 
 members of their party would offer resistance to his preach- 
 ing in the church. He resolved to preach in the court-house, 
 and in the presence of some Moravians asked permission to 
 do so of the mayor of the town. Early on Sunday, the ap- 
 pointed day, the officers and members of the Lutheran party 
 met, and when Miihlenberg informed them that, to avoid 
 tumult, he had resolved to preach in the court-house, they 
 stated their reasons why they could not agree with his views 
 on this point, and why it would be the best, on this occasion, 
 to insist upon their right and title to the church, and urged 
 him to preach in it. He could not refute their arguments. 
 Half an hour before the public service began he addressed, 
 however, a letter to the mayor and another to the Moravians. 
 The bells were rung in the usual manner ; the people quietly 
 entered the church, and Muhlenberg preached on Luke xiii. 
 6-9. There was no disturbance. Nyberg, seeing that his 
 claims to the church were lost, influenced his adherents to 
 
1 78 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 build a church for themselves not as a Lutheran, but as a 
 Moravian, congregation. 
 
 The litigation was at an end, but the Lutherans had no pas- 
 tor. A petition in April, 1746, was sent to Ziegenhagen in Lon- 
 don, and to Francke in Halle, to procure for them a pastor. 
 Miihlenberg was not in a position to take pastoral care of the 
 Lancaster congregation. In December, 1746, Kurtz was sent 
 as catechist to Tulpehoken to preach and to teach there ; he 
 also took care of the Northkill (now Bernville) congregation. 
 Through the influence of J. C. Weiser, in Feb., 1747, he visited 
 for the first time Lancaster. Naesman, pastor of the Swedish 
 congregation at Philadelphia, had a few times held services for 
 the Lutherans at Lancaster, but was unable to continue them. 
 Kurtz now entered into an agreement to spend alternately 
 two weeks at Tulpehoken, where at that time he held ser- 
 vices in Reed's and in Christ Church, and two weeks at Lan- 
 caster. This arrangement, though under the circumstances the 
 only one possible, was not calculated to satisfy the demands 
 of a congregation which just at that time needed special care 
 and protection, particularly as the influence exercised then 
 by the man at the head of the parochial school was not a 
 good one. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that the Rev. J. F. Hand- 
 schuh had arrived at Philadelphia April 5, 1748. He had 
 within a few weeks after his arrival preached in Philadelphia 
 and Germantown, and after having gone to Providence where 
 Muhlenberg welcomed him with the significant words, " They 
 that sow in tears shall reap in joy " also at New Hanover, 
 Providence, and Schippach, the preaching-station seven miles 
 south of Providence. With his preaching Muhlenberg was 
 well pleased. On April I2th they were joined at Providence 
 by Brunnholtz. Very naturally, the thought occurred to 
 him and Muhlenberg that Handschuh might be the proper 
 man for the Lancaster congregation. All three were now 
 ready to proceed to Lancaster. J. Fr. Vigera accompanied 
 them. 
 
 Starting April I3th from Providence, they held, before 
 
* 
 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 noon, services in English and German in a locality called 
 Molatton, where for many years a Swedish congregation had 
 existed which now was no longer properly sustained by the 
 Swedish pastors. In the year 1746 an insidious disease in 
 that region carried off many people, and was the special rea- 
 son why Muhlenberg was invited there. The locality was 
 about ten miles from Providence, the population very mixed 
 some old Swedes, some English, some Irish, and a sprink- 
 ling of Germans. Muhlenberg served them by preaching to 
 them in the English language as often as his many other duties 
 allowed. While an old Swedish pastor, Falk, was serving 
 there some time before the arrival of Muhlenberg, the Mora- 
 vians tried to gain influence in this place also. When, on one 
 occasion, one of their emissaries, a young student of theol- 
 ogy, Brycelius, entered the church, old Falk met him, and, 
 addressing him with the words, " Thou comest to the sheep- 
 fold as a thief and a murderer!" gave him a smart slap on his 
 face. The members assembled for service prevented further 
 violence. 
 
 In the afternoon of April I4th the travellers arrived safely 
 at Weise|Fs house, near the present Womelsdorf. The follow- 
 ing dayfwas given to rest, and to grateful remembrance of the 
 venerable Fathers at Halle and of God's dealings with each 
 of the brethren during the remarkable course of their lives. 
 On April i6th they went to Christ Church, five miles distant^ 
 held preparatory services, paid a visit to Catechist Kurtz, and 
 returned to Weiser's. On Sunday, April I7th, they repaired 
 to Christ Church : Handschuh preached, and Muhlenberg and 
 Brunnholtz gave the Lord's Supper, to more than two hun- 
 dred communicants. In the afternoon Kurtz preached at 
 Reed's Church. 
 
 Among the communicants was Mrs. Weiser, with her chil- 
 dren, but -not Weiser himself. Here we touch a point which 
 gave much concern to Muhlenberg. He says in his diary 
 (April 1 6th) : "There was a heavy burden on my heart. 
 My father-in-law for many years had not been a guest at the 
 Lord's Table, partly owing to the former want of regularly- 
 
180 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ordained ministers, partly in consequence of the seductive 
 influence of different sects. From the time of my acquaint- 
 ance with them he and his wife took care to have their chil- 
 dren instructed and confirmed; they themselves, however, 
 waited for a more favorable occasion, had also still some scru- 
 ples about the use of different kinds of food, held the seventh 
 day sacred [we remember Weiser's sojourn among the Sev- 
 enth-day Mennonites at Ephrata], all this in spite of my 
 endeavors to show to them by correspondence and conversa- 
 tion that the essentials, sincere repentance and saving faith, 
 should not be confounded with things which were not the 
 substance, but mere shadows. The mother had for a long 
 time desired to come to the Lord's Table, but wished the 
 father to go with her. On the evening preceding our arrival 
 I had requested my beloved colleague Brunnholtz to bring 
 the subject before father. I myself am not long-suffering and 
 patient enough in such matters if I do not carry my point at 
 once. My brother Brunnholtz has the high esteem of father, 
 and is peculiarly fitted for such a task. He began with all 
 loving-kindness to invite him. Father said that the principal 
 doctrines of our Evangelical Church, as she teaches them from 
 the word of God and the interpretation of it in the Symbolical 
 Books, were dear and precious to him ; that he considered 
 them essential to salvation ; that he had at no time and no- 
 where found anything better ; and that in his long life he had 
 ample occasion to examine and to try all. As to the Lord's 
 Supper, he would rather wait a little longer, until the Tulpe- 
 hoken congregation had a regular ordained pastor and was 
 brought into a more harmonious state ; he was, however, not 
 at all opposed to mother's preceding him this time. During 
 the night following the celebration of the Lord's Supper in 
 Christ Church, Father Weiser suffered with a most severe 
 attack of sickness. He was apparently in imminent peril of 
 life. This was just at that time especially annoying to the 
 family, as the Moravians, who had formed a congregation of 
 their own and erected a church dedicated in April, 1745, by 
 Bishop Spangenberg had said they would not rest until they 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. l8l 
 
 had prayed Weiser to death." Weiser, having received the 
 necessary medicine, lingered on in an extremely feeble con- 
 dition. On the following day, Kurtz also having arrived, the 
 ministers all united in supplication for the sufferer, and in their 
 presence Muhlenberg asked him upon what ground he was 
 willing to live and to die. Having answered this question 
 to perfect satisfaction, he was again asked whether his con- 
 science did not upbraid him as to his conduct in the troubles 
 with the Moravians. He said that he had acted in this mat- 
 ter according to his best knowledge, conscientiously, and as 
 before God, and felt no reproaches. Continuing, he requested 
 that, as he had not communed the day before, the Lord's Sup- 
 per should now be given to him, and that the pastors should 
 receive it with him. This was done after confession and absolu- 
 tion. Weiser, with some assistance, but with difficulty, getting 
 out of his bed to bow his knees before God, thus offered with 
 many tears the prayer of a penitent and believing soul, and 
 received the Lord's Supper. All this was calculated to leave 
 a deep impression upon all the friends and to give special sat- 
 isfaction to Muhlenberg. Weiser also told his guests of his 
 entanglement with Zinzendorf, Spangenberg, and J. C. Fr. Cam- 
 merhof (also a Moravian bishop), showed them all his cor- 
 respondence, and told them where his papers, documents, and 
 letters could be found in case of his death. It seems that 
 this correspondence never came to light. Weiser recovered 
 from this severe attack of sickness ; twelve years more were 
 added to his pilgrimage on earth. 
 
 April 22d the travellers to whom Kurtz was added 
 proceeded toward Lancaster, about thirty miles distant from 
 Tulpehoken. Nine miles from Lancaster they were met by 
 all the officers of the Lancaster congregation, who conducted 
 them to the town. On the following day these officers, in 
 the course of conversation on the state of the congregation, 
 were informed that the intention was not to force upon their 
 congregation Handschuh or any other pastor, but to see 
 whether the members might be united in peace and harmony 
 by the adoption of certain rules of order under the guidance 
 
1 82 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of which the welfare of the congregation could be promoted, 
 as there was only one pastor sent by the Fathers at Halle, 
 while the congregati6n of Tulpehoken, and those on the Rari- 
 tan also, desired and needed regular pastors. On April 24th, 
 Handschuh preached in an edifying manner on the Good 
 Shepherd (John xii. 1 1 1 6) to a very large assembly. Even 
 after the departure of Nyberg's adherents the congrega- 
 tion still numbered from sixty to seventy families. After 
 services Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz proposed the question 
 to the whole assembly whether they should be allowed to 
 place a pastor here whom under present circumstances they 
 could conscientiously select as the most suitable man. When 
 this' was assented to, the second question was put: Whether 
 the congregation would, like their other congregations, elect 
 a body of twelve officers, and, with certain constitutional arti- 
 cles as a guide, recognize them as their official superiors? 
 When this also was assented to, they nominated, in addition 
 to the six officers then serving who were the most promi- 
 nent and intelligent members six others, the best they could 
 find, and requested the members to proceed to the sacristy six 
 at a time and give their votes. These twelve men having 
 been elected, the members of the church acknowledged 
 them by giving them their hands, and they then signed their 
 names to the articles or rules of order laid before them. The 
 whole transaction seemed to have a great effect upon the 
 congregation. On the following day Muhlenberg and Brunn- 
 holtz, after private prayerful consideration and deliberation, 
 informed the assembled church council that they could not 
 do better than propose Handschuh as pastor of the congre- 
 gation. " Now," says Muhlenberg, " the secrets of their 
 hearts were revealed. Three of the twelve, who had before 
 made up their minds to have Kurtz, became restive ; inti- 
 mated that if Kurtz would not be appointed as the regular 
 pastor they would resign their offices ; that the congregation 
 was poor, much dispersed ; that the richest members had gone 
 to the Moravians ; that they could not raise the travelling 
 expenses of Handschuh, and preferred the stronger voice of 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 183 
 
 Kurtz, etc., etc. The others, however, were glad, and ex- 
 pressed their full satisfaction with our proposition." Finally, 
 all united in the same view. In a document framed with the 
 consent of Handschuh he was to make a trial for the present, 
 and was appointed pastor of the Lancaster congregation for 
 half a year, or at the utmost a year, with the reservation, 
 that in case of the death of Muhlenberg or Brunnholtz their 
 first united congregations should have the final claim upon 
 him. About the middle of May following, Handschuh, ac- 
 companied by Schaum, the catechist, moved to Lancaster and 
 entered upon his field of labor. Schaum was intended for 
 the Lutheran congregation at York, there to test his pastoral 
 ability, the congregation having for some time petitioned for 
 a pastor. 
 
 April 26th, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Handschuh, re- 
 turning from Lancaster, held services at Earltown (now New 
 Holland), distant from Lancaster twelve miles. Here a Lu- 
 theran congregation was organized perhaps soon after 1733, 
 in which year J. C. Stoever had also in this locality begun 
 a church record with two entries of pastoral acts per- 
 formed as early as 1730. Lutherans had settled some years 
 before in various localities in the neighborhood; they were 
 united subsequently into one congregation. Earltown being 
 selected as the -most suitable place, a church was there erected, 
 probably soon after 1733. J. C. Stoever served there from 1730 
 until 1746, as it appears, with the exception of one year, 1732. 
 When he moved away, Val. Kraft, who had an influence also 
 at Lancaster, was pastor from May, 1747, until March, 1748. 
 The Lutherans had petitioned that the pastor at Lancaster 
 might also to some extent serve them. The condition of the 
 congregation was up to that time anything but satisfactory. 
 Under the care of men of the character of Stoever as he was 
 in those years, and of Val. Kraft as he always and every- 
 where proved himself, spiritual life could not increase. The 
 desire to receive help from Muhlenberg and his friends 
 deserved attention. Certain promises were given, provided 
 the members came to a better agreement among themselves 
 
1 84 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and were willing to open their hearts to the Spirit from on 
 high. Handschuh, after having taken up his residence at 
 Lancaster, served them for some months as well as his other 
 engagements permitted. When his services ceased, Tob. Wag- 
 ner, then residing near Reading, became pastor at Earltown, 
 distant from Reading about thirty-six miles a circumstance 
 which, as such, was a great impediment to proper pastoral 
 care. He continued pastor there until 1755. 
 
 Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Handschuh after their return 
 to Providence (April 2/th) took a work in hand which was of 
 much importance for the proper character of the public ser- 
 vices, the administration of the sacraments, and the unification 
 of the congregations. Miihlenberg says in his diary : " April 
 28th we held a conference at Providence and deliberated about 
 a suitable liturgy \Agende\ to be used by us and introduced 
 into our congregations. Thus far, we had used a small form- 
 ulary, but had nothing definite, in all its parts harmonious, 
 since we thought it best to wait for the arrival of more labor- 
 ers and to acquire a better knowledge of the conditions of 
 things in this country. To adopt the Swedish Liturgy did 
 not appear to be advantageous or necessary, since most of the 
 members of our congregations from the districts on the Rhine 
 and the Main considered singing of collects as papal. Neither 
 could we select a liturgy according to the forms to which 
 every individual had been accustomed, since almost every 
 country town or village has its own. For this reason we 
 took the liturgy of the Savoy congregation of London as 
 the basis, abbreviated it or made additions to it as after due 
 consideration of the circumstances in which we are here 
 placed appeared advisable to us and calculated to edify, and 
 adopted it tentatively until we had a better understanding 
 of the matter, and determined to use it with a view of intro- 
 ducing into our congregations the same ceremonies, forms, 
 and words. But, notwithstanding this, Herr Pastor Wagner 
 and Stoever and some other narrow-minded men took occa- 
 sion to instigate against us some simple-hearted people by the 
 pretext that we ought to introduce the Liturgy of Wiirtem- 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 185 
 
 berg or of Zweibriicken ; and they made them also believe that 
 we intended to lead them away from the Lutheran doctrine 
 and church order. For instance : We thought of using at' the 
 distribution of the blessed bread and cup the very words of 
 the Lord Jesus : ' Take and eat, this is the body of Jesus 
 Christ/ etc. ; ' Take and drink, this cup is the new testa- 
 ment in the blood of Jesus Christ/ etc. At the baptism of 
 children we intended to ask the sponsors, ' Do you in the 
 name of this child renounce ?' etc. On these points our oppo- 
 nents tried to produce agitation even before we had finished 
 our work. We consequently made the changes at once, as 
 the troubled consciences wanted it, saying, ' This is the true 
 body/ etc., ' This is the true blood/ etc., and, addressing the 
 child in baptism, ' Peter, Paul, Mary, dost thou renounce ?' 
 etc." 
 
 We had occasion to mention the name of York, west of 
 the Susquehanna. The attention of Muhlenberg was, as we 
 already know, in 1747 directed to the Lutherans in that town 
 and in the vicinity, and even west of it, as well as to those at 
 Lancaster, in such a ( pressing manner that he says in his diary, 
 June of that year, he was necessitated to travel through Penn- 
 sylvania to Maryland. It was a missionary-tour in behalf of 
 the Lutheran congregations and dispersed Lutherans settled 
 in those parts toward the boundary of Maryland. After having 
 celebrated Whitsuntide of 1747 with his congregations, which 
 assembled in large numbers on the occasion, he left New 
 Hanover, June roth, in the enjoyment of go.od health and 
 in company with J. J. Loeser, and arrived on the evening of 
 the following day at J. C. Weiser's residence at Tulpehoken. 
 J. N. Kurtz had been laboring diligently there since Dec. 16, 
 1746. As a catechist he could preach and teach, and also 
 baptize. In very exceptional cases catechists were permitted 
 to give to the sick in peril of death the Lord's Supper. The 
 public celebration of the Lord's Supper was left to the reg- 
 ularly-ordained ministers, who from time to time for this pur- 
 pose visited the congregations served by catechists. For this 
 reason Muhlenberg now administered the Lord's Supper at 
 
1 86 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Christ Church, Tulpehoken, to more than two hundred com- 
 municants. He found the spiritual condition of the congre- 
 gation hopeful. The recently-erected church, built of free- 
 stone, was not yet quite free of debt. It was not yet provided 
 with pews, but Weiser had just- then advanced the sum of 
 money necessary for that purpose. There were twenty acres 
 of land bought, so that the pastor might keep a horse and a 
 cow. The congregation had just begun to erect a commodi- 
 ous, solid parsonage near the church, high upon the embank- 
 ment of the river, and presenting toward the west a lovely 
 view of it. This parsonage is still used. A fine large church 
 was erected there in 1785, renovated in 1885, and with much 
 taste adapted to the necessities of the present generation. 
 
 In the afternoon of the same Sunday, Miihlenberg rode a 
 distance of eight or nine miles to the Northkill congregation 
 which with Tulpehoken formed then one parish preached 
 there to a very attentive congregation, and prqmised to ad- 
 minister the Lord's Supper to them three weeks later. He 
 was much pleased to observe that the people were greatly 
 benefited by the preaching of Kurtz and entertained much 
 respect for him. In external things also they provided suffi- 
 ciently and willingly for him. They felt, however, the need 
 of a regularly ordained pastor in their midst. During Muhl- 
 enberg's visit to Tulpehoken and his more extended absence 
 from home Kurtz officiated in his place at New Hanover and 
 Providence. 
 
 June I Qth, Miihlenberg with his companion Loeser arrived 
 at Lancaster. The deplorable condition of the Lutheran 
 congregation in those days in consequence of the influence 
 of the pseudo-Lutheran-Moravian agitator Nyberg is already 
 known to us. He had attracted to his side about eight or 
 ten of the wealthiest Lutheran families and preached to his 
 flock in his newly-erected church, wherein he was from time 
 to time assisted by a Reformed pastor, Jacob Lischy, by 
 Bishop Cammerhof, and by other Moravians. The arrange- 
 ment had already been made that Kurtz should preach to the 
 Lutherans who had rejected Nyberg, and should serve alter- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. l8/ 
 
 nately two weeks here and the following two weeks at Tulpe- 
 hoken. During the absence of Kurtz the Lutherans had no 
 service ; in consequence of which numbers of them would 
 attend Nyberg's preaching and come away with bad impres- 
 sions. This served to keep the congregation in a restless 
 condition and to demoralize it. There was strife among the 
 members as well as among its officers. Some who wished 
 to resign were dissuaded by Muhlenberg from doing so 
 under present circumstances. He preached to the Lutherans 
 June 2 ist, first Sunday after Trinity, held catechization, bap- 
 tized some children, and persuaded the members to elect a 
 new officer, as one of the number had died. 
 
 On the 'same day, travelling westward with Loeser, they 
 crossed, ten miles distant from Lancaster, the Susquehanna 
 in a boat during a violent storm. Muhlenberg says in his 
 diary that during the great danger he prayed God would in his 
 mercy avert any disaster, as the Moravians, in malice, might 
 construe such a thing to their advantage. When they finally, 
 though late at night, arrived at York, numbers of Lutherans 
 in their joy assembled, in spite of the lateness of the hour. 
 
 When Muhlenberg paid this his second visit to York he 
 found a rapidly-growing town. York county was separated 
 from Lancaster county and made a new district Aug. 19, 1749. 
 It was the first county in Pennsylvania west of the Susque- 
 hanna. The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania were averse to set- 
 tlements on lands which had not yet been obtained from the 
 Indians by regular contracts. Not before 1736 were all the 
 claims of the Five Nations upon that part of Pennsylvania 
 satisfied. Settlers had, however, as early as 1729 entered. 
 The first settlements were made at Kreutz Creek (a name of 
 later origin) especially by Germans, and on the Pigeon Hills by 
 English immigrants. To the difficulties arising from the un- 
 certainty about the boundary-line between Pennsylvania and 
 Maryland we have formerly alluded. 
 
 There were settlers in the neighborhood of the present city 
 of York already in 1731. The oldest record of the Lutheran 
 congregation begins in September, 1733. This book was 
 
1 88 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 bought by the contributions of twenty-four male persons, six- 
 teen of whom arrived in the years 1731 and 1732; only four 
 of the entire number passed through Philadelphia before 1731. 
 In September, 1733, during one of his pastoral explorations, 
 Stoever visited that part of the country and gathered the 
 Lutherans settled on the Codorus Creek into a congregation. 
 In the church records he entered baptisms and marriages ; 
 there are records of funerals only after 1748. The congrega- 
 tion had elders and deacons from 1733. Services at first were 
 most probably held in a private dwelling. On the land on 
 which the town of York arose no houses had at that time 
 been erected. The plan for building the town dates from 
 1741. The settlers were farmers, who lived each on the land 
 he had taken up. Within a few years the town increased 
 considerably. It naturally formed the centre of the Lutheran 
 congregation, the pastor serving in later years also the Lu- 
 therans on Kreutz Creek. Stoever came usually once every 
 month to York from his residence, near Earltown, for a period 
 of about ten years; in 1743 he resigned at York, probably 
 finding his field of labor too extensive. April 28, 1743, David 
 Candler served at York. Of him we know that he lived about 
 a mile south-west of the present Hanover, that he was married, 
 that in May, 1743, he began to gather a congregation at Han- 
 over (then McAllistertown), and another on the Monocacy, ten 
 miles east of Frederick, Md. Whether he were ordained, or, 
 if so, by whom, we do not know. After May, 1744, he made 
 no further entries in the church records. Possibly the work in 
 such a field and under difficult circumstances was too much 
 for his constitution. Leaving an excellent character to pos- 
 terity, he died Dec., 1744. Law. T. Nyberg, who just then 
 had taken charge of the Lutheran congregation at Lancaster, 
 spoke at his grave. In that year the first church, a log build- 
 ing, was erected at York, on ground still owned by the 
 Lutherans there. A church was probably erected there in 
 the times of Stoever, though in another locality. After Can- 
 dler's death the Lutherans at York were served by Nyberg, 
 who had there a sympathizer with his Moravianism Jacob 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 189 
 
 Lischy, the Reformed preacher already mentioned. Nyberg 
 had promised to have a regular Lutheran pastor sent also to 
 this congregation from Sweden, which promise he never in- 
 tended to fulfil ; but he tried to introduce emissaries from 
 Bethlehem, the Moravian headquarters in America, at York, 
 at Monocacy, and also at other places. What his real inten- 
 tions were could not remain long concealed, and the reaction 
 began at York and other localities as far as Frederick, and 
 ended Nyberg's services among Lutherans. At York, where 
 a decided Lutheran parochial teacher, Bartholomew Maul, ex- 
 ercised an influence, it was resolved to continue the services 
 regularly, to have every Sunday a sermon read and the youth 
 instructed, so as to prepare them for the confirmation by a 
 regular Lutheran pastor. 
 
 Miihlenberg says that at this his second visit to York he 
 felt greatly embarrassed. The Lutheran and the Reformed 
 congregations were both divided the latter, in consequence 
 of Lischy's underhanded working for Moravianism; the former, 
 through the arts of Nyberg, who by his animated, lively man- 
 ner of preaching knew how to attract those who had some 
 experience of spiritual life. But there were on each side, 
 among friends and foes of Nyberg, numbers of individuals 
 who had experienced a spiritual awakening, and listened with 
 delight to Muhlenberg's preaching; only such words as " law," 
 " repentance/' " prayer," etc., which in the Moravian peculiar 
 religious phraseology of that time had fallen into contempt, 
 were unwelcome to the Nyberg people, though he clearly 
 demonstrated their truth and propriety from the Bible and 
 the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church. Whenever he 
 felt necessitated to controvert the preaching of Nyberg and 
 the Moravians, they almost thought that he was sinning 
 against the Holy Ghost. He was, however, pleased to see 
 that the controversies then going on among the people had 
 served to make the Lutherans, the anti-Nyberg party, search 
 more diligently the Scriptures and the Catechism. Laudable 
 as their zeal for orthodox doctrine was, Muhlenberg regretted 
 that they did not always exercise proper moderation nor in 
 
IQO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 every case adorn pure doctrine with a holy walk and conver- 
 sation. Yet he was happy to see that some of the Lutherans 
 had during the warm disputes acted in such a uniformly Chris- 
 tian, moderate, and circumspect manner that he ascribed it to 
 a special grace. 
 
 Travelling with his companion onward, on June 22d on the 
 extreme borders of Pennsylvania they reached the Cone- 
 wago congregation, which they found in equal confusion. 
 Here, also, Nyberg had friends and antagonists. Muhlen- 
 berg spoke in kindness to them and made efforts to recon- 
 cile them. He enjoyed, apparently, the respect of both sides. 
 He promised them that as soon as one of the united ministers 
 should settle at York they would from time to time be visited, 
 and that, if ever possible, he would find a good teacher for 
 them, to instruct the youth and on Sundays to read a sermon 
 to the congregation. Some of the partisans of Nyberg com- 
 plained that the others had for a time been friends of the ill- 
 reputed Carl Rudolph and had allowed him to preach. The 
 others excused themselves, saying that he had at first imposed 
 upon them by his fair show and the ordination documents and 
 seals he exhibited, but that they had cast him out as soon as 
 they learned what a wicked fellow he was. 
 
 On June 22d, Miihlenberg preached to them in a large barn, 
 as many people had assembled from near and far. Some re- 
 quested the celebration of the Lord's Supper, but he was 
 obliged to refuse, saying that they needed first proper repent- 
 ance for their sins and application of the word of God. He 
 baptized some children, at the same time reminding parents 
 and sponsors of their duties. He also met with some who 
 in the very first years of his labors had been members of his 
 congregations, and, hearing him proclaim the word of God, 
 were now moved to tears and bitterly complained that they 
 were without the means of grace. 
 
 Two men had arrived from Maryland to take Miihlenberg 
 to a place thirty-six miles off. They started at two o'clock 
 p. M. in a drenching rain. They made eighteen miles over 
 terrible roads before night, but found no house at which to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. IQI 
 
 stay, and were obliged to continue riding through the wilder- 
 ness, with the rain pouring down heavier and the poor horses 
 wading up to the knees through water and mire, until, at 
 two o'clock in the morning, totally worn out and half dead, 
 they reached their quarters. This was the place called 
 Monocacy, ten miles east of Frederick, Md. Muhlenberg 
 found here a log church, but the congregation also divided 
 in the same way as in other localities. Nyberg had also been 
 manoeuvring here, and had tried to smuggle a Moravian into 
 a Lutheran congregation. Here, also, the church was finally 
 closed against him ; but he had found some to defend him 
 against the others, as for a time they had allowed themselves 
 to be deceived by Carl Rudolph. For a year they had peti- 
 tioned for one of the united ministers to come and administer 
 the Lord's Supper. As, since they had discarded Nyberg and 
 Carl Rudolph, they had shown respect for Muhlenberg and 
 his brethren in the sacred office, and confidence in them, and 
 had sent a contribution for the enlarging of the Germantown 
 church, their petition could not be refused. They were pleased 
 to see Muhlenberg, though he felt sad when he witnessed the 
 disturbed condition of the congregation, and was convinced 
 that both parties had acted uncharitably. 
 
 June 24th, while the drenching rain continued, most of the 
 Lutherans assembled at the church ; three or four of those 
 leaning to Moravianism were also present. Before the ser- 
 vices began Muhlenberg wrote in the English language, in 
 the book of church records, a number of articles concerning 
 the order to be observed in the congregation among others, 
 that the German Lutherans professed their faith in the holy 
 word of God as given by prophets and apostles, in the Unal- 
 tered Augsburg Confession and the other Symbolical Books 
 of the Church ; that wherever possible they had the sacra- 
 ments administered among themselves, in accordance with 
 those writings, by regularly called and ordained pastors, and 
 consequently, with those as a guide, would not tolerate 
 among their membership those who were known grossly and 
 wilfully to sin against the holy laws of God contained in the 
 
192 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 commandments or against those of the Christian civil authority. 
 After publicly reading these articles to the congregation and 
 explaining them in the German language, he requested all 
 who were Lutherans, or intended to be and to remain such, 
 to sign their names. The Lutherans present willingly gave 
 their names. The Moravians, however, did not, but stated 
 that heretofore they had observed all those articles ; that for 
 some years they had had no regular pastor and had been 
 occasionally visited by a Swedish or a German minister from 
 Pennsylvania, whom in their poverty they could not properly 
 pay; that they had therefore been necessitated to call a Luther- 
 an pastor from Bethlehem, Brother Nicky. They believed that 
 he taught pure doctrine according to the word of God and the 
 Symbolical Books, but the other, larger, party opposed his in- 
 troduction into the church, and had permitted such an unor- 
 dained, wicked deceiver as Carl Rudolph to hold public services 
 in it. For these reasons they had separated from such a con- 
 gregation, and intended to erect a church on a piece of ground 
 of their own. The others said that they knew of no Penn- 
 sylvania pastor who had complained of not having been paid 
 properly for his services. Miihlenberg asked if they alluded 
 to him, or if they had ever given or he had demanded any 
 money of them ; which both sides denied. He told them 
 that both parties had erred and been the cause of much re- 
 proach and injury to the truth that the sainted Luther had 
 warned his people against two devils, a black one and a 
 white one, and that the emissaries of both do much harm. 
 Then, after singing with them a penitential hymn, he preached 
 on the Prodigal Son (Luke xv. n.) To his question, put to 
 those who leaned to Moravianism, whether they would now 
 unite with the others and sign their names to the articles in 
 the minute-book, they said that they would, provided he would 
 remain and be the pastor. After some exchange of senti- 
 ments the larger party modestly expressed their views, and 
 said that they had heard him this day for the first time ; that 
 he had spoken of repentance, faith, godliness, while the Mora- 
 vian Brethren had in their sermons ridiculed such words as 
 
HENR Y MEL CPU OR MUHLENBER G. 193 
 
 these, together with the terms " law," " prayer," and the im- 
 portant truths connected with them. Knowing what erratic 
 extravagances, in those years of a sickly religious excitement, 
 prevailed among the Moravians, we can understand the crude- 
 ly-expressed but instinctively-true feelings of these opponents 
 of Moravianism. After further admonition and entreaties, 
 Miihlenberg so far succeeded in restoring the two parties to 
 a better understanding that the representatives of the two 
 sides expressed their readiness to forgive each other for the 
 harsh words they had used. Thus, says Miihlenberg, they 
 at least said ; of their hearts he could not judge. Those who 
 had given their names now met, elected elders and deacons, 
 and promised to rule the church in agreement with the arti- 
 cles to which they had given their signatures. They entreated 
 Miihlenberg to administer the Lord's Supper. He finally con- 
 sented, but took occasion to clear his conscience, and, while 
 they were still present, to 1 address the Moravians most for- 
 cibly on the necessity of repentance and of walking, clothed 
 in the righteousness of Christ, in his holy footsteps. They 
 all bowed their knees before the Divine Majesty, and after 
 confession and absolution received the sacrament. 
 
 Miihlenberg, in giving his reasons for entering these arti- 
 cles in the minute-book of the church, says he was moved to 
 do so because the Moravians habitually, in every congrega- 
 tion where they make inroads, attract to themselves the most 
 respected, liberal, and richest people, and as soon as they 
 have a party on their side the strife begins with words, often 
 leads to deeds of violence about the possession of churches 
 and school-houses, and produces the most distressing alter- 
 cations and bad feelings between parents and children, hus- 
 bands and wives, brothers and sisters, neighbors and relatives, 
 whereby the words of Matt. x. 34-37 are perverted, and those 
 found in Jer. xiv. 14, xxiii. 21, Gal. v. 15, 2 Cor. xii. 20 ap- 
 plied to those for whom they were not meant. The English 
 magistrates, noticing the tumults and strife among the Ger- 
 mans, do not understand their cause, while the Moravians 
 are not slow to bring the Germans into bad repute as rebels 
 
 13 
 
194 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 against God and the civil government. He also points out 
 that laws and rulers are indispensably necessary to prevent 
 indifferent individuals from taking up with vagabonds and 
 allowing them to act as pastors. But, says he, laws and sig- 
 natures will be of little avail unless we furnish the helpless 
 people with suitable godly ministers. 
 
 Proceeding farther, June 25th, they came, after a ten-mile 
 ride, to Frederick, a town just then laid out. A number of 
 Lutherans living here were members of the Monocacy congre- 
 gation, but had on the previous day been prevented by the 
 pouring rain from meeting with the others. Most of them gave 
 their signatures to the articles. They also elected elders and 
 deacons from their own number. Some few had attached them- 
 selves to Schmidt, whom Miihlenberg, as previously stated, 
 after his arrival in Pennsylvania had met at New Hanover; he 
 had come back to Maryland from a visit to Virginia. Miihlen- 
 berg found a large assembly of English and German people. 
 After preparatory services he administered the Lord's Supper 
 to a number of Lutherans who had earnestly requested to 
 receive it, baptized some children, and united two couples in 
 holy wedlock. During the evening he returned to his quar- 
 ters at Monocacy. Here and in the town the Lutherans en- 
 treated him to consider their destitution, and to intercede for 
 them with the Fathers in Europe. They promised to keep 
 united among themselves as 'long as possible. We add here 
 that, certainly in 1743, Dav. Candler of whom we heard in 
 connection with York served the Lutherans at Monocacy 
 and at Frederick. To the latter place Gabr. Naesman, pastor 
 of the Swedish church at Philadelphia, made a visit in 1746. 
 In 1749 old Val. Kraft settled at Frederick. He was not 
 acknowledged as the pastor of the congregation; finding, 
 however, some adherents, he was permitted to preach at some 
 places. He was apparently in destitute circumstances ; was 
 charitably assisted also by the English people, and died there 
 in 1751. Another irregular pastor, Streiter, a schoolmaster, 
 who had never been ordained, in 1743 had served the con- 
 gregations in Old Goshenhoppen and Indianfield in Eastern 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 195 
 
 Pennsylvania, moved from place to place, and tried in 1751 to 
 get hold of the Frederick congregation. The more numer- 
 ous and better part of the members, acting in accordance with 
 the articles of Muhlenberg, successfully opposed him, and, in 
 consequence of a petition sent by them to the united min- 
 isters, J. H. Schaum, stationed at York, paid them visits in 
 1751 and 1752. la the latter year Rev. Bernhard Michael 
 Hausihl (later often found " Hauseal ") of whom we shall 
 hear more hereafter moved there and found Streiter still 
 present with a party stubbornly attached to him, and the con- 
 gregation in 'a deplorable condition. From the beginning of 
 1753 until December, 1758, Hausihl was recognized as pastor 
 of the congregation. 
 
 June 26th, Muhlenberg and his companion, J. J. Loeser, began 
 their journey homeward. After riding a few miles they were 
 met by an English gentleman, who invited them to his house, 
 offered them refreshments, and desired to know Muhlenberg's 
 opinion of the condition of the German church-members in 
 Maryland. Muhlenberg said that all of them needed deeper 
 experience in true repentance, living faith, and practical godli- 
 ness. His host, who was strongly inclined to the Moravians, 
 replied that the " small party " were friends of Jesus. Muhl- 
 enberg took occasion to show him that, while he was no per- 
 sonal enemy to any of the Moravians, he was averse to their 
 crooked ways, their hanging the cloak as the wind blew, 
 adapting themselves in England to the Anglican Church, in 
 Switzerland to the Reformed, in Russia to the Russian 
 Church, etc.; that they taught in a manner which was not 
 in agreement with the word of God, as could be learned 
 from some of their own publications, though they had never, 
 as a Church, published a confession pf faith. We add, that this 
 was done in 1778 by Bishop Spangenberg, who published the 
 Idea fidci fratntm ; which book, however, does not sanction 
 any of the errors of former years and the practices used in 
 the times when Muhlenberg unavoidably came into conflict 
 with Zinzendorf and his adherents. Miihlenberg's host cer- 
 tainly was a well-meaning man, who, unfortunately, had per- 
 
196 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sonal knowledge only of such so-called Lutheran pastors as 
 Carl Rudolph, Streiter, Schmidt, and others of a similar cha- 
 racter, contrasted with whom the Moravian emissaries were 
 certainly, as to their personal conduct, deserving of all respect. 
 But as that gentleman told his guest that the Anglican clergy- 
 man of the parish to which he belonged was a drunkard, and 
 that his predecessor in the office had been like him, we can 
 readily understand the man's preference for the much more 
 respectable Moravians. Finally, his host begged Miihlenberg 
 to seek and send a man who, being sound in the fundamental 
 doctrines, repentance and faith, would walk according to them ; 
 this would gladden his heart and those of many others. 
 
 The travellers that day came to Conewago, and at noon the 
 following day arrived at York. Here Miihlenberg had at 
 once to make the necessary preparations for a proper celebra- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper on the following day. He entered 
 in the church records the names of those who desired to par- 
 ticipate in it. He reminded the officers and members, who 
 had saved the congregation from the designs and intrigues of 
 the Moravians, to beware of distraction and contentions, to 
 turn, praying for forgiveness of their sins, 'to God, and now 
 impartially to testify concerning the character of every one of 
 those who wished to be admitted to the Lord's Supper. He 
 also listened to charges against the aged parochial teacher 
 B. Maul, which to a large extent were found to be exaggera- 
 tions. Some of the officers were earnestly entreated to have 
 more control over their excited feelings and words. Some of 
 the members who handed in their names were required at once 
 to make peace with those with whom they had been quarrelling. 
 The name of one member, who was unwilling to be reconciled 
 with the justice of the peace who brought charges against 
 him, was rejected until he would show a better spirit. The 
 officers charged some who by the preaching of Nyberg had 
 been spiritually awakened with having absented themselves 
 from the regular church services and attached themselves to 
 Nyberg and his friends ; they were not willing to promise an 
 exclusive attachment to the congregation unless a pastor of a 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 197 
 
 godly character and life were sent to them by the united min- 
 isters. The reading of a sermon on Sundays was not suf- 
 ficient for them ; they found greater pleasure at home in 
 searching the word of God and the Catechism. They were 
 privately addressed, and three or four of them appeared the 
 following day at the Lord's Table. With the officers also 
 Miihlenberg conversed separately, listening to their opinions 
 and advising caution and moderation. 
 
 At four o'clock that afternoon Muhlenberg held preparatory 
 services, spoke on Matt. xi. 8, and was pleased to see a very 
 close and appreciative attention to his words. After these 
 exercises he examined a number of catechumens whom the 
 school-teacher had instructed with satisfactory results ac- 
 cording to the " Order of Salvation," and admonished them 
 as candidates for confirmation, spoke to some individuals 
 about their spiritual state, and in the evening gathered the 
 officers to converse with them on religious subjects. On the 
 following morning, Sunday, June 28th, some other persons, 
 coming from great distances, handed in their names ; with 
 these also preparatory services were held. At the public ser- 
 vices almost the half of the large assembly were obliged to 
 stand outside of the church : some had come a distance of 
 ten, and even twenty, miles. Muhlenberg preached on the 
 great marriage- feast (Matt. xxii. 2), baptized a number of chil- 
 dren, examined and confirmed fifteen catechumens, adminis- 
 tered the Lord's Supper to two hundred communicants, offered 
 thanks with all kneeling, and dismissed the congregation. In 
 the evening he was the guest of the justice of the peace men- 
 tioned above, who belonged to the Reformed Church and was 
 strongly influenced by the Moravians. He gave his views to 
 him about Nyberg and his crooked ways in a manner no less 
 dignified than decided. 
 
 Having on June 2Qth safely crossed the Susquehanna River 
 and arrived at Lancaster, he met once more with all the elders 
 and deacons of the Lutheran congregation, and tried his best 
 to heal all the dangerous dissensions existing among them. 
 He also made arrangements with them that J. N. Kurtz, 
 
198 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 whenever he paid his bi-weekly visits there, should not 
 lodge in an inn, but in a private dwelling. On the even- 
 ing of June 3<Dth he was again among his relatives at Tul- 
 pehoken, where, July 1st to 3d, he continued the instruction 
 given by Kurtz to some catechumens ; on the 4th held pre- 
 paratory services at Northkill ; on the 5th preached there, 
 baptized some children, examined and confirmed the cate- 
 chumens, administered the Lord's Supper, and rode eight 
 miles to the more numerous meeting at Christ Church to 
 hold services there. Returning to the residence of Weiser, 
 he found an Indian chief there with his retinue. Concerning 
 the conversion of the Indians, he gives in his diary Weiser's 
 views on this subject viz. : That among many other rules it 
 would be necessary for missionaries to live among them, mas- 
 ter their language, adopt as much as possible their manners 
 and clothing, leading, however, blameless lives ; translate 
 Scripture truths into the Indian language in the plainest 
 manner ; deliver the law and the gospel to them, singing 
 the Indian melodies to create an impression; and then pa- 
 tiently wait for God's blessing and the fruits of their labor. 
 Large numbers of Indians were in those days found in most 
 parts of Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg had frequent occasion to 
 meet them and to show his good-will toward them, though he 
 could not work for their conversion in a direct way, since his 
 time, strength, and talents were exhaustively employed in other 
 directions. He had at a certain time exercised his hospitality 
 to one of their chiefs and his companions at his house at 
 Providence. Seventeen years later that chief reminded him 
 of that act of kindness, adding that on that occasion the 
 Indians had invented for Muhlenberg a special name viz. 
 Gachswtmgarorachs, indicative of the peculiar work of a 
 sachem or teacher, whose words ought to go through the 
 hard, obstinate minds of men like a saw through knotty 
 trunks of trees. He also said that in former times one of 
 their own sachems had been given that name. 
 
 July /th, Muhlenberg, with his companion, returned to 
 Providence, where he found his colleague Brunnholtz and 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 199 
 
 the Rev. J. C. Hartwig. Brunnholtz soon became sick with 
 the measles, on which occasion Miihlenberg prescribed for 
 him, and saw his efforts he describes his modus operandi 
 crowned with success. John Christopher Hartwig whose 
 acquaintance Miihlenberg made at that time, and with whom, 
 under various circumstances, he afterward came into contact 
 was a native of the province of Thiiringen in Germany, was 
 born Jan. 6, 1714, and died, eighty-two years old, July 17, 
 1796, at the residence of the Livingston family, near Cler- 
 mont, on the Hudson. After having finished his university 
 course in Germany, and having been for a short time engaged 
 in missionary work among the Jews, he followed a call, given 
 him through the Rev. Dr. Wagner, senior of the Hamburg 
 ministry, to Palatine Lutheran congregations on the Hud- 
 son Camp and Rhinebeck. On his arrival in the New 
 World he landed at Philadelphia. With Berkenmeier and his 
 associates on the Hudson he had no sympathy. Berkenmeier, 
 who was to an extent the cause of his coming here, and found 
 that he was not congenial, was for this and other reasons 
 averse to him, and denounced him in four pamphlets as a 
 Moravian. It was natural that Hartwig should seek asso- 
 ciation with Muhlenberg and his friends, with whom he cer-< 
 tainly stood in nearer spiritual affinity, though he totally 
 lacked Miihlenberg's practical wisdom, perseverance, energy, 
 and success. That he remained a bachelor all his life may 
 have contributed to his unsteadiness. That in an underhand- 
 ed way he found fault with Muhlenberg for not having taken 
 the part of Wolf in the Raritan congregational difficulties 
 proves that as a friend he was unreliable and as a judge 
 either shortsighted or unjust. The gift of his estate by will to 
 mission- work among the Indians to which interest it never 
 was applied proves that he had the increase of the kingdom 
 of Christ at heart. 
 
 In the month of August in the same year (1747) Muhlen- 
 berg paid a visit to the Lutherans in Upper Milford, Saccum, 
 and probably some more distant localities, since he tells us 
 that the distance on his return was thirty miles. His expo- 
 
200 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sure to rain and storm after his return brought on a burning 
 fever, and he was laid up for two weeks ; yet, on account of 
 certain pastoral duties, he left his bed and house too soon, 
 and had to suffer, in consequence, with intermittent fever. 
 J. J. Loeser, his companion on the western tour, was also 
 troubled with fever for twelve weeks. In the district to which 
 Upper Milford and Saccum (Saucon) belonged Lutherans 
 were most probably found years before Miihlenberg took an 
 interest in them. From 1745 he visited them once every four 
 weeks occasionally, also, sent them J. Fr. Vigera, J. N. 
 Kurtz, and J. J. Loeser. The people were pleased to hear 
 Loeser read to them one or the other of Rambach's ser- 
 mons, or catechize the young, or even in cases of extreme 
 necessity baptize their children. There was much regret 
 when, in October, 1748, Loeser was called to Lancaster. In 
 February of the same year, Miihlenberg, in travelling to those 
 congregations, was in great danger of losing his life. During 
 the visit in that year mentioned above he gave to these 
 churches a certain organization by selecting and installing 
 elders and deacons. But from those points his missionary 
 work branched out in various directions. As special local- 
 ities, Birkensee (now Perkasie), Easton, Macungie, Salisbury, 
 and others may be mentioned. When Miihlenberg could no 
 longer personally attend to these outposts, he took care that 
 other suitable men continued the work ; but his interest in 
 their welfare never ceased, and he saw numbers of self-sup- 
 porting congregations established in these parts. 
 
 We remember that after Miihlenberg's visit in the year 1747 
 to York, since no pastor was found for the congregation, 
 things there were left essentially in their former condition, 
 with this exception : that through Miihlenberg's efforts the 
 Lutheran cause was strengthened against Moravian attacks. 
 Probably services were regularly held on Sunday in the 
 church, the school-teacher reading a sermon. When, in May, 
 1748, Handschuh accepted the call from the Lancaster con- 
 gregation, the interests of York were again considered, and 
 it was resolved to send J. H. Schaum there as a catechist. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2OI 
 
 May 17, 1748, he was introduced by Handschuh to the con- 
 gregation. Handschuh also held confirmation and administered 
 the Lord's Supper. Handschuh then returning to Lancaster, 
 Schaum began his pastoral labors. His charge consisted of the 
 congregations at York, Conewago (Hanover), and Bermudian. 
 Dissensions still existing at York greatly impeded his efforts, 
 but the menace of the united pastors that they would take 
 him away had a wholesome effect ; the parties showed a will- 
 ingness to be reconciled, and Schaum had within a year 
 gained the respect and good-will of the people to such an 
 extent that in the spring of the following year they requested 
 his ordination. 
 
 Dec. 9, 1747, Rev. J. N. Kurtz was united in wedlock by 
 Miihlenberg to Miss Anna Elizab. Seidel of New Hanover. 
 J. J. Loeser, the teacher who, as he well deserved, is some- 
 times honored with the title " catechist " was married Nov. 
 10, 1747, at New Hanover to Miss Mary Margaret Epple. 
 Miihlenberg, referring to this event, says in his diary : " Dur- 
 ing the present winter Jac. Loeser attends to the school at 
 New Hanover ; he was almost necessitated to marry, since he 
 had to live quite alone in the school-house and could no longer 
 take care of his household. He married the stepdaughter of 
 one of the deacons. She has led a quiet, respectable life, and 
 now takes care of his household, which allows him to attend 
 better to his duties as a teacher. He still travels every third 
 week to the mountains, to Saccum and Upper Milford, reads 
 one of the sermons of the sainted Rambach on the Catechism, 
 and catechises the children according to the Glaubens-Lied 
 [the main doctrines of the Catechism given in verses by Zie- 
 genhagen, in those times frequently used, also added to the 
 edition of Luther's Small Catechism, by Christ. Sauer of Ger- 
 mantown, 1752]. The people love him, and are edified by his 
 manner of delivery and by his conversation." 
 
 Taking a retrospect of his pastoral labors during the 
 year 1747, Miihlenberg says: "During this year I was com- 
 pelled to omit work on four Sundays on account of sickness. 
 As to the rest, I preached, whenever not travelling, every 
 
2O2 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Sunday morning in the main churches [Providence and New 
 Hanover], catechised the adults and the young, preached as 
 circumstances required, in both of them, in the afternoon, in 
 English.* During the week-days I served, preaching the 
 word of God, the outlying congregations at Schippach, on 
 the other side of the Schuylkill, in the Oley Mountains, and 
 other places. In each congregation I administered the Lord's 
 Supper twice during the year, baptized one hundred and nine- 
 teen children, and confirmed thirty-five young persons. May 
 the merciful and faithful Father in Christ not allow his word 
 to return to him void, but grant that among old and young it 
 may in this lamentable wilderness be blessed and bring forth 
 lasting fruit ! Looking upon my parish and the outposts, there 
 is a circle of more than thirty miles wherein the members of 
 the Church are dispersed. My saddest concern is that to the 
 special care of each soul there is too little time and oppor- 
 tunity given. During the winter months one must be glad 
 if the general duties in the churches and at the outposts can 
 be attended to; Frequently the roads, the rivers, the storms, 
 the cold, the snow, the weather, are such that one would not 
 like to drive his dog out of the house ; yet the pastor must go 
 his round. God in his mercy often saved me in most immi- 
 nent danger and preserved my poor bones when horse and 
 rider fell. During the summer the families are so overbur- 
 dened with work that scarcely any one can be found in the 
 house but little children locked up there ; the others are 
 
 * There was in the districts of New Providence and New Hanover a considerable 
 sprinkling of English-speaking people among the German settlers. They were 
 originally not Lutherans, but gladly accepted Mtihlenberg as a preacher of the gos- 
 pel in their language. F. G. Hobson, Esq., of Norristown, says in his articles on 
 the history of New Providence, which appeared in the Providence Independent : 
 " The origin of this name * Providence ' is not certainly known, but tradition says 
 it was settled by some of the followers of Roger Williams of Rhode Island. Nearly a 
 century before this Roger Williams had named his settlement * Providence,' now the 
 capital of Rhode Island. Hence his followers coming here called this region New 
 Providence.' But we soon find it losing the ' New ' and retaining its name ' Prov- 
 idence." We add that in New Hanover a log church was erected in 1721, a sec- 
 ond one in 1741-47. A stone church, which is still in use, having been renovated 
 in 1868, was erected there in 1767-68. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 203 
 
 forced to work to find their bread. I have hardly any other 
 time or opportunity for special pastoral care except on Sun- 
 days, when during service I catechise the adults [a practice 
 very general in those times], and after service the young ; also 
 when, during the week, before communion service, individ- 
 uals present themselves, or in cases of sickness, death, bap- 
 tism, and the like. Saturday and Sunday I am obliged to 
 labor and to travel without intermission. During the week I 
 ought to be at home a few days in succession ; but one day 
 there is a child in peril of death, which ought to be baptized : 
 thus a day is spent with travelling ; the next day a sick per- 
 son wants a visit : this consumes another day ; the third there 
 is perhaps a funeral, which again requires no less time. Thus 
 things go. Where is time to be found for study? How can 
 a man who rarely spends a day at home take care of his house, 
 his wife, his uneducated children, his servants ? Willingly 
 do I go at any day or any time left free to me and visit souls 
 in whom the Spirit has begun his work. Where is time given 
 to keep the necessary correspondence with the venerable 
 Fathers and the friends in Europe, and with the beloved 
 brethren in this vast country?" 
 
 Yet Miihlenberg continued to carry on an extensive corre- 
 spondence, not only with his brethren in the office and many 
 other individuals in this country, but with the Fathers in 
 Halle and with other individuals who took an interest in 
 the mission-work in America; and, at the same time, he never 
 ceased to continue his diaries, which, amounting to many vol- 
 umes in folio, serve us this day as the main source of all the 
 historical information here communicated, without which our 
 knowledge of his life would be extremely limited. 
 
 During October, 1747, he had once more to pay a visit to 
 Tulpehoken, as serious sickness had broken out in the family 
 of his father-in-law. During the winter 174748 pleurisy 
 prevailed to a large extent in the district of Miihlenberg's 
 congregations. His own family experienced (1748, Jan. 29th) 
 another increase by the birth of a daughter, to whom the 
 name Eve Elizabeth was given in holy baptism. 
 
204 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 1748. 
 
 J. N. Kurtz again sent to the Raritan congregations. Hanclschuh begins his labors 
 at Lancaster. Muhlenberg holds services in English at Molatton. Mission- 
 ary tour to the Blue Mountains. Visit to the Raritan congregations. Con- 
 sultation with Brunnholtz and Hartwig. Tulpehoken and Northkill petition 
 for a regular pastor and reception into the united churches of Pennsylvania. 
 Organization and first meeting of synod. Examination and " Reverse " of 
 J. N. Kurtz. His call to Tulpehoken. Dedication of St. Michael's Church. 
 Ordination of Kurtz. Retrospect. 
 
 IN March, 1748, J. N. Kurtz, who had some misunder- 
 standing with some of the officers of the Lancaster congre- 
 gation, was again sent to the Raritan churches, which he had 
 visited the first time in 1745. In consequence of the open- 
 ing which that miserable character Carl Rudolph had found 
 in these congregations, where he introduced himself with a 
 preacher's gown which he had stolen from Valent. Kraft, dis- 
 sensions broke out, and letters and messengers came to Muhl- 
 enberg begging him not to forsake them in their distress. 
 Kurtz returned from thence April i8th. His official relations 
 with Lancaster came to an end when Handschuh began his 
 labors there in May. Muhlenberg, who in March had en- 
 tered into a semi-official relation with the people at Molatton, 
 baptized there, in May, two adult daughters of a Quaker, and 
 in June a Mrs. Hopkins and her child. In May he also paid 
 a visit to the dispersed Lutherans in the region of the Blue 
 Mountains ; during July he held confirmation and the Lord's 
 Supper at Upper Milford and Saccum, where Loeser had dili- 
 gently given instruction to some catechumens. To the Rari- 
 tan congregations a promise had been given, in agreement 
 with their request, that one of the pastors would again visit 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2O$ 
 
 them. To fulfil this promise, Mlihlenberg left Providence 
 again July 2Oth in company with Loeser; met at the Dela- 
 ware Hartwig, who intended another visit to Pennsylvania, 
 and two officers of the Raritan congregations, with whom, 
 July 26th, he arrived at the residence of another officer, 
 where he lodged. This man, who was considered the most 
 prominent among them, during the long controversy with 
 Wolf had imbibed prejudices against Lutheranism as repre- 
 sented by him, Berkenmeier, and Knoll, had given an open ear 
 to Moravian emissaries, who frequently honored his house 
 with their presence, and had himself several times visited 
 Bethlehem. He had been treated in a somewhat severe and 
 unwise manner by Kurtz, and had to some extent given ear 
 to Carl Rudolph, who had stirred him up against Pietism. 
 Muhlenberg happily succeeded in removing these erroneous 
 impressions. He visited, July 28th and the following days, 
 the various congregations, then called, after their localities, 
 Lesly's Land, Mountain Church, Fosseberg, Racheway (Rock- 
 away). In each of them he visited the sick, gave counsel, 
 aided in special cases as a peacemaker, preached, held pre- 
 paratory and sacramental services, and instructed the church- 
 officers. On the last day, August /th, he held a conference 
 with the members of all the congregations, and, as we have 
 formerly stated, convinced them that they ought to build a 
 church in a central locality capacious enough for them all 
 a proposition which soon afterward was successfully carried 
 out. What they also most pressingly needed was a pastor 
 residing among them. Miihlenberg promised them that J. 
 H. Schaum who during that summer had met with difficul- 
 ties at York would be permitted for one year to live among 
 them. Schaum, having shortly after his arrival in America 
 served for a time as catechist at Cohansey, N. J., had during 
 the spring .of 1741 labored in the same capacity among the 
 Raritan congregations, and was consequently known to them. 
 Good understanding being restored at York, Miihlenberg's 
 promise could not be fulfilled. 
 
 When, on August pth, Miihlenberg, with Loeser, returned 
 
2O6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to Providence, he found Brunnholtz and Hartwig there wait- 
 ing for him. With these brethren he had to consult on very 
 important subjects : one of them was the dedication of St. 
 Michael's Church in Philadelphia. That a number of congre- 
 gations, in consequence of the labors of Muhlenberg and his 
 colleagues subsequently among them, had undertaken the 
 erection of churches is a telling proof of a renewed and 
 strengthened vitality. Thus it was at Providence, where in 
 January, 1743, the congregation resolved to build a church ; 
 May 2d of the same year laid the corner-stone ; in September, 
 though the building was unfinished, began to use it ; and Oct. 
 6, 1745, dedicated it. On this occasion Muhlenberg, Brunn- 
 holtz, Tob. Wagner, and also Nyberg, were present. This ven- 
 erable church called Augustus Church is still preserved, 
 though superseded by a more commodious building erected 
 1852 and 1853. At Tulpehoken the corner-stone of Christ 
 Church was laid on Ascension Day, May 12, 1743 ; on Christ- 
 mas of the same year the building was dedicated. At Ger- 
 mantown the church was considerably enlarged, the begin- 
 ning of the work dating April 15, 1746. At New Hanover 
 a new school-house was erected. St. Michael's Church at 
 Philadelphia had advanced so far that the building could 
 be dedicated. It was resolved that this should take place 
 Aug. 14, 1748. 
 
 Another important subject was the proposition to ordain 
 on that occasion the catechist J. N. Kurtz. There were many 
 and urgent reasons in favor of this proposition : the character 
 and well-tried usefulness of the candidate, the necessities of 
 the congregations at Tulpehoken and Northkill, where he was 
 stationed, the desirable increase of his rights and powers as a 
 regular pastor, the impossibility on the part of the already- 
 ordained pastors to supply the wants of that extensive and 
 distant parochial charge. Of course an act of ordination was 
 a step which indicated the beginning of the coming independ- 
 ence of the German Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania as to 
 its relation to the Fathers in Europe, without whose previous 
 consent the ordination would not have been undertaken. But 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2O/ 
 
 it stands to reason that without a certain independence of 
 action, which did not at all mean a separation from the patrons 
 and advisers beyond the sea, the progress of the Church in 
 America would at every step have been impeded. Much cau- 
 tion was needed in arranging this matter so that as a precedent 
 it could hereafter serve as a rule for all emergencies. In this 
 whole arrangement we trace the ripe experience and keen 
 circumspection of Miihlenberg. The congregations at Tul- 
 pehoken and Northkill sent a petition, signed by their official 
 representatives, to the pastors of the united Evangelical Lu- 
 theran congregations, Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Hand- 
 schuh, praying for a regular pastor. They refer to the con- 
 nection for years existing between them and the pastors ; to 
 the regular call and the rights and duties of these united 
 pastors into whose hands they entrust their spiritual welfare ; 
 to their elevated character as servants of God, their firmness 
 in holding fast to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession against 
 false brethren, errorists, epicureans, and others ; to the success 
 of their pastoral activity, ability, experience, felicitous union, 
 and faithfulness. These two congregations desire to be incor- 
 porated into the already united churches in Pennsylvania, and 
 to receive from the pastors of the same a regular minister, for 
 which purpose they grant to them full authority. They prom- 
 ise to recognize the united pastors as a lawful, regular presby- 
 tery or ministry ; to show respect to the chief pastors ; to 
 undertake in church affairs nothing without their advice and 
 consent, consequently never to enter upon any engagement 
 with any strange preacher ; to carry out resolutions passed for 
 the interest of the Church by the united pastors ; to respect, 
 accept, honor, and hear the legitimate, divinely-called pastor 
 whom the united pastors may send to them ; to support him ; 
 also, in case the united pastors should for weighty reasons call 
 him away, to dismiss him, and to accept in the same manner 
 his successor ; to report to them any misunderstandings which 
 might arise in the congregations ; finally, to provide by spe- 
 cial subscriptions for the support of the pastor. To this 
 document the officers gave their signature Aug. 13, 1748, on 
 
208 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 a solemn occasion which we shall now have to consider, and 
 which was the third and most important subject of that con- 
 sultation. 
 
 This subject was the organization of the pastors and the 
 congregations under their care into a synod, and the holding 
 of the first synodical meeting at Philadelphia, appointed for 
 Aug. 14 and 15, 1748. 
 
 The united pastors had up to that time provided for the 
 interests of the congregations which appealed to them for 
 assistance by consulting with one another and with the 
 officers of those congregations or with the congregations 
 as such. But those congregations had common interests 
 and necessities, for which only a synod a body composed 
 of the pastors and of properly-appointed lay delegates of the 
 congregations could provide. The individual congregations 
 were made to feel that they were organic parts of the Church 
 body, and had through their lay representatives a voice con- 
 cerning the welfare of the Church as a whole and of its con- 
 stituent parts. It could properly be expected that the union 
 of the congregations and pastors for the purpose of maintain- 
 ing order and discipline and for providing for common neces- 
 sities would contribute to the strength of the whole and of 
 all its parts, and preserve the Church against dangerous dis- 
 integrating influences from without and disturbing forces from 
 within. Of all the possible forms of church government, the 
 synodical form, which was then adopted, though in those days 
 applied with certain limitations, was the one best adapted to 
 the then existing conditions of the Church, and was, indeed, 
 the only feasible one. That the voice of the pastors in those 
 times in synodical meetings as well as in congregational 
 affairs was decisive on all questions can easily be understood. 
 The synodical representative government of the Church corre- 
 sponds best to the free spirit and to the forms of the civil admin- 
 istration of this country and to Protestant principles. 
 
 Miihlenberg and his clerical brethren arrived Aug. 1 2th at 
 Philadelphia. It appears that all the necessary arrangements 
 were made in good time. Schauin of York seems to have 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 209 
 
 received the invitation to the meeting too late to come. On 
 Aug. 1 3th the pastors Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and Hartwig 
 examined the catechist J. N. Kurtz. He was asked to give a 
 sketch of the course of his life and his education, especially 
 the circumstances of his spiritual awakening, the reasons for 
 devoting himself to the clerical office; also of what theological 
 works his library consisted. He had to answer the questions 
 what theology is, what sin is, especially original sin and the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost. He had to give a definition of 
 justification, with proof passages of the Scriptures, also of 
 saving faith ;: to say whether and how far good works were 
 necessary to salvation; what sanctification was, and how it 
 could be furthered most advantageously ; in what sense 
 death was the reward of sin. He had to state whether the 
 Evangelical Lutheran doctrine was the only saving one, and 
 how it was established in the word of God; also to give an 
 exegetical analysis of Luke xvi. 9, and to base upon it a 
 theme and skeleton of a sermon ; to describe the true charac- 
 ter and duties of an evangelical pastor ; to explain how such 
 an one should deal with those who, when dying, confess them- 
 selves sinners without confessing any special sin. He also 
 had to state whether, and if so how far, one evangelical min- 
 ister might stand in subordination to another one. All these 
 questions Kurtz, the candidate, was expected to answer on 
 that 1 3th of August before three o'clock p. M. No wonder 
 that Dr. Francke at Halle thought too much was expected 
 of the candidate. Having received a report of all the trans- 
 actions of those memorable days, he writes, after expressing 
 his satisfaction with the ordination, concerning the manner 
 and result of the examination in a letter dated March 26, 
 1749: "In the answers of Mr. Kurtz some things were not 
 satisfactory, though some of the questions are not definite 
 enough or too difficult for him, with his acquisitions, to answer 
 satisfactorily in so short a time. Taken all in all, they were 
 answered better than they would have been by one out 
 of ten preachers before our German consistories ; this, how- 
 ever, please do not tell Mr. Kurtz." Francke had doubts 
 
 14 
 
2IO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 concerning the permission given to Kurtz and others while 
 catechists to administer in very exceptional cases the Lord's 
 Supper to the sick. 
 
 On the same day Kurtz was obliged also to give his signa- 
 ture in the presence of two witnesses to a document named 
 "a Reverse," wherein, as called by the united ministers to 
 take charge of the Tulpehoken parish, and in agreement with 
 the directions given by his superiors in Europe, under penalty 
 of losing all title to his parochial charge, he most solemnly 
 promises before God to retain and to show proper respect 
 to the reverend pastors of the united congregations, as he had 
 obligated himself to do at Halle, May 21, 1744; to consider 
 his congregations as a part of the united congregations ; to 
 teach publicly and privately in harmony with the word of 
 God and the confessional books of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, and to this end diligently to study them ; to intro- 
 duce no other ceremonies in public services and in the admin- 
 istration of the sacraments but those prescribed by the col- 
 legium pastorum, and to use no formulary but the one insti- 
 tuted by them ; neither himself nor with the church council 
 to adopt anything of importance without having previously 
 consulted with this body, and after having received their opin- 
 ion acquiesce in it ; at the demand of the collegium, orally or in 
 writing, to give account of his pastoral activity ; keep a diary 
 and enter therein all his pastoral acts and all remarkable 
 events; and leave his charge when it should be demanded. 
 
 We have every reason to believe that Kurtz willingly and 
 with a sincere heart signed his name to this document and its 
 binding stipulations. When the delegates of the Tulpehoken 
 and Northkill congregations were requested also to sign their 
 names to the document above alluded to concerning their 
 relation and obligations to their pastor and to the collegium, 
 they felt somewhat distrustful in consequence of insinuations 
 made by Tob. Wagner, whom they had met on their journey 
 to Philadelphia, and who suggested that there was danger 
 in signing such a document. After some consultations and 
 deliberations they, however, gave their signatures. Thereby 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 211 
 
 the agreement between them and Kurtz was virtually sealed. 
 They had no reason to regret the step they had taken in 
 behalf of their congregations. Kurtz remained their pastor, 
 faithfully and successfully laboring among them, until the 
 year 1769. 
 
 Aug. 1 4th, the tenth Sunday after Trinity, was devoted to 
 the dedication of St. Michael's Church and to the ordination 
 of Kurtz in connection with solemn public services. The 
 clergy and the delegates went from Brunnholtz's lodgings in 
 procession to the church, erected directly south of Fifth and 
 Cherry streets^ at that time the north-western boundary of the 
 city. The procession was headed by the Swedish " probst " 
 (prsepositus, provost, superintendent), John Sandin, and by 
 Hartwig, who were followed by Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz, 
 the officers of the Philadelphia and Germantown congrega- 
 tions, and the delegates of Providence, New Hanover, Upper 
 Milford, and Saccum ; then came Handschuh and the delegates 
 of Lancaster and Earltown ; finally, Kurtz and the delegates 
 of Tulpehoken and Northkill. The services were opened 
 with the hymn, " Come, Holy Spirit, God and Lord," etc., 
 antiphonically sung, the pastors, with the delegates standing 
 behind them, forming a half-circle in front of the altar. A 
 congratulatory address, written in English by Rev. Peter Tran- 
 berg, the oldest of all the Swedish ministers on the Delaware, 
 was then read, and was followed by an address, most probably 
 by Muhlenberg/stating that the corner-stone of this church 
 had been laid, that the building was erected, under most try- 
 ing circumstances, yet, through God's mercy and by the char- 
 ity of many blessed souls, it had been built to the end that 
 the doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church might be 
 preached in it according to the prophets and apostles and in 
 agreement with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and all 
 the other Symbolical Books. After this the whole building 
 and its parts, the pulpit, baptismal font, altar, were formally 
 dedicated to the preaching of the saving word and the ad- 
 ministration of the holy sacraments according to the Symbol- 
 ical Books of the Lutheran Church. The representatives of 
 
212 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the Philadelphia congregation solemnly promised for this 
 purpose to preserve the church for the use of their children 
 and children's children. Finally, all present were reminded 
 that this building was only an external structure built with 
 the purpose that the hearts of all who in it would hear the 
 word of God might be transformed into sanctified temples 
 of the living God. Now, after singing a few verses of the 
 hymn " Sey Lob und Ehr dem hoechsten Gut," etc., all the 
 ministers and delegates kneeling around the altar, each min- 
 ister except Miihlenberg offered a short prayer Sandin and 
 Naesman (who also was present) in Swedish, the others in 
 German. After singing another hymn and the baptizing of 
 a child, Handschuh ascended the pulpit to deliver the dedi- 
 cation sermon. In conclusion, the Lord's Supper was admin- 
 istered to all the pastors and some members of the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 In the afternoon they again went in procession to the church. 
 Hartwig having preached on Ezek. xxxiii. 8, all the pastors 
 stood before the altar, the delegates again forming a half-cir- 
 cle. Three Reformed pastors were present as spectators. One 
 of the Lutheran ministers most probably Miihlenberg, who 
 in his report omits his name read the ordination formulary, 
 and he, in conjunction with his fellow-pastors, ordained the 
 candidate for holy orders, J. N. Kurtz, by the laying on of 
 their hands. This was the first synodical ordination, since it 
 was administered at the first synodical meeting of the Lu- 
 theran Church in America. 
 
 ' Monday, Aug. I5th, the pastors and delegates met in the 
 church to transact synodical business. After singing and 
 prayer, Miihlenberg, who seems to have been recognized as 
 the presiding officer without any formal election, addressed 
 the assembly concerning the union long desired, now accom- 
 plished. He referred to an attempt to form a synod in the 
 Swedish Church which had failed. What they needed, he 
 said, was " unity : a twisted cord of many threads will not 
 easily break. We need order; we must take care of our 
 youths ; our church-officers have great responsibilities. We 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 213 
 
 are assembled to provide for the things entrusted to us ; 
 Providence willing, we shall in this way assemble from year 
 to year. For the present we are making a trial. We pas- 
 tors here present did not come of our own will, but we are 
 called here, and we are accountable to God and our con- 
 sciences." 
 
 Brunnholtz, who on that occasion served as secretary, states 
 that now every congregation was requested, through its dele- 
 gate, to state the relation in which it stood as to its pastor. First 
 spoke the representatives of Philadelphia, and expressed their 
 complete satisfaction with their pastor, saying that he was 
 laboring beyond his strength. In the same manner all the 
 congregations expressed satisfaction with their respective pas- 
 tors. The second topic was the condition of the parochial 
 schools ; each pastor laid before synod the actual state, the 
 wants and prospects, of his school. On the third topic, the 
 liturgy, all the delegates (elders) expressed their satisfaction 
 with the form already in use, and with the plan to introduce 
 the same form in all the congregations, though they thought 
 that during cold winter days the service would be somewhat 
 too long. Herewith the liturgy already in use was ratified by 
 synod. It was not printed; the pastors copied it each for 
 himself. It seems that one of the delegates raised the ques- 
 tion why men like Stoever, Wagner, Streiter, Andreae were 
 not invited, to which question Miihlenberg easily answered 
 that the antagonistic spirit of these men, as well as their cha- 
 racter, would frustrate every attempt to harmoniously co-ope- 
 rate with them. Tob. Wagner had spread the report that 
 Muhlenberg had driven him from Tulpehoken. The delegate 
 of this congregation plainly testified that Muhlenberg had 
 never forced himself upon them that the congregation had 
 entreated him to take charge of them, that Wagner had resigned 
 of his own accord, since he could never have succeeded there. 
 After some exchange of opinions on the question how mem- 
 bers who had followed the Moravians, but had returned to 
 Lutheran congregations, whose articles of order they were 
 not willing to sign, were to be treated, and after some general 
 
214 LIFE A ND TIMES OF 
 
 admonition made by one of the pastors concerning the neces- 
 sity for a decidedly Christian character on the part of officers 
 of the church, it was finally resolved to meet yearly, and alter- 
 nately at Philadelphia and Lancaster, the time to be appointed 
 by the pastors. Every congregation was enjoined to send, at 
 its own expense, two elders. At last expressions of good-will 
 were mutually exchanged. Brunnholtz thanked Provost San- 
 din, in behalf of the congregations, for the honor of his pres- 
 ence. In responding, Sandin wished the new synod all divine 
 blessings, requested to be considered a member, and said that, 
 having arrived here only a short time before (March, 1748), 
 he felt that the Swedes should follow the example given by 
 the Germans in forming a synod ; but, to the great distress 
 of the Swedes, he died in the month of August, shortly after 
 the adjournment of the synod. The elders of Philadelphia 
 thanked the convention for participating in the dedication 
 of their church-building, at the same time inviting all pres- 
 ent to a collation prepared for them. The convention was for- 
 mally closed with singing a verse of a hymn, and pastors and 
 delegates of the Pennsylvania German Lutheran congrega- 
 tions signed the minutes. 
 
 The dedication of St. Michael's Church which for a period 
 of more than one hundred and twenty years was regularly 
 used for divine services by the same congregation the ordi- 
 nation of a young and useful colaborer, the meeting of a 
 respectable body of clerical and lay representatives of the 
 united German Lutheran churches for deliberating and acting 
 on highly-important matters, were of great importance in the 
 history of the Lutheran Church in. this country a cause for 
 gratitude and encouragement, a pledge for the future. But to 
 no one could they be of more significance than to Miihlen- 
 berg. On Nov. 25, 1742, he arrived in Philadelphia, a soli- 
 tary traveller, a clergyman with nothing to sustain him but a 
 few lines coming across the ocean and endorsing him before 
 congregations who had lost almost all faith in documents and 
 in ministers of the gospel. Six years had not yet passed, but 
 he saw himself at the head of a synodical meeting in the midst 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 21$ 
 
 of clerical brethren and worthy representatives of a respect- 
 able number of congregations. He recognized that his labors 
 had not been in vain, and with much encouragement he could 
 look forward to the future. He could again add " The Lord 
 doeth all things well " to the beautiful words of one of his 
 letters sent in 1743 to Germany, when, taking a retrospective 
 view of his experience during the preceding year, he says : 
 " The Lord dealt well with me in London at Ziegenhagen's ; 
 well when I as a stranger went on board of ship ; well when 
 I was among strange people of a strange tongue ; well when 
 I had to undergo sickness and many trials ; well when our 
 ship was obliged to sail through storms and without a con- 
 voy among enemies ; well when I was permitted in the Eng- 
 lish language to announce to sinners, to my brethren, salva- 
 tion through the Saviour of the world or the eternal judg- 
 ment ; well when we were visited by oppressive heat and pain- 
 ful thirst ; well when he, our Lord, listened to our prayers and 
 sent us favorable winds ; well when out of misery and danger 
 we were finally brought to Charleston ; well in saving me on 
 the voyage to Georgia from imminent peril of life ; well when 
 among the Salzburg brethren in the faith at Ebenezer he al- 
 lowed me to hear and to enjoy so many good things; well 
 when he safely led me back to Charleston, and there in a 
 remarkable way assisted arid sustained me as a stranger; 
 well when during the wintry season, in a most frail vessel, in 
 storms, sickness, and misery, I was obliged to travel to Penn- 
 sylvania." 
 
 This is truly Christian optimism the best practical phil- 
 osophy. There is a mysterious vitality, a world-conquering 
 strength, in such a humble faith in this certainty that God is 
 in everything, that without his will not a hair falls from the 
 head nor a sparrow to the ground, and that he is love in all 
 his dealings with his children. Such faith Miihlenberg cher- 
 ished in his heart ; such faith he needed in the days and years 
 which were to come. 
 
2l6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1748 et seq. 
 
 Political aspects of Pennsylvania. Internal dissensions. Disastrous war with the 
 French. Barbarous hostilities of the Indians. Final victory of the English. 
 Influence of those turbulent times upon social life, congregations, and pas- 
 tors in Pennsylvania. Regina the released captive. Sickness of Brunnholtz. 
 John Albr. Weygand. Mtthlenberg's interest in him. He is sent to the Rar- 
 itan congregations. J. B. van Dieren. J. H. Schaum ordained 1749. Wey- 
 gand ordained 1750; called to New York 1753. Marriage of J. Fr. Vigera. 
 Ludolph H. Schrenk. Kindness of Brunnholtz and Muhlenberg toward 
 him. He labors as catechist at Upper Milford, Saccum, and neighboring 
 places. His ordination. He succeeds Weygand in the Raritan congregations. 
 Catechist J. A. Friderici. Schrenk leaves the Raritan congregations. His 
 erratic course and final disappearance. 
 
 OUR narrative proceeds now to a period of considerable 
 disquietude in the political condition of the Northern 
 colonial provinces of America, especially Pennsylvania, and of 
 disturbances and reactionary tendencies in congregations be- 
 longing to the field in which Muhlenberg and his associates 
 were laboring. 
 
 Pennsylvania had through a long series of years enjoyed 
 peace. During the war preceding the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 of 1748, commerce and navigation had to some extent suffered; 
 in Georgia the Spaniards had attempted an invasion, but not in 
 the more Northern colonies. In Pennsylvania the relations 
 between the colonists and the Indians had never been seri- 
 ously disturbed. The border difficulties with Maryland 
 the so-called Cressap War did not interfere with the prog- 
 ress of the province. Immigration reached, just before the 
 middle of the eighteenth century, an unprecedented height. 
 The learned Peter Kalm, professor of natural science, sent 
 here by the Swedish government to investigate the resources 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 2 1 / 
 
 of this country, says that during the summer of 1749 about 
 twelve thousand Germans arrived ; during the fall of that 
 year twenty-five vessels brought seven thousand and forty- 
 nine German emigrants to Philadelphia. And this immigra- 
 tion continued until the breaking out of the Seven Years' 
 War in 1756. Agriculture and commerce were in a flourish- 
 ing condition. To the former even the very abundance of 
 the cereal crop of the years 1751 and 1752 proved an injury, 
 as the chronicler of the convent of the Seventh-day Mennon- 
 ites at Ephrata, Pa., relates in these words : " The years 175 I 
 and 1752 have been so fruitful in wheat and other grain that 
 men, in wanton carelessness, sought to waste the supply ; for 
 they used the precious wheat which might have supported 
 many poor and needy people to fatten hogs, which after- 
 ward they lavishly consumed. Besides, distilleries were erected 
 everywhere, and thus this great blessing, used for the man- 
 ufacture of strong drink, gave rise to much disorder." 
 
 Clouds, however, began to arise on the political horizon 
 some years before the middle of the century, and ominously 
 portended the approaching storm. 
 
 Influenced by the French, the Shawanese Indians began 
 from 1745 to show signs of hostility to the English. The 
 French threatened the English provinces from the North and 
 the West. They sought to establish themselves in Canada and 
 on the Ohio and Mississippi down to Louisiana by erecting 
 forts, and through their Jesuit missionaries and other agents 
 exercised a continually irritating influence upon the Indians, 
 who were from year to year more alarmed by the progress 
 of the palefaced population from the East, and often thought 
 themselves wronged by the manner in which they were dis- 
 possessed of the land of their fathers. The Scotch-Irish 
 especially who, without regard to the Indians, to the laws 
 of Pennsylvania, or to the proclamations of the governors, 
 had from 1740 settled along the rivers and creeks and in the 
 valleys west of the Susquehanna caused by their encroach- 
 ments much dissatisfaction among the Indians. 
 
 It was to the highest interest of the provincial government 
 
2l8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to keep on good terms with the Indians. They were from 
 time to time pacified by large and extensive presents of things 
 which they wanted and could not manufacture themselves, 
 but, at the same time, military roads were laid out, and along 
 the borders of progressing civilization forts were here and 
 there erected. The taxes imposed to cover these outlays 
 occasioned much dissension between the constituent parts 
 of the provincial government The governors found military 
 preparations absolutely necessary. The Quakers very unrea- 
 sonably opposed their peace principles to all war measures, 
 wherein in Eastern Pennsylvania they were joined by the 
 Moravians, Mennonites, Bunkers, Schwenkfelders, and others, 
 most of whom disliked paying taxes no less than going to war. 
 The Assembly, seeing that taxes must be raised, wanted the 
 Proprietaries to pay their share. The governors, representing 
 the prerogatives of the Proprietaries, imposed the taxes only 
 upon the people. When the crisis approached, the Quakers 
 lost the long-continued control of Pennsylvania politics. 
 But the dissensions between the branches of the govern- 
 ment and the factions of the people had prevented united de- 
 cisive action at the proper time, and were fraught with disas- 
 trous consequences. The great conflict which broke out 
 twenty years later was already foreshadowed by the spirit of 
 independence which the colonial people clearly showed in 
 their relation to the home government and to the Proprietaries 
 of the province of Pennsylvania. 
 
 It is not our intention, nor is it necessary for our subject, 
 to enter upon a detailed account of the events of the war 
 against the French, which began July 9, 1755, with the dis- 
 astrous defeat of the English in the battle near Fort Du- 
 quesne, where George Washington, by his courage and skill, 
 saved the remnants of the gallant army destroyed by the 
 obstinate folly of its commander, Major-general E. Braddock, 
 and which ended with the expulsion of the French from the 
 Northern provinces of America and with the Peace of Paris, 
 concluded 1763. 
 
 It cannot surprise us that by the war continuing through a 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2 19 
 
 number of years the social condition of the provinces was 
 seriously affected. Probably none of them felt those influ- 
 ences in a higher degree than Pennsylvania. The contentions 
 between the branches of the government moved the sympa- 
 thies or antipathies of the parties among the people. Troops 
 had to be raised, and hundreds of young men were taken from 
 the regular, quiet course of life. The consequences of war 
 everywhere include an increase of lawlessness ; Pennsylvania 
 formed in this respect no exception. But the effects of the war 
 were especially lamentable upon the Indians. When the Eng- 
 lish and provincial troops were obliged to retreat after the un- 
 fortunate battle near Fort Duquesne,the settlements on the fron- 
 tiers toward the west were left unprotected. The settlers were 
 not prepared for defence; they lost all, and had to take to pre- 
 cipitate flight to save even their lives. The Indians, now fully 
 convinced of the superior power of the French, moving east- 
 ward, committed the most savage atrocities upon the unpro- 
 tected inhabitants. Whole settlements were totally destroyed, 
 the settlers being slaughtered or carried into cruel captivity. 
 Neither age nor sex was spared. In November, 1755, the 
 Indians had " entered," as Governor Morris reported, " the 
 passes of the Blue Mountains, broke into the counties of Lan- 
 caster, Berks, and Northampton, committing murder, devas- 
 tations, and other kinds of horrid mischief." While all these 
 atrocities, accompanied by fearful loss of life and property, 
 were going on, the Assembly, in which the Quaker element 
 was still predominant, remained in a shocking state of leth- 
 argy arid indifference, until the voice of the people could no 
 longer be left unheard and had to be answered. In April, 
 1756, Governor Morris went so far as to promise, to the great 
 chagrin of the Assembly, bounties for every Indian prisoner, 
 male or female, for every scalp of an adult male Indian, and 
 for every English subject delivered from captivity. At an 
 expense of eighty-five thousand pounds the province of Penn- 
 sylvania erected on the frontiers of the districts more or less 
 settled a chain of forts and blockhouses commanding moun- 
 tain-passes and containing garrisons. Before giving his office 
 
22O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 (August, 1756) into the hands of his successor, William Denny, 
 Governor Morris had planned an expedition, to be conduct- 
 ed by Colonel J. Armstrong, against Kittanning, on the Alle- 
 ghany, then the real stronghold of the Indians. The Indians 
 were taken unawares (Sept. i) and completely routed, and 
 their stronghold was burned. Pennsylvania had raised twen- 
 ty-five military companies, amounting to fourteen hundred 
 men, but the mode of warfare by the savages often baffled the 
 best military skill. The Indians continued through the fol- 
 lowing year to harass the settlers and to make life and peace- 
 ful occupations insecure ; one of their scalping-parties came 
 even within thirty miles of Philadelphia. A happy change 
 was effected by the statesmanship of William Pitt, earl of 
 Chatham. Properly calculating the commercial worth of 
 the American provinces to England, he sent regular troops 
 and pledged liberal pay to soldiers enlisting in the colonies. 
 Two thousand seven hundred men were equipped in Pennsyl- 
 vania. Already, in November, 1758, the French were -driven 
 west of the Ohio; and when in 1759 Ticonderoga, Crown 
 Point, Niagara, and Quebec, in 1760 Montreal, Detroit, and 
 all of Canada, were in the hands of the English, France had 
 lost all hold on the Northern provinces of America. The 
 Indian attempt to break forth from the West with united 
 forces against the colonies " Pontiac's Conspiracy and War " 
 was frustrated after severe struggles. The " Paxton Massa- 
 cre," in which a number of peaceable Indians were killed in 
 December, 1763, in Lancaster county, and which for a time 
 threatened very disastrous consequences even to Philadelphia, 
 may be taken as a proof of the bitterness of feeling prevailing 
 against the Indians. Their days were numbered; as a foe 
 they were annihilated, and afterward rapidly disappeared. 
 Thirty or forty years ago one could meet in Pennsylvania 
 with aged individuals who remembered in their early child- 
 hood to have seen Indians at the farmhouse or at the country 
 store, not as terrible warriors, but as unwelcome beggars ask- 
 ing alms. 
 
 Numbers of Lutheran congregations and pastors had to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 221 
 
 suffer in the years of the struggles between two foreign 
 nations for the possession of this country., The barbarities 
 of the natives who in either issue were to be dispossessed of 
 their unimproved inheritance were the bloody revenge for 
 their loss. Under the date of June 24, 1763, Muhlenberg 
 tells us that his brother-in-law, whom he then visited on the 
 paternal estate at Heidelberg, a few miles west of Reading, 
 " had two days before returned from the Indian frontier, and 
 had driven home his cattle, kept on his deceased father's 
 lands, because the savages intended to make a hostile attack 
 against the Americans, and had already cruelly murdered 
 many of them as was reported, no less than fourteen hun- 
 dred settlers. The inhabitants, German and English, living 
 nearest the frontiers are fleeing without proper clothing from 
 their habitations, and must relinquish the harvest just ripen- 
 ing and promising subsistence for the whole year. All North 
 America is alarmed, since the Indians show themselves crafty 
 and inimical." It is in connection with these Indian troubles 
 and atrocities that Muhlenberg tells us of the mother who 
 visited him at Philadelphia in February, 1765, and asked him 
 for a Bible and a hymn-book for her daughter Regina. This 
 daughter, with her sister Barbara, during the absence of her 
 mother and brother and after the murder of her father, had 
 been taken captive in 1755 by the Indians when, after Brad- 
 dock's defeat, they devastated the interior of Pennsylvania. 
 Suffering most cruel treatment, these two children were car- 
 ried some hundred miles westward. Barbara was taken to a 
 still more remote locality, and of her every trace was lost. 
 Regina was for eight years the slave of an old and very 
 rough Indian woman. She lost the use of her native German 
 language retained, however, some prayers, the Apostles' 
 Creed, and verses of a few German hymns, all of which she 
 frequently repeated, to the great comfort of her soul in her 
 distress. Finally, when the French were vanquished, the 
 Indians brought to terms, and many white captives released, 
 in the fall of 1765 she was taken, with a small child, also a cap- 
 tive to whom she had indeed been a foster-mother to Car- 
 
222 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 lisle, Pa. A public notice having been given in all the news- 
 papers throughout Pennsylvania that those whose friends had 
 been carried into captivity years before should appear and see 
 whether they could recognize them, Regina's mother, follow- 
 ing the instinct of motherly love, repaired to Carlisle, but 
 could not discover her daughter. No wonder ! within eight 
 years the little Regina had grown to womanhood. The com- 
 missaries asking the mother whether she could not remember 
 any particular thing by which she might know her child, she 
 said her daughter had frequently sung the hymns " Jesus I 
 shall love for ever," etc., and "Alone, and yet not quite alone," 
 etc. Hardly had she said these words in German when Regina 
 came forward, began to repeat the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
 and these hymns. Irresistibly mother and daughter embraced 
 each other, and the tears df an unspeakable joy broke forth. 
 Regina's foster-child, seeing this, also began to repeat the 
 same prayers and hymns ; and when Regina was about to 
 return with her mother, the child, claimed by no one, clung 
 to her friend with so much affection that they could not but 
 take her along. Referring to the fact that Regina's mother 
 had come from Reutlingen (now belonging to the kingdom 
 of Wiirtemberg), Miihlenberg says at the conclusion of his 
 charming narrative, " Suppose the sainted Luther were still 
 this side of eternity and could hear that a child of Reutlin- 
 gen, the free imperial city which in 1530 so faithfully and 
 firmly held to the Augsburg Confession, had through God's 
 pure word been preserved in the deep wilderness in spiritual 
 life, how heartily would he offer to God praises and thanks 
 and once more cheerfully and confidently sing, ' The word 
 they still shall let remain, and not a thank have for it ' !" 
 
 Soon after the first meeting of synod Muhlenberg was 
 again called to Philadelphia on account of a critical sickness 
 of Brunhholtz, who was living as a bachelor. Brunnholtz's 
 constitution was not a strong one, and the claims of his two 
 congregations were too much for his physical ability. Muhl- 
 enberg found him in a burning fever, which had continued 
 for some time and reduced him to such a degree that Miihlen- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. . 223 
 
 berg had little hope of his life and felt very much depressed. 
 He held the intellectual capacities of Brunnholtz in consider- 
 able esteem, and would have considered his death a great loss 
 to the young but growing Church in this country. We can 
 perceive the frame of his mind when he says, " The other 
 beloved brethren are faithfully doing their work, each at his 
 particular post, according to the talents God gave to each ; 
 but they do not yet understand the connection and interest 
 of the whole, and expect words of comfort and encourage- 
 ment from us older ones, who themselves are in need of 
 them." Again : " It is true the station which Brunnholtz now 
 
 o 
 
 occupies is too laborious for him, for there is more internal 
 trouble and grief than may be described. His spirit, faith, 
 and charity are sufficient, but the weak body is not equal to 
 the work. The character of the climate also is so severe that 
 steel and iron will get brittle. I had such a robust, farmer- 
 like nature that I knew of no sickness nor weakness, but the 
 climate and the never-ending travelling broke me down." 
 Brunnholtz escaped on that occasion, but suffered repeated 
 attacks, and died, after twelve years' labor in Pennsylvania, at 
 his post. 
 
 We can easily understand that it was for both his and 
 Miihlenberg's interest, in view of the growing German Lu- 
 theran immigration and the petitions of congregations, to 
 assist them in getting pastors, and that they felt the necessity 
 to fill vacancies with men of proper character and to substitute 
 such for irregular pastors, and also to find men who might in 
 the course of time be made useful servants of the Church. 
 The Fathers in Germany found it exceedingly difficult to 
 select suitable individuals for this distant and, indeed, un- 
 usually arduous field of labor. To find suitable men from 
 the people already in this country seemed, for obvious rea- 
 sons, particularly desirable. 
 
 During the sickness of Brunnholtz, in September, 1748, a 
 young candidate for the clerical office, John Albert Weygand, 
 had arrived at Philadelphia. Some uneasy heads, as Muhl- 
 enberg judiciously calls them, precipitately proposed him, 
 
224 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 though they knew as little of his character as of the means 
 for his support, as an assistant to Brunnholtz. The young 
 man had no money to satisfy the captain who had brought 
 him across the Atlantic, but his conduct during the voyage 
 had been such that some of his fellow-passengers, moved by 
 compassion, satisfied the claims standing against him. He 
 paid a visit to Brunnholtz, but had no testimonials to show. 
 While he remained at Philadelphia he refused calls from par- 
 ties in the country who at various localities were in need of a 
 pastor. The worthless Andreae, who was serving parts of Lu- 
 theran congregations in Old Goshenhoppen and Indianfield, 
 invited him in vain ; he desired before all to see Miihlenberg, 
 and came to Providence. Being examined as to the motives 
 of his coming to America, he narrated the course of his life. 
 He was born Aug. 26, 1722, in the district of Hanau, not far 
 from Frankfort- on-the-Main ; was given in 1736 by his parents 
 to the care of a pastor, and began the study of the ancient 
 languages ; in 1742 he frequented for a few months the higher 
 school at Hanau, and then, though cautioned against the 
 " Pietists," the University at Halle, where he attended theo- 
 logical lectures, and subsequently was made a teacher in the 
 well-known charitable institutions. Here his spiritual awak- 
 ening took place, and he felt himself willing to go east or 
 west as the Lord might use and send him in his service. He 
 left Halle in 1744, served as teacher at a few places, made the 
 acquaintance of some men prominent among the Pietists, as 
 "Abt Steinmetz " and Pastor Sommer, with whom Miihlen- 
 berg was personally acquainted, and was finally persuaded at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, by some rogue in the shape of a ship- 
 ping-agent, to come to America, where plenty of work was 
 waiting for him. Emigrants always flocked to ships on which 
 a member of the clergy embarked ; agents were therefore on the 
 alert to induce clericals to try their fortune in America. Had 
 those good-natured individuals at Weygand's arrival at Phil- 
 adelphia not satisfied the claims against him, according to law 
 the captain of the ship could, and undoubtedly would, have 
 sold him for menial service for a number of years. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 22$ 
 
 When Weygand in words of highest respect spoke of the 
 venerable Fathers and of the blessed institutions at Halle, 
 Miihlenberg says his own heart grew warm like Joseph's 
 when in Egypt he recognized his brothers. But he cautiously 
 scrutinized the mind and the character of his new acquaint- 
 ance. " It was not advisable," says he, " to reject him, since 
 some of our well-meaning members had been informed that 
 he was from Halle, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. 
 Advice from there we could not receive in a few days. I chari- 
 tably indulged in good hope concerning him. I looked upon 
 him as Abraham looked upon the ram caught in a thicket. by 
 his horns (Gen. xxii.), and took him into my house, to which 
 my colleagues consented." As may be expected, he also 
 examined him as to his theological attainments and his per- 
 sonal piety, allowed him to offer up free prayers at the house- 
 hold services, and was pleased to find that he used good 
 biblical terms that in his conversation he often introduced 
 phrases which Miihlenberg could easily trace back to Francke, 
 Steinmetz, Sommer, or some other honored man of his for- 
 mer acquaintance ; all of which was proof that he had moved 
 in those circles. Miihlenberg, having appointed him to in- 
 struct the catechumens at New Hanover, found that he was 
 diligent and persevering, but, like all beginners in such- exer- 
 cises, preached more than he catechised, and " did not chew 
 the questions small enough for the children's comprehension." 
 Miihlenberg also allowed him to preach, and found that he 
 had a fine tenor voice, modest gesture, and did not use meta- 
 physical school-terms, but plain, edifying Bible language. 
 Weygand's intercourse with the people was also of a proper 
 character. His complexion revealed to the scrutinizing eye 
 of Miihlenberg a sanguine, unsteady temper an observation 
 in which, as the future amply demonstrated, he was not mis- 
 taken. But the man was not a hypocrite nor undeserving of 
 the active sympathy of Miihlenberg. 
 
 The question arose where Weygand might best be em- 
 ployed. It was proposed to send him as a parochial teacher 
 to Lancaster. Finally, J. Jac. Loeser took that position, to 
 
 15 
 
226 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the great advantage of the congregation and the children. 
 In his own house Miihlenberg could not properly employ 
 and keep his guest. It was after due consideration decided 
 to send him to the Raritan congregations. He began his 
 labors as a catechist among them in November, 1748. He 
 was permitted to preach, to teach, to baptize, and, in very 
 exceptional cases, to administer the Lord's Supper to per- 
 sons in peril of death. Miihlenberg, who, as we know, since 
 1745 had had the . supervision of these congregations, visit- 
 ing them for a number of years from time to time, rinding 
 there in August, 1749, thirty catechumens whom Weygand 
 had instructed, confirmed them, and held the Lord's Supper 
 with them and with the congregations. Weygand proved 
 himself diligent and faithful, but allowed his sanguine tem- 
 per sometimes to do harm to himself and to others. This 
 was the case in connection with his entering into the state of 
 wedlock. It appears that in December, 1749, in a rather hasty 
 and informal manner he asked an elder of one of the congre- 
 gations under whose roof he lodged, and who, being a man 
 in good circumstances, had shown his liberality in assisting to 
 build the church, buying an organ and in other ways for the 
 hand of his daughter. The father, surprised by the abrupt- 
 ness of the petitioner, hesitated for a moment and wished to 
 have some time for consideration. This was enough to irri- 
 tate Weygand to such a degree that he at once went to a cer- 
 tain Van Dieren (Doeren, Diiren), asked of him the hand of 
 one of his daughters, and without any further delay was united 
 with her in marriage. This was, under all aspects, a very 
 unwise procedure, but was aggravated by the connection 
 which Weygand formed by this step. This man, J. B. van 
 Dieren, was a tailor who had come, with books given him by 
 the Rev. A. W. Boehme, predecessor of Ziegenhagen at St. 
 James Chapel at London, as a sort of colporteur to this coun- 
 try, ambitious enough to enter the clerical rank, but unable to 
 receive or to prove ordination. Creating disturbances in con- 
 gregations on the Hudson, he was violently proclaimed as 
 an impostor by Rev. W. Chr. Berkenmeier in pamphlets, let- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 22/ 
 
 ters, and speeches, and finally settled in the Raritan congre- 
 gations. His character and career were equally doubtful. 
 Weygand's inconsiderate step in marrying under such cir- 
 cumstances, and into this man's family, created, as would be 
 expected, an unpleasant sensation which was not diminished 
 by his subsequently urging the congregations just then con- 
 siderably burdened by the erection of a large church-build- 
 ing to buy him a farm. The farm, however, was bought as 
 a new evidence of the forbearance and the good-will of the 
 people, and the debts of the congregations were thereby in- 
 creased. Weygand expected to be ordained at the meeting 
 of synod at Providence, June 17, 1750; three elders of his 
 congregations, however, most obstinately protested against it. 
 The act had to be postponed, to the great disappointment of 
 the candidate, until December of the same year, when, on the 
 occasion of the dedication of the new church, a committee 
 consisting of Brunnholtz, Handschuh, Hartwig, Kurtz, and 
 Schaum ordained Weygand with the consent of the mem- 
 bership. At the same time (Dec. 4th) the marriage of J. H. 
 Schaum who at the synodical meeting at Lancaster, June 4, 
 1749, after being examined, had received ordination, and was 
 by this act created regular pastor at York with a daughter 
 of B. Pickel, one of the Raritan elders, took place ; to which 
 festivity Muhlenberg sent his congratulations in the form of a 
 poem. Weygand, in consequence' of great disturbances which 
 had taken place in his congregations, accepted in 1753 a call 
 to the congregations of Lutheran Hollanders at New York 
 City and Hackensack, N. J., and served them until 1767. A 
 short memorandum in Miihlenberg's diary of May, 1770, in- 
 forms us that at that time Weygand had already departed this 
 life. The latter part of his career, unfortunately, did not cor- 
 respond with the good promises of his earlier period. 
 
 In February, 1749, young man, Ludolph Henry Schrenk, 
 arrived at Philadelphia, visited Brunnholtz, and was for a num- 
 ber of weeks the object of his observation and kind sympa- 
 thy. His means, as might be expected, were soon exhausted. 
 April 1 9th of the same year the marriage of J. Fr. Vigera, 
 
228 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 who at that time was employed as a teacher in Philadelphia, 
 was to occur in Miihlenberg's house at Providence. He 
 married Miss Anna Stevenson, who had been brought up by 
 her mother a Quaker, but had been awakened through the 
 preaching of Whitefield, was baptized afterward by Muhlen- 
 berg, and enjoyed in the community the highest esteem. 
 Brunnholtz was to perform the marriage ceremony. In go- 
 ing, with some other Philadelphia friends, to Providence, he 
 took Schrenk withjiim. Miihlenberg kindly resolved to take 
 care of him. Schrenk told him that after the early death of 
 his father, at Liineburg, he was reared in luxury in the house 
 of his guardian, the burgomaster of the city, and was sent 
 to the University of Erlangen, where he devoted himself to 
 the study of jurisprudence without, however, finishing his 
 course, since his means were exhausted. Some reports of 
 the colonization of Georgia having excited his interest, he 
 went to London, expecting to be given free passage to that 
 province by the trustees. What he knew of jurisprudence 
 was of no advantage to him. He had the strongest reasons 
 to be sincerely thankful to Brunnholtz and Miihlenberg, who, 
 when he had found his way to Pennsylvania, stretched their 
 helping hands out to him in his distressed condition. Miihl- 
 enberg provided for him for six months and gave him theo- 
 logical instruction ; Brunnholtz furnished the necessary books 
 and assisted him in other ways. It seems that during this 
 period the conduct of Schrenk was quite satisfactory. He 
 gave promise of qualifying himself in a suitable manner for 
 the service of the Church. Occasion was given him, in the 
 outlying congregations to exercise himself in catechising and 
 preaching under the supervision of Miihlenberg, and finally 
 (Nov. 20, 1/49) he was regularly introduced by him as cate- 
 chist in the congregations of Upper Milford and Saccum, 
 with the understanding that he should take care also of Bir- 
 kensee and the Forks of Lehigh and Delaware (now Easton). 
 On that occasion Miihlenberg, when holding preparatory ser- 
 vice and administering the Lord's Supper in these congrega- 
 tions, refused to admit to the sacrament two Wiirtemberg- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 229 
 
 ers because they were proper subjects for church discipline. 
 Schrenk at first felt the uncomfortable smallness of the lodg- 
 ings which were at his command, but went at his work with 
 an honest will. We find that Miihlenberg on various occa- 
 sions in his diary pronounces a good opinion of him. At the 
 synodical meeting at Lancaster, June 4 and 5, 1749, Schrenk 
 was present. His labors as a missionary he extended gradu- 
 ally even beyond the Blue Mountains, and his congregations 
 were well pleased with his services and conduct. Consider- 
 ing the urgent necessity existing for regular pastors in more 
 distant localities, the synod meeting at Germantown, Oct. 12, 
 1762, resolved upon his ordination and that of one other can- 
 didate ; which, after examination, was accordingly done, Nov. 
 5th, at Providence. When, in the following year, Weygand 
 left the Raritan congregations, Schrenk was, on the occasion 
 of a visit of Miihlenberg, requested by them as pastor; which 
 request was granted. His congregations in Pennsylvania 
 were served for some time by a catechist, John Andrew Fri- 
 derici, who for a season had been a fellow-student of Miihlen- 
 berg at Gottingen. 
 
 Schrenk continued his labors in the Raritan congregations 
 until 1756. In this year he left them suddenly in consequence 
 of disastrous disturbances which to some extent existed there 
 before he entered that field of labor, but were by his injudi- 
 cious conduct greatly aggravated. It may be that his success 
 in the clerical profession unduly elated him, or that his nerv- 
 ous system was in a state of morbid excitement bordering on 
 insanity ; certainly his prospects in those congregations in a 
 short time totally vanished. And now he entertained the absurd 
 idea that Miihlenberg was the cause of his misfortune, while 
 the fact was that toward some of the officers of his congre- 
 gations he had privately and publicly behaved in a manner 
 which men of any degree of self-respect would nowhere tol- 
 erate. Leaving his field of labor, he first came to Philadel- 
 phia, and there slandered Miihlenberg before Brunnholtz and 
 the officers and members of the congregation, accusing him of 
 having driven him out of his parish, and here and there by 
 
230 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his representations succeeding in creating impressions unfavor- 
 able to Muhlenberg, who had no opportunity to state the facts 
 of the case. Even to the Reformed minister, Rev. Michael 
 Schlatter, who stood in very friendly relations with Muhlen- 
 berg, he made malicious insinuations. Schlatter, however, in 
 his straightforward manner said, " I know Muhlenberg better. 
 You act most ungratefully ; if you know no more than this, 
 you are quite welcome to leave." Following this judicious 
 advice, Schrenk left Philadelphia for New York, continued his 
 slanders at New York, and, instead of hastening forward on a 
 pretended return to Europe with the view to raise a large in- 
 heritance, moved Weygand to make him his substitute in the 
 Hackensack and another outlying small congregation, Rem- 
 merspach, in New Jersey. Within six months he had suc- 
 ceeded in producing there such a confusion that he was 
 obliged to leave in disgrace. After some time, hearing that 
 there was a church of Lutheran Hollanders in Cura9ao, in 
 South America, he embarked for that distant place, fell sick 
 after his arrival there, was maintained by charity, and was sent 
 after half a year to Charleston, S. C. Here he was advised to 
 offer his services to one of the inland congregations or to 
 become a slave-overseer on a plantation. He preferred to 
 return to Pennsylvania, had the hardihood to come to Muhl- 
 enberg at Providence with an introduction sentimentally given 
 him by Handschuh of whose local and official changes we 
 shall hear and acted so well the part of a humble, contrite, 
 totally broken-down sinner whose spiritual sorrow bordered 
 on complete despair pretending, besides, that he was suffer- 
 ing some bodily ailments which necessitated his return to 
 Germany to undergo there an operation that Muhlenberg, 
 in the spring of 1759, though at first rather cool toward him, 
 felt his heart softened, allowed him to board in his house 
 with a young family which we shall mention hereafter, while 
 he with his own family intended to spend a year in the Rar- 
 itan congregations, and even permitted Schrenk to fill his 
 place in Providence and New Hanover. A few months were 
 sufficient to prove that this time Miihlenberg's judgment 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$l 
 
 and kindness were at fault. The conduct of Schrenk toward 
 the family with whom he boarded in Miihlenberg's house at 
 Providence was outrageous ; he even, in one of his spasms, in 
 the presence of Mrs. Miihlenberg, who had returned from the 
 Raritan in September, a week before her husband, laid hands 
 on the young host in a violent manner, and afterward, when 
 sobered down, acted as if he intended to commit suicide. He 
 had not only given no satisfaction as a substitute of Miihlen- 
 berg, but among the members of the congregations tried to 
 injure the character of his benefactor. Miihlenberg, coming 
 home, learned these things. Schrenk, knowing that there was 
 no longer any prospect for him there, demanded fifteen pounds 
 for his services ; which sum Miihlenberg borrowed to pay the 
 charges of the captain with whom Schrenk embarked for 
 Europe. In 1764, Miihlenberg incidentally mentions in a 
 letter the report that Schrenk was preaching in Ireland to 
 Lutherans. There was a German Protestant congregation in 
 those times at Dublin. Hundreds of the Palatines who in 1709 
 encamped near London in the direction of Greenwich were 
 settled by the English government in the south-west of Ire- 
 land. It is said that the German language was used by them 
 even at the beginning of the present century. Taking a retro- 
 spect of his experience in this case, Miihlenberg writes in his 
 diary, " If ever a mortal creature abused my kindness and took 
 advantage of my forbearance, it was that man Schrenk." 
 
232 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 Lucas Raus of Transylvania. His parentage and education. Brunnholtz and 
 Muhlenberg's interest in him. He labors as catechist at Old Goshenhoppen, 
 Indianfield, and Tohicon. He is sent to Hartwig's congregation on the Hud- 
 son. His ordination and marriage. His call to York, and final severance 
 from synod and the pastorate. Rev. G. S. Klug's visit to Pennsylvania. His 
 successors, J. Schwarbach, J. Frank. Muhlenberg at the meeting of synod at 
 Lancaster, 1749. He visits again Upper Milford, Saccum, Easton, and Bir- 
 kensee, and the Raritan congregations ; erection of churches at New German- 
 town and Bedminster. His services desired at Indianfield. Synodical meet- 
 ing at Providence, 1750. Tob. Wagner appears there. 
 
 ON the morning of Nov. 20, 1749, the year of the arrival 
 of L. H. Schrenk, another young man, Lucas Raus, 
 landed at Philadelphia, and at first also became the object 
 of the pity of Brunnholtz. Raus was born Oct. 18, 1724, at 
 Marienburg, near Cronstadt, in Transylvania, in which town 
 his father was a minister of the gospel. His grandfather had 
 lost his eyesight in his fourth year, but so earnestly devoted 
 himself to literary studies that he also was called into the ser- 
 vice of one of the congregations of- his country, and most 
 successfully presided over it for many years. Lucas Raus 
 was given a liberal education by his godly parents. That as 
 a boy he often read to his mother Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 
 Arndt's True Christianity, and similar books is indicative of 
 the spirit prevailing in the family. Raus was not yet ten 
 years old when his father died. The mother moved to the 
 residence of the grandparents to nurse them, and intended to 
 send young Lucas, after he had finished his preparatory 
 school-education, to the University of Halle. Having at- 
 tended classical schools in Transylvania, he was sent in 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 233 
 
 1743 to Presburg in Hungary; left, after a year, for Pesth, 
 and thence went (Nov. 17, 1744) to the classical school of 
 the Reformed Church of Hungary at Losonz, which in those 
 years was well patronized also by many Lutherans. A 
 doctor of medicine, Daniel Perlitzius, also a Lutheran, took 
 an interest in him, assisted him financially, and sent him to 
 the Lutheran college at Neusohl, where he continued his 
 studies until 1747, in which year (April 27th) he arrived at 
 Leipsic, and May 1st at Jena. While there, in Nov., 1748, 
 his mother died, but his two sisters, married in Transylvania, 
 provided for him with motherly care. In those times the 
 Evangelicals in all Austria were treated by the empress Maria 
 Theresa with suspicion and oppressed. In Transylvania some 
 of their ministers were thrown into prison, and in some places 
 they were tyrannically deprived of their churches and schools. 
 Under such prospects Lucas Raus resolved to go to Amer- 
 ica. After considerable hardship he arrived (July 23, 1749) 
 at Amsterdam, supported by a letter of recommendation, 
 addressed himself to the Lutheran consistory, and was told 
 that something might be done for his advancement provided 
 he understood the Dutch language. Also at Rotterdam, 
 which he reached August nth, the Lutheran clergy treated 
 him with coldness. Having resolved to seek a field of labor 
 in Pennsylvania, he was brought by a captain across the 
 ocean, but, not being in a condition to pay his fare, he was 
 in danger of being taken to the West Indian islands, there to 
 be sold into menial service. While he was in great embar- 
 rassment and felt exceedingly depressed a man appeared on 
 the deck of the vessel and handed him a letter. Raus read 
 the letter and again read it. He did not know whether he 
 was awake or dreaming. The letter was addressed to him by 
 the " Rev. Brunnholtz, pastor at Philadelphia and German- 
 town." It appears that Miihlenberg was at that time on a 
 visit to Philadelphia. He, Brunnholtz, and H. Keppele, an 
 elder of the Lutheran congregation, a very worthy man, heard 
 of the young student on board of the ship. Keppele advised 
 caution in dealing with him; Miihlenberg and Brunnholtz felt 
 
234 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 pity for him; took fifteen pounds out of the charitable gifts 
 from Halle, satisfied the claims of the captain, and Raus ar- 
 rived (Nov. 23d) at the lodgings of Brunnholtz, who treated 
 him with great kindness, helped him to earn some money by 
 giving instruction, and cherished good hopes of him, but did 
 not. receive the thanks his charity deserved. Raus soon began 
 to speak of his host in a very unkind manner, raised suspicions 
 against him, and created the impression that he was secretly 
 intriguing to dislodge Brunnholtz and to take his place. The 
 manner in which he availed himself of the permission to preach 
 in some places was not calculated to show any superiority in 
 this direction. He seemed from the first to be fond of a com- 
 fortable, inactive life, and exhibited in his manners the results 
 of a public education, in which, from the protracted depriva- 
 tion of a mother's and a family's refining influences, the feel- 
 ings had become blunted and selfishness had obtained sway. 
 While he undoubtedly with a sincere heart professed Chris- 
 tian principles, and was in his walk and conversation correct 
 and deserving of all respect, he was often controlled by a 
 violent temper, obstinate prejudices, and unfounded suspicions 
 against those who had given the strongest evidences of good- 
 will toward him. Excitable and sensitive as he was, he 
 was easily offended, and was apt just as easily to offend. 
 When in Philadelphia he had behaved unwisely and against 
 his own best interests. Miihlenberg, unwilling to ignore the 
 good and useful elements in Raus, acted as he had done in 
 Schrenk's case "charity beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, endureth all things " took him to his house and 
 family at Providence, and permitted him to hold services in 
 the outlying congregations of Old Goshenhoppen, Indian- 
 field, and Tohicon, in which there were numbers of members 
 not attached to Andreae, who was at that time the incumbent 
 of those charges, and continued so until, on account of his 
 abject character and life, even his former associates and sup- 
 porters became ashamed of him and dismissed him. 
 
 During the summer of 1750, Miihlenberg visited Hartwig's 
 congregation on the Hudson. After his return, and while 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 235 
 
 Hartwig sojourned in Pennsylvania, Raus, in the capacity of 
 a catechist, was sent in October of the same year to these 
 congregations. In the following spring the congregations in 
 Pennsylvania which he had formerly served were open to 
 him, and, in agreement with the other united pastors, Miihl- 
 enberg framed a sort of a call and instruction for Raus, who 
 now moved into that field, met among the people with no 
 very gratifying success, was (Nov. 5, 1752) ordained with Wey- 
 gand "under pressure of circumstances," and in 1753 mar- 
 ried a very respectable young woman, on which occasion 
 Miihlenberg offered his house for holding the customary 
 festivities. Raus, having bought a very poor piece of ground, 
 became burdened with debt, as a pastor could not sustain his 
 family, and devoted himself more to medical practice, based 
 upon instruction received in Germany, than to the pastoral 
 office. Troubled by suspicions that Miihlenberg and the 
 other pastors received salaries from Halle, he became more 
 and more estranged from them. When, in 1754, Schaum 
 resigned the congregation at York, Raus was called there 
 after a visit made in company with Handschuh. When 
 Miihlenberg, in Handschuh's presence, handed him the docu- 
 ment of the call, Raus, acting with strange contradiction to him- 
 self, appeared to be very indignant and charged the brethren 
 with being false toward him and desirous of placing him far 
 away on the frontiers. Muhlenberg, deeply grieved and offend- 
 ed, returned the document to York, where Raus took care to 
 misrepresent the whole transaction, and afterward, without 
 giving Muhlenberg any information, suddenly left his charge 
 (1758) and entered upon the service at York, where during 
 the intervening years no pastor had been regularly called and 
 settled. He took now a decidedly antagonistic position toward 
 the Halle pastors, sent calumniating letters to Weygand at 
 New York, and could no longer be considered as belonging 
 to synod; wherefore Muhlenberg, as presiding officer, in 1760 
 did not invite him to the yearly meeting. In the following 
 year, when synod met at Lancaster, he was invited by the 
 pastor, Rev. J. S. Gerock, to attend the meeting. Raus first 
 
236 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sent an offensive letter, but changed his mind, appeared per- 
 sonally, and in a most improper manner used the occasion to 
 wound the feelings of synod. He also made serious charges 
 concerning doctrine and conduct against Muhlenberg, all of 
 which were found to be untrue by a committee of investiga- 
 tion consisting of two Swedish ministers. Muhlenberg in this 
 flagrant instance also experienced the ingratitude of one whom 
 he had in various ways benefited. Of course Raus was not 
 willing to acknowledge his wrong. His connection with 
 synod ceased for ever, and a few years later he also ceased 
 to be pastor at York, though he, with his family, continued 
 at York, practised medicine (as tradition has it), assisted occa- 
 sionally in pastoral work in the York church, and served some 
 neighboring congregations as pastor. He died July 7, 1788. 
 Some of his descendants are living in York, and occupy a high 
 place in the respect of the Lutheran Church and of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 In the year 1749, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Handschuh 
 made the acquaintance of another clerical brother who at that 
 time came as a visitor from Virginia Rev. George Samuel 
 Klug. When the elder J. C. Stoever in 1737 went on a collect- 
 ing-tour to Germany from his charge in Virginia, Klug, born 
 at Elbing and a candidate for holy orders, declared himself 
 willing, as an assistant of Stoever, to go to Virginia, where 
 he arrived in 1739. Stoever on his return dying at sea in 
 1738, Klug succeeded him in the charge. We can easily 
 understand that a pastor situated as Klug was in an isolated 
 German Lutheran congregation and surrounded by English 
 clergymen of other creeds, connections, and language 
 indebted, also, for his whole education to the schools and 
 institutions of Germany would feel a strong desire to meet 
 German clerical brethren, whose intercourse would refresh, 
 animate, and encourage him. This moved Klug to under- 
 take a journey of some three hundred miles from Madison 
 county, Va., to Eastern Pennsylvania. He was kindly re- 
 ceived, and gave information about the condition of his field 
 of labor. Compared with pastoral life in the various united 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 congregations of Pennsylvania, Klug was in Virginia in a 
 much easier situation. Stoever and the two officers of his 
 congregation accompanying him had collected in Europe about 
 three thousand pounds, of which sum two-thirds were used 
 for building a church, which was done in 1740, and for buy- 
 ing a glebe and negroes to cultivate it. In this way the sup- 
 port of the pastor was provided for, and he found himself, in 
 his relation to his congregation, in a more independent posi- 
 tion. The erection of the church also occasioned him no par- 
 ticular difficulties. The structure was in the shape of a cross, 
 and was built of such strong material that it even now answers 
 the necessities of the congregation. It appears that Klug was 
 a man of perfectly respectable character not, however, in full 
 sympathy with the views and feelings of the pastors of the 
 Halle school, and for this reason no closer connection by 
 correspondence or synodical co-operation, which to a great 
 extent would have been rendered very difficult owing to the 
 distance, was established between them and him. It also 
 appears that the English clergymen in the midst of whom 
 Klug with his German Lutheran congregation was situated 
 had agreeable intercourse with him, but were not of such cha- 
 racter as to advance his spirituality. In the year 1746 the 
 vagabond Carl Rudolph also visited his field of labor and 
 produced some temporary disturbance. Somewhat later 
 possibly before the death of Klug, which, as we learn from a 
 synodical report of Miihlenberg of 1763, had taken place 
 before this year, most probably in 1761 a number of Dun- 
 kers moved to the neighborhood of Klug's congregation, and 
 were successful in alienating some of the members and in 
 considerably disquieting the congregation. A few years later 
 we find that the Lutherans who had settled in divers parts of 
 Virginia became an object of concern to Miihlenberg and the 
 synod, and some men were laboring in that field who stood 
 in direct relation to the ministerium of the Lutheran Church 
 in Pennsylvania. Miihlenberg seriously entertained the idea 
 of making a missionary-tour to Virginia : he was prevented 
 from doing so by the engagements and responsibilities he 
 
238 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 held in Pennsylvania. Letters of Sept. I and 2, 1768, from 
 officers of the Lutheran congregation at Culpeper, Va., and 
 from a catechist, John Schwarbach, formerly a school-teacher, 
 who for a time had held religious services in outlying congre- 
 gations, Manchester and Paradise, near York, Pa., but then la- 
 boring in that field, were laid before synod at New Hanover, 
 Nov. 7 of the same year. The catechist says that he had in- 
 structed and confirmed catechumens in seven congregations 
 during a period of six months. Lutheran ministers labored 
 in those times in Virginia under the difficulty that marriage 
 ceremonies performed by them were not acknowledged by 
 the courts, while marriages performed by Episcopal pres- 
 byters were legally acknowledged. J. Schwarbach left Vir- 
 ginia after 1772 and moved to Pennsylvania, where we meet 
 him in 1775 as an independent pastor without synodical con- 
 nection. His successor in Virginia was (1775-78) J. Frank, 
 formerly parochial teacher and cantor in the Philadelphia con- 
 gregation, whom family interests, after successful work in Vir- 
 ginia, caused to return to Philadelphia. He was succeeded in 
 Virginia (not before 1783) by Paul Henkel, Gerhard Hen- 
 kel's great-grandson, who settled in New Market, Shenan- 
 doah county, Va., but labored as a missionary in a very 
 extensive field, and visited also the old congregation in Cul- 
 peper county. Miihlenberg's son, Peter Gabriel, was pastor 
 of Lutheran congregations in this province, though in 1772 
 (April 21) he received Episcopal ordination in London, 
 which enabled him lawfully to perform marriage ceremonies 
 in Virginia. He had settled in the autumn of 1772 in Wood- 
 stock, west of Madison and Culpeper counties, beyond the 
 Blue Mountains, and served those congregations possibly 
 also, as occasion offered, the old Hebron church until Jan- 
 uary, 1776, when he exchanged the preacher's gown for the 
 military uniform. This whole subject shall again claim our 
 attention. 
 
 Jan. 15, 1749, the fourth anniversary of the arrival of Brunn- 
 holtz, J. N. Kurtz, and Schaum, was celebrated at Philadel- 
 phia, and, in spite of the wintry season, Muhlenberg went 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 239 
 
 thither with his wife and C. Weiser, her father. His health 
 was at that time precarious ; he suffered with inflammation 
 of the right eye, and, in addition to other ailments, had 
 spells of fainting. In May he began again to preach in Mo- 
 latton, and promised to continue his services there during the 
 summer as circumstances would permit. At the meeting of 
 synod at Lancaster (June 4th and 5th), which was opened 
 on Sunday by solemn procession from Handschuh's private 
 dwelling to the church, he preached on Luke xiv. 16. In the 
 evening of the same day, at their request, he preached in the 
 Lutheran church to the English. The congregations of the 
 Raritan and of Upper Milford and Saccum had, on account 
 of the great distance, sent no delegates, but in their stead let- 
 ters, which were publicly read before synod. At that meeting 
 Schaum was examined and ordained. In July and August 
 Miihlenberg visited Upper Milford and Saccum, also the two 
 small congregations of Forks (Easton) and Birkensee. In 
 Upper Milford he confirmed seven persons, most of them 
 adults instructed by Schrenk at Saccum, also two married 
 Englishwomen after public examination and profession of 
 faith. In the month of August he also paid another visit to 
 the Raritan congregations and Catechist Weygand, against 
 whom at that time no complaints were lodged. The people 
 wanted Miihlenberg to correspond with the Fathers concern- 
 ing Weygand's ordination, but, in consequence of the expe- 
 rience obtained in Wolf's time, were unwilling to give their 
 signatures to a regular call unless certain limitations were 
 added to it. Weygand said that, though he was permitted 
 in extraordinary cases to administer the Lord's Supper to 
 sick members, many doubted the efficacy of his administra- 
 tion for the reason that he was not ordained. In an address 
 after his sermon Miihlenberg tried to remove these prejudices, 
 and, being very much exhausted, after having consecrated the 
 elements allowed Weygand to give the cup to the guests 
 a liberty of which the Fathers at Halle judiciously kept in 
 harmless ignorance the readers of the Reports on the " United 
 Evangelical Lutheran Congregations in North America, espe- 
 
24O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 cially in Pennsylvania." Miihlenberg afterward held service 
 in English for a number of settlers in the neighborhood 
 who could not understand German. It will be remembered 
 that three of the four original congregations, urged by Miihl- 
 enberg, had undertaken to build a church in a central locality, 
 and were at that time engaged in erecting it ; in vain he now 
 made efforts to persuade the fourth congregation to join them 
 in this work : the distance of the new church appeared to be 
 too great for them. This centrally-located church has been 
 known to us since 1759 as the church of New Germantown. 
 Another church was erected by the other part of the old 
 congregations and dedicated by Miihlenberg in 1758, and is 
 called the Bedminster church. The former names of the four 
 Raritan congregations seem to have gone out of use. 
 
 Some members connected with the Indianfield congrega- 
 tion, then under the pastoral care of the miserable Andreae, 
 being not willing to continue longer in that relation, desired 
 Miihlenberg to pay them a visit. Andreae's party held the 
 church. Miihlenberg, on his arrival there in September, 1749, 
 preached in a private house. This house on the following 
 occasions not affording room enough, the Reformed kindly 
 invited Miihlenberg to their church, of which invitation he 
 availed himself on week-days. The church finally not offer- 
 ing sufficient room, he preached under the open sky to an 
 assembly consisting of representatives of sundry denomina- 
 tions. 
 
 When, in November of the same year, he introduced Schrenk 
 as catechist in Upper Milford and Saccum, he went as far as 
 the Forks (Easton), and, returning after visiting Birkensee, 
 was in imminent peril of his life in crossing the frozen Per- 
 kiomen. The region around Birkensee was in those times 
 especially infected with unworthy characters pretending to 
 be pastors. 
 
 On the evening of Jan. I, 1750, during the father's absence, 
 Muhlenberg's second son was born. The grandfather, Con- 
 rad Weiser, was a guest in the house. The name of Frederick 
 Augustus Conrad was given to -the child in baptism on Jan. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 24! 
 
 1 5th, in honor of the grandfather, and also of Dr. Fred. M. 
 Ziegenhagen and Dr. G. Augustus Francke, who were re- 
 quested to act as sponsors, two of them in absentia. The day 
 of baptism was also the anniversary of the arrival of Brunn- 
 holtz, J. N. Kurtz, and J. H. Schaum. Brunnholtz, Weiser, 
 Vigera, and Fr. Marsteller, the faithful, trustworthy friend of 
 the family, enjoyed on that occasion the hospitality of the 
 parsonage at Providence. In the beginning of March, Brunn- 
 holtz was again for a few days the guest of the Miihlenberg 
 family. While he was at Providence, Handschuh sent word 
 to him and to his host that on May 1st he intended to marry, 
 and requested the honor of their presence. Both came, with 
 Kurtz, at the appointed time to Lancaster, and the marriage 
 (the consequences of which will hereafter engage our atten- 
 tion) fook place at the appointed time, Tuesday, May 1st. 
 
 The meeting of synod was this year to take place at Provi- 
 dence ; the resolution formerly passed to hold the meetings 
 alternately at Philadelphia and at Lancaster was consequently 
 at least practically rescinded. Miihlenberg had on his visit to 
 Lancaster met Stoever, who had undergone a very severe spell 
 of sickness. He was then serving a number of congregations 
 not very far from Tulpehoken, was intimate with Wagner, and 
 was in comfortable circumstances. Weiser requested Miihlen- 
 berg and his brethren to invite Stoever and Wagner to synod, 
 for reasons which were not without force. The Rev. Dr. J. 
 Ph. Fresenius, court-preacher at Darmstadt, afterward senior 
 of the Lutheran ministry at Frankfort-on-the-Main, a rela- 
 tive of Stoever, had plead by correspondence for a union 
 of Stoever with the united pastors. In his conversation with 
 Stoever at Lancaster, Miihlenberg had asked him whether he 
 would visit synod provided an invitation were sent to him : 
 Stoever said he could not make a promise until he had con- 
 ferred with Wagner. Muhlenberg added that he had in his 
 mind no more than a neighborly good understanding. Miihl- 
 enberg's colleagues objected, and did not wish Stoever's pres- 
 ence at the transaction of the regular business of synod and 
 at the then proposed ordination of Weygand ; which, however, 
 
 16 
 
242 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 as we know, did not take place at that synodical meeting. 
 Finally, it was resolved to invite Stoever and Wagner to be 
 present the day after the regular meeting of synod. At this 
 Stoever was very indignant, and gave vent to his feelings in 
 a long and acrimonious letter. Wagner was present on the 
 appointed day and gave the brethren a piece of his mind with- 
 out any reservation, but consented to what Miihlenberg calls a 
 " neighborly amnesty." 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 Arrival of Israel Acrelius, the Swedish provost. Relations between Swedish and 
 German Lutheran pastors. Acrelius's History of New Sweden. Conrad 
 Weiser and Miihlenberg visit Hartwig's congregations on the Hudson. 
 Visit to Bethlehem. Experiences of the travellers. Miihlenberg as peace- 
 maker in Hartwig's congregations. He and Hartwig set sail for New York. 
 The Dutch Lutheran congregation there. Difficulties on account of the 
 demands of the German Lutherans. Formation of a German congregation. 
 Muhlenberg meets Berkenmeier and preaches in the Dutch Lutheran church 
 in German and in English. On his return to Pennsylvania he visits the Rar- 
 itan congregations. Hartwig sojourns in Pennsylvania. 
 
 DURING the summer of 1750 the Rev. Israel Acrelius of 
 Sweden, pastor of the Swedish Lutheran church at 
 Christina (Wilmington, Del.) and provost of the Swedish 
 Lutheran pastors of the Swedish congregations on the Del- 
 aware, arrived on the field of his future labors. In this 
 office of provost he had only one predecessor, the Rev. John 
 Sandin, whom we have already met, and who, after a very suc- 
 cessful beginning of his labors during a few months, died in 
 August of the year 1748. The office had been instituted, by 
 the advice of Archbishop Jacob Berzelius of Sweden, who had 
 the Swedish churches in America under his supervision, by a 
 royal decree of January, 1747, to prevent irregularities caused 
 in some of them by Moravian intrusion and other disturbing 
 elements. Acrelius was appointed provost May 29, 1749. He 
 was intended at first as pastor for Raccoon and Pennsneck, 
 N. J., but information of Tranberg's death having been re- 
 ceived, he was at once transferred to Christina, and left Stock- 
 holm July 20th, arriving at Philadelphia Nov. 6, 1749, in 
 company with Rev. Eric Unander, appointed to serve at 
 
244 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Raccoon and Pennsneck. From the Wicaco church at Phil- 
 adelphia, Naesman was recalled to Sweden in 1749, though 
 he did not leave Philadelphia before November, 1751, and 
 did not arrive in Sweden until late in 1752. His successor in 
 Wicaco church, Olof Parlin, arrived at Philadelphia on July 
 7, 1750. In 1755, Acrelius was recalled, and ordered, before 
 leaving, to appoint Parlin provost, provided no special order 
 should have come from Sweden. Acrelius's departure was 
 delayed until 1756; in June of that year Parlin's commission 
 came from Sweden. He, however, departed this life on Dec. 
 22, 1757. 
 
 The Swedish ministers on the Delaware had from early 
 times held pleasant relations with the German Lutheran pas- 
 tors : it is true that they also served, as occasion was given, 
 congregations of the Anglican Church. We find that already 
 in 1721 the Rev. Hesselius, pastor of the Swedish church at 
 Christina, received from the (Episcopal) " Society for the Prop- 
 agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," at London, the sum 
 of ten pounds " for reading prayers and preaching in the sev- 
 eral vacant churches in Pennsylvania," and that his services 
 were further required; but we have documentary evidence 
 that the ecclesiastical authorities of Sweden directly ordered 
 the missionaries going to America to maintain a friendly rela- 
 tion with the united German Lutheran pastors. 
 
 It appears that Brunnholtz met Acrelius soon after his 
 arrival in Pennsylvania, and reported to Miihlenberg that he 
 had formed a very favorable impression of the new provost 
 and of his clerical companion, and that Acrelius had promised 
 to be present at the meeting of synod. When synod met at 
 Providence, Acrelius did not come. In explanation he had 
 sent to Brunnholtz a special message which never reached 
 him. Acrelius, as he afterward explained in a very courteous 
 letter in Latin and addressed to Miihlenberg, had been de- 
 tained by official duties and by circumstances over which he 
 had no control. Miihlenberg, after informing him in a letter 
 also in Latin that Nyberg, of whom we have heard, had 
 spread the report that the Swedish pastors purposely avoided 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 24$ 
 
 coming into contact with the German Lutheran pastors, and 
 would much rather have to do with the Moravians, took occa- 
 sion to express his deep regret that the brethren assembled in 
 synod had been disappointed in not having the presence of 
 the provost, and then threw some light on the character and 
 ways of Nyberg. Acrelius in his answer expresses his utter 
 disregard of this man, of whose principles and intrigues he 
 had been already sufficiently informed, and says that he feels 
 ashamed of such a countryman. Ever afterward he took 
 occasion to show his highest appreciation of the character 
 and the labors of Miihlenberg. His influence upon the 
 Swedish congregations was a very happy one, and, while he 
 was indefatigable in the performance of his official duties, he 
 gathered much information about the country in which he 
 was a stranger, paid in 1753 and 1754 visits to Ephrata (the 
 socialistic community of the Seventh-day Bunkers living in 
 conventual seclusion), and, in company with Brunnholtz, 
 Unander, and Schleydorn of Philadelphia, to Bethlehem, of 
 which he left to posterity highly-interesting reports. Fol- 
 lowing his literary tastes, he assiduously collected, during 
 his sojourn in Pennsylvania, the material for his History of 
 New Sweden, which work he wrote after his return to his 
 native land, and thereby erected for himself a lasting mon- 
 ument. He was a man of much practical tact, ample infor- 
 mation, solid and sober religious convictions, and sound 
 judgment. Before coming to America he had served as 
 chaplain in the Swedish navy. After his return to Sweden 
 he served the Church of his country through many years as 
 provost and pastor at Fellingsbro, diocese of Westerns. Miihl- 
 enberg introduces in his diary (in the year 1784, Oct. 2Oth) a 
 letter addressed to him under date June 15, 1784, by Rev. C. 
 M. Wrangel, D. D., successor of Acrelius in the provostship 
 on the Delaware of whom we shall hear hereafter wherein 
 it is stated that at that time Acrelius was almost totally blind 
 and unable to do any work. It is said that he died in the year 
 1800 at the age of eighty-six years. That he enjoyed in an 
 eminent degree the respect and the good-will of the united 
 
246 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 pastors is clearly demonstrated by the fact that when, in 
 1752 (Oct. 1st), at the meeting of synod, the dedication of St. 
 Michael's Church in Germantown took place, he was requested 
 to perform the solemn act. He had an accurate knowledge 
 of the German language, and sometimes preached, likewise, 
 in the English. On the above-mentioned occasion Rev. Olof 
 Parlin, also pastor of Wicaco church, was present. 
 
 During the summer of 1750, Conrad Weiser, Esq., was 
 requested by the provincial government of Virginia to meet 
 representatives of the Canadian Indians at Albany. He in- 
 tended at the same time to visit the congregations on the 
 Hudson, where, after his arrival from Europe as a youth in 
 1710 and the following years, he had been living. There he 
 expected once more to see some of his old friends and ac- 
 quaintances. In that locality Hartwig had the field of his pas- 
 toral labors. Weiser invited Miihlenberg to accompany him. 
 There were reasons which moved Miihlenberg to accept the 
 invitation. Hartwig had never been backward in showing his 
 sympathy with the " Hallenses " Miihlenberg and his united 
 brethren and paid his respects to them by repeatedly visit- 
 ing Pennsylvania. He had a right to expect a visit in return. 
 He was laboring under difficulties in his congregations, and 
 the dissatisfaction which broke out among his parishioners 
 was a weapon which Berkenmeier, already known to us as an 
 opponent of the pastors of the Halle school, was but too ready 
 to use against him. The condition of the Lutherans on the 
 Upper and Lower Hudson was a subject calculated to engage 
 the interest of Miihlenberg, and to hasten his resolution to 
 avail himself of the opportunity now offered to accompany 
 his father-in-law on this journey. 
 
 Aug. 1 6th, Miihlenberg started on horseback from Providence 
 and paid a short visit to Schrenk, whom he found in a satisfac- 
 tory condition, and who on the I7th became his companion to 
 Bethlehem. Here he met Weiser, and accompanied him to 
 Bishop Cammerhof, who treated them politely and conversed 
 with them on general subjects. This was the first time that 
 Miihlenberg saw Bethlehem. He found there large, massive 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 247 
 
 buildings, used for schools and other interests peculiar to Mo- 
 ravianism, a considerable number of inhabitants especially 
 children and had a very agreeable prospect of the Lehigh 
 River, the valley, and the well-wooded mountains rising on 
 the south side of the river. In the afternoon of the same 
 day, with Weiser and Weiser's body-servant, he went on, by 
 a fine road laid out by the Moravians, to Nazareth, one of the 
 agricultural stations of the Moravians, and took a night's rest 
 at an inn five miles distant. Miihlenberg enjoyed the journey 
 to the Hudson, though made under considerable difficulties. 
 He rode a stiff old horse ; his throat was so sore that he 
 could hardly make himself heard. Before leaving his home 
 his wife in those days wives were obliged to aid in the most 
 various ways had, in bleeding him, struck the vein some- 
 what too deeply ; in consequence of this mistake his hand 
 was swollen and painful. He says he certainly presented a 
 pitiable figure as a traveller. 
 
 Aug. 1 8th, they started very early, had to pass a high 
 rocky ridge probably the one running west from the Del- 
 aware Water Gap and after travelling thirty-six miles were 
 constrained by a native of Holland of high social standing in 
 that neighborhood, an old acquaintance of Weiser's, to tarry 
 with him over night. This gentleman, living near the Penn- 
 sylvania frontier, seemed to be an honest, well-meaning man. 
 The government had years before appointed him a justice of 
 the peace, but, not being well versed in law questions and dis- 
 tant from the residence of the learned representatives of the 
 government, he found himself sometimes considerably per- 
 plexed in the performance of his official duties. In such cases 
 he gave the parties appearing before him and expecting his 
 legal aid the advice to go into the yard behind the house and 
 there to settle the dispute by the right of might ; when this 
 was done he made peace between them and allowed them 
 to depart. Under such circumstances he finally lost his office 
 and retired from the turmoil of a restless world. He was now 
 very aged. His conversation gave evidence of his firm Chris- 
 tian convictions : he said grace before and after meals, prayed 
 
248 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in a truly edifying manner before going to rest, and his dis- 
 course was full of good, sound judgment. 
 
 Aug. I Qth the travellers crossed the Delaware, possibly not 
 far from the present Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pa., and 
 after travelling thirty-two miles visited a Dutch Reformed 
 minister, with whom they had edifying conversation. Miihl- 
 enberg was embarrassed by the loss of his voice in conse- 
 quence of his severe catarrh. On the following day they 
 made forty miles, travelling at first up the Delaware through 
 rough, uncultivated lands. At dinner, which was offered 
 them by another old acquaintance of Weiser, also a justice 
 of the peace and major of the militia, bear-steak was set 
 before them. In travelling farther they met a live bear, 
 which, however, took to flight, and also with a number of 
 Indians. Over night they stayed in the wilderness with a 
 man called " the old Spaniard," because his father, a Spaniard, 
 had come to this country as a prisoner, and had married a 
 woman who was a native of Holland. The son, as Miihlen- 
 berg says, was a compound of the Spaniard's pompousness 
 and the Hollander's rudeness. His six sons, sitting 'around 
 him and smoking their pipes, proved that they were " apples 
 of the same tree." He was not willing to give the strangers 
 anything to eat, and with high bearing commanded them to 
 betake themselves to the straw on the floor. On the follow- 
 ing day (Aug. 2ist) raccoon-flesh and pumpkins were set 
 before them at an inn, and finally, after a ride of forty-one 
 miles, they reached Kingston on the Hudson, having in five 
 days travelled two hundred miles. The heavy rain of the 
 day following allowed them to rest and to recruit. 
 
 Aug. 23d, crossing the Hudson in a ferry-boat with their 
 horses, they came to Rhinebeck, the residence of Hartwig. 
 Their arrival caused much joy among the old friends of 
 Weiser, and among all those who entertained a good opin- 
 ion of the Pennsylvania pastors. They came to Hartwig's 
 lodgings to converse with Miihlenberg, the long-expected 
 visitor, but on account of the continued bad condition of 
 his throat he could not speak to them as he wished. Hart- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 249 
 
 wig was in good health, but his congregations were in con- 
 siderable agitation and confusion. His intentions were laud- 
 able, but from the beginning of his labors in that field Berken- 
 meier, the representative of the old orthodox and formalistic 
 school as opposed to the more subjective character of the 
 Halle Pietism, exercised an inimical influence, since Hartwig 
 had shown his decided sympathy, not with him, but with the 
 Halle pastors in Pennsylvania. He laid stress upon profession 
 of the orthodox faith and the old ways and forms of the 
 Church ; Hartwig and the Halle pastors urged personal 
 appropriation of the saving truth which the Confessions of 
 the Church proclaimed. There was in principle no contra- 
 diction between the two sides ; in practice the lines were 
 divergent. Hartwig was inexperienced in this American 
 branch of Christ's vineyard, accustomed to a condition of 
 things as they are in Germany, could or would not adapt 
 himself in his pastoral practice to circumstances as he here 
 found them, and was isolated from judicious counsellors. 
 Those who are ever on the alert to find fault were also 
 here not wanting nor idle, and but too prone to treat the 
 smallest mistake as a criminal act. Slanderers were also 
 at work, and the four tracts published by Berkenmeier and 
 describing Hartwig as a Moravian and enthusiast had made 
 their impression upon the ignorant and upon those who 
 would not submit to the gospel when seriously preached 
 and directed against their ungodly ways and habits. Berk- 
 enmeier, not satisfied with having even sent charges against 
 Hartwig to the Rev. Phil. David Kraeuter, D. D., at that 
 time pastor of the old Hamburg or Trinity Church in Lon- 
 don who very properly answered that before judging he 
 ought to hear what the accused had to say in conjunction 
 with the Rev. Nicol. Sommer, pastor at Schoharie, his son-in- 
 law, and the Rev. Mich. Christian Knoll, pastor of the Dutch 
 Lutheran congregation of New York, whom we have already 
 met, held a convention in one of Hartwig's congregations, and 
 resolved that, as Hartwig held Moravian principles, he should 
 be deposed from his office. This is the same Berkenmeier 
 
25O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 who was so scrupulous about dealing with the miserable 
 Wolf in the Raritan churches. To that resolution the numer- 
 ous friends of Hartwig, who had been spiritually benefited by 
 his services, offered successful opposition. It was an unhappy 
 circumstance that shortly before the visit of Miihlenberg such a 
 worthless character as Carl Rudolph had made a visit to these 
 parts, and had been allowed by the disaffected in one of the 
 congregations, called Camp, to enter the church, and thus to 
 make the existing confusion still worse. This congregation 
 was therefore given up by Hartwig. On Aug. 24th, Weiser, 
 leaving Rhinebeck, was accompanied for a distance of twenty 
 miles by Hartwig and Miihlenberg. At the residence of a 
 wealthy landowner, Livingston, they were well received, but 
 learned that the Indians, formerly allied to the English, and 
 now to be visited by Weiser, had joined the French. Weiser, 
 however, proceeded on his way. Aug. 25th a number of the 
 members of the Camp congregation requested Miihlenberg to 
 hold services in their church on the following day, the eleventh 
 Sunday after Trinity. Hartwig advising the acceptance of the 
 invitation, as desirable results might follow, Miihlenberg con- 
 sented. On the following day, when the service was held, the 
 existence of two parties was easily observable. The adherents 
 of the one entered the church, those of the other listened from 
 the outside. Unfortunately, Miihlenberg, still troubled with 
 hoarseness, was obliged to make the greatest exertions to be 
 understood. Since Carl Rudolph was the last to officiate in 
 that church, he prayed God again to purify this house for his 
 honor, to reunite the dispersed sheep of the flock, and to for- 
 give those who had allowed that servant of Satan to enter 
 there. After service some of the aged officers of the congre- 
 gation promised that they would take courage, renew their 
 efforts for the continuation of divine services, and assist as 
 much as possible, though there were so many opponents 
 influenced by the calumnies of Berkenmeier. During the 
 following week Miihlenberg visited another congregation, 
 called Tar Bush, but could collect but few members, as 
 most of them clung to Berkenmeier, and had, in addition, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 25 1 
 
 been distracted by Carl Rudolph. By the use of strong 
 medicine Miihlenberg broke his catarrh, and preached on 
 the following Sunday at Rhinebeck before a large assembly. 
 There were present some Dutch inhabitants who rejoiced that 
 on account of Miihlenberg's pronunciation of the German 
 they were able to understand the whole sermon, but there 
 was much joy also among all the people and a pleasing pros- 
 pect of seeing the discordant parties again united. In the 
 afternoon Hartwig preached, as Miihlenberg said, a fine ser- 
 mon on a part of the Catechism and instructed the children. 
 
 Sept. 3d a general conference, to which some of the elders 
 of the four congregations under Hartwig's care were invited, 
 and to which all church-members had free access, was held 
 at Rhinebeck. The first topic discussed was the charges laid 
 by Berkenmeier before the Rev. Dr. Kraeuter at London, who 
 had sent them here to give the accused opportunity of defence. 
 It was proved during the investigation that Hartwig in some 
 things had not erred intentionally, and more in the manner 
 than in the matter, that the facts had been frequently distorted 
 and exaggerated by the malice of enemies, and that if no party 
 spirit had prevailed no particular notice would have been taken 
 of certain acts which proceeded from the earnest zeal of a 
 faithful pastor. The second topic was the question whether 
 Hartwig should resign and move to Pennsylvania, or whether 
 he should leave here for a certain time and meanwhile prepare 
 a printed defence to the public against Berkenmeier's accusa- 
 tions. To the first proposition many of the right-minded 
 members present would not consent ; the second was unani- 
 mously accepted, on condition that during the absence of 
 Hartwig a substitute should be sent from Pennsylvania ; on 
 the third point our sources are silent. The minutes of the 
 conference containing the essentials were signed by the elders 
 present. Miihlenberg's personal efforts during the following 
 days to mollify the aversion of some under the sway of Ber- 
 kenmeier against Hartwig were of no avail. Miihlenberg 
 shows his sound and solid knowledge of the human heart 
 by saying, " The shallow reasons based on the mistakes and 
 
252 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 infirmities of Mr. Hartwig would not have sufficed to give 
 their hatred the semblance of legitimacy if a power in the 
 background had not strengthened their malicious passion. 
 It is a deplorable thing whenever such strifes arise in congre- 
 gations, since all the members, almost without any exception, 
 are connected with each other by intermarriage, relationship, 
 etc., and the disaffected will not rest, but continue the agita- 
 tion to increase their influence and to accomplish their pur- 
 pose. The pastor's support, which comes directly from the 
 individual members, is diminished in the same ratio in which 
 the number of the discontented increases, and the others lose 
 courage and fear that the burden will fall wholly upon them. 
 In short, it is under such circumstances easier to be a cowherd 
 or a shepherd in Germany than to be a pastor here, where 
 every peasant acts the part of a patron of the parish, for 
 which he may have neither the proper intelligence nor the 
 necessary skill." Miihlenberg also openly tells us why Hart- 
 wig could not fail, in spite of his good intention, to give much 
 offence. Lutherans and Calvinists often intermarried. He 
 thought it a part of his duties to preach anti-Calvinistic ser- 
 mons ; one of his predecessors in a Lutheran charge on the 
 Hudson, Justus Falkner, had even published a learned book 
 against the Calvinists. Maintaining, also, strictly, the rules 
 laid down in the venerable Lutheran liturgies, he would not 
 accept members of the Reformed Church as sponsors for chil- 
 dren of Lutheran parents ; he also rejected grandparents for 
 the same office, since their age would prevent the perform- 
 ance of their sponsorial duties in case of the prior death of 
 the parents. He travels too frequently to Pennsylvania with- 
 out the consent of his congregations; he is too scholas- 
 tic in his instruction of the catechumens, too austere in his 
 intercourse with the people, often refuses them access, fre- 
 quently appears no less than two hours after the appointed 
 time of public service, makes the people sing too long, and 
 preaches too long, to their great inconvenience; he is very 
 self-willed and stubborn and unwilling to take advice, saying 
 that he had come here not to learn, but to teach. Some also 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$$ 
 
 found fault with him for not retaining the friendship of "old 
 Father Berkenmeier." Undoubtedly, some of these things 
 convey serviceable hints to beginners in the pastoral office. 
 Miihlenberg wisely adds that for the pastoral office in this 
 country, for maintaining the proper relation between the pas- 
 tor and the people, and for doing justice to both, there is need 
 not only of a measure of charity and truth, talent and grace, 
 but especially also of a sanctified temper. 
 
 Sept. Qth, Miihlenberg held public services in a barn for a 
 congregation at Ancram, about eighteen miles distant from 
 Rhinebeck. Preaching German in the morning, English in 
 the afternoon, he met there a number of persons testifying 
 to the benefits they had derived from Hartwig's preaching 
 and to his Christian character. On the loth and I2th of 
 September, Miihlenberg again preached at Camp, and on the 
 1 6th at Rhinebeck. At the same time he bade farewell to 
 the congregations. During his visits some of the opponents 
 of Hartwig had gone to see and to report to Berkenmeier, 
 whose residence was at Loonenburg (Athens) on the Hud- 
 son. To their questions as to what he thought of Miihlen- 
 berg, he answered that he had nothing to say against him and 
 considered him a truly evangelical preacher. It may be prop- 
 er to state that at the time Berkenmeier pursued his studies 
 in Germany many grave objections were properly made to the 
 morbid religious manifestations in many of the adherents of 
 Pietism ; impressions of such a character may have accompa- 
 nied Berkenmeier when, in 1725, he arrived in America. In 
 his opinion, now frankly given, he does no less honor to him- 
 self than to Miihlenberg. 
 
 Sept. 1 7th, Miihlenberg held services in the small congre- 
 gation at Statesbury, eight miles distant from Rhinebeck. On 
 the 1 8th he and Hartwig moved to the house of a member 
 of the Lutheran congregation, situated on the Hudson, to 
 await the arrival of a boat to take them down the river. The 
 old horse which had carried Muhlenberg from Pennsylvania, 
 and had served him for nearly seven years, he presented to a 
 poor man ; the saddle and bridle he sold. He had reasons to 
 
254 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 look back with thankfulness upon the four weeks spent in 
 congregations on the Hudson. It was in no man's power 
 altogether to remove all the difficulties existing there, but 
 by his preaching and conversation with individuals, and his 
 general happy intercourse with the people, he had certainly 
 contributed largely to the pacification of the disturbed minds. 
 He was far from shutting his eyes to the shortcomings and 
 errors of Hartwig, but he acknowledged the good that was 
 in him, his undeniable abilities, his warm-hearted piety, his 
 sincere though sometimes injudicious zeal. Miihlenberg had 
 acted a noble part in defending against unjust partisan attacks 
 a friend who- never had made a secret of his attachment to 
 the Pennsylvania pastors. It was in harmony with this that 
 Pennsylvania hospitality was now offered to Hartwig, whose 
 temporary absence from his congregations seemed advisable 
 under existing circumstances. 
 
 Sept. 22d, Miihlenberg and Hartwig reached Kingston in 
 a small boat, were kindly received by the Dutch Reformed 
 pastor in the town, and in the evening set sail in a large ves- 
 sel for New York, ninety miles distant. They were favored 
 in having respectable companions. On Sunday, the 23d, they 
 held services, singing a psalm and Hartwig preaching in Eng- 
 lish. At four o'clock p. M. they arrived at New York, which 
 Miihlenberg calls " the ancient, renowned city." 
 
 New York or, as during the Dutch government it was 
 called, New Amsterdam at that time, in age, did not amount 
 to even one hundred and fifty years. Its renown also at that 
 time was rather restricted to the New World, unless it rests on 
 the intolerant Calvinistic despotism prevalent there until the 
 English in 1664 conquered the town and the province. In 
 1657, when the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam, in reponse 
 to the petition of the Lutherans at New Amsterdam and at Al- 
 bany who also were of Holland had sent to them a pastor, 
 Rev. John Ernest Goetwater, he was not only prohibited from 
 exercising the functions of his office, but in the very year of 
 his arrival was even mercilessly sent back to Holland. A few 
 years later, however, the Lutherans of New Amsterdam were 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$$ 
 
 organized into a congregation, and in 1671 they planned and 
 prepared for the erection of a church, which was soon after 
 built outside of the city proper, but in 1773 was removed by 
 the government for military reasons, another church being 
 erected within the fortifications. The first pastor serving the 
 congregations there and at Albany was Jacob Fabricius, sent 
 by the Amsterdam Lutheran Consistory in 1668. When, in 
 consequence of his offensive habits and manners, he was after 
 some years deposed from his office by the governor of the 
 province, he was in 1677 elected pastor of Wicaco congrega- 
 tion at Philadelphia, proved in this position respectable and 
 acceptable, and served, as occasion was given, Swedish and 
 Dutch settlers as far as the Maryland frontiers, though for 
 nine years before his death which occurred, most probably, 
 in 1693 he was blind. 
 
 His first successor possibly, for a time, colaborer in New 
 York was Bernhard Antony Arens, who was ordained by 
 Fabricius, and most probably served the Lutherans there to 
 the end of the century, and during the latter period of his life 
 also at Albany ; his second one for a short time in the years 
 1701 and 1702 was Andrew Rudman, who, having served the 
 Swedish Lutherans in Philadelphia from 1697, intended in 
 1701 or 1702 to return to his native country, Sweden, but in 
 consequence of the solicitations of the New York Lutherans 
 remained at New York, and before returning, on account of 
 his sickly condition, to Philadelphia (in the neighborhood of 
 which he died in 1708), succeeded in finding a successor of 
 excellent character and ability, the Rev. Justus Falkner, whom 
 we met at New Hanover in Pennsylvania as pastor of the first 
 German Lutheran congregation on this continent. He served, 
 in addition to the New York congregations, those at Albany, 
 Loonenburg, Hackensack, and probably the German Luther- 
 ans on the Raritan; also, when, in 1708-10, the Palatines set- 
 tled on the Hudson, Joshua Kocherthal's congregations during 
 this pastor's voyage to England in 1710. When Falkner re- 
 tired, about 1723, Berkenmeier, recommended by the clergy 
 of Hamburg and examined and ordained by the Amsterdam 
 
256 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Consistory, arrived at New York as his successor in 1725. 
 In the interval John Bernh. van Dieren, the pretender to the 
 pastoral office who from 1717 had officiated at Schoharie and 
 in congregations on the Hudson, now also, but without effect, 
 tried to gain influence at New York, but was soon driven off 
 the field, and then for a long time disturbed congregations in 
 New Jersey. Berkenmeier served, in addition to New York, 
 Albany, Loonenburg, Newburg, and West Camp, and from 
 time to time visited other congregations, preaching in Dutch 
 and in German. The field of labor at New York, Hackensack; 
 Remmerspach, and Newburg after Berkenmeier, in 1731, 
 retired to the Upper Hudson, was in 1732 and following years 
 served by Rev. Michael Christian Knoll with indifferent suc- 
 cess. During his time German Lutherans settling in New 
 York City knocked at the door of the old Dutch congrega- 
 tion, which under Berkenmeier had erected a new stone 
 church. With the permission to have every third, then every 
 second, Sunday service in the German language, they were 
 after the lapse of some time dissatisfied, and finally, in 1745, 
 separated from it under the leadership of J. L. Hofgut, who 
 had been deposed in Wiirtemberg from the clerical office, 
 and was also here forbidden by the government to exercise 
 clerical functions. For a short time he was succeeded by the 
 worthless Carl Rudolph, ever present when he scented from 
 afar an occasion to fall upon prey. In 1750, having found the 
 Rev. John Fred. Riess who in September, 1749, had arrived 
 at Philadelphia, and had made the acquaintance of Miihlen- 
 berg and Brunnholtz without attaching himself to them the 
 New York German Lutherans gave him, in August, 1750, a 
 regular call, having also, though thereby burdening them- 
 selves with a heavy debt, bought a brewery and changed it 
 into a house of worship. There were then a new German 
 congregation at New York unfortunately consisting to a 
 large extent of very unspiritual elements and also the old 
 Dutch church, very much reduced in numbers in consequence 
 of the cessation of immigration from the mother-country, but 
 consisting of highly-respected material, the younger portion 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 2$? 
 
 of which, however, had a significant leaning toward the Eng- 
 lish language. 
 
 These were the circumstances, given in general outline, 
 under which, in September, 1750, Miihlenberg, visited the 
 Lutherans at New York. Not a word has he written in his 
 diary of the romantic beauty of the river whose waters had 
 carried him down to one of the largest and safest harbors of 
 the globe, but in the condition of those who belonged with 
 him to the same household of faith he took a deep interest. 
 Though knowing that under the dissensions then existing 
 among them his visit would not be free from embarrassment, 
 he considered it his duty to mediate between the parties there 
 arrayed against each other. 
 
 Sept. 24th, Miihlenberg, in company with Hartwig, paid his 
 respects to Riess, with whom he had become acquainted in 
 Philadelphia. Riess gladly received his visitors, sent for 
 some of the officers of his flock, and requested Miihlenberg 
 to preach in his pulpit the following Sunday. In refusing to 
 do so Miihlenberg reminded Riess of the advice given him 
 in Philadelphia, not to become a tool in the hands of the dis- 
 satisfied in the old congregation while the legitimate pastor, 
 Knoll, still held his position. Riess admitted that in his con- 
 gregation two men of low character wielded the power. He 
 expected, however, to bring things to a successful issue by 
 collecting money, for which purpose the governor of the 
 province had given permission. The result was that a year 
 later Riess left in disgust. His adherents testified to their 
 own despicable character by calling the notorious Andreae 
 from Pennsylvania, and, after his refusal to come, one of his 
 followers and creatures, Ph. H. Rapp, an unprincipled in- 
 truder into the pastoral office, who scrupled at nothing 
 to injure the old Dutch congregation and to disconnect 
 from it all its German members. In later years Riess faith- 
 fully served congregations on the Upper Hudson and in the 
 Mohawk Valley, maintained friendly relations with the united 
 pastors of Pennsylvania, and died in 1791 at Churchtown, 
 N. Y. Rapp at the end of 1753 was called to the German- 
 17 
 
LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 town congregation, served up to that time by Andreae, who, 
 Jan. i, 1754, came to a miserable end. Deposed from the 
 office in 1765, Rapp found adherents in the Tohicon congre- 
 gation, Bucks county, Pa., lost his position there in 1771, may 
 afterward have found some support in Macungie and neigh- 
 boring localities, where in former years he had served, and in 
 1779 ended his shocking career by committing suicide. 
 
 Sept. 25th, Miihlenberg visited some of the officers of the 
 old Dutch congregation, who in their church troubles had 
 several times addressed themselves to the Pennsylvania pas- 
 tors, and now requested him on the coming Sunday to preach 
 in their church. To this he consented. On the succeeding 
 day he paid his respects to J. M. Magens, Esq., at Flushing, 
 seventeen miles from New York, like other individuals of that 
 name, and probably of the same family located in divers 
 places, a faithful member of the Lutheran Church. Some of 
 them were in high official positions in the Danish West Indies. 
 A Mrs. Magens had assisted the building of Trinity Lutheran 
 Church in London in 1673 with the liberal gift of five hun- 
 dred pounds. J. M. Magens, having learned that Hartwig 
 was exposed to unjust persecution, had given him a call as 
 chaplain to his family; which was, however, not accepted. 
 Magens received and treated his guests with much kindness. 
 Hartwig led the devotional exercises of the family every even- 
 ing. Having (Sept. 29th) returned to the city, Miihlenberg and 
 Hartwig learned that Berkenmeier, whose presence and advice 
 some of the church-officers had, at the resignation of Knoll, 
 requested, had arrived. Miihlenberg at once went to pay his 
 respects to him, and was very politely received. It was, as 
 far as we know, the only time that these representatives of 
 two different theological schools the orthodox, standing on 
 fides, qua creditur, over against the Pietist's fides, qua crcditur 
 ever met. The offer of Muhlenberg not to preach on the 
 following Sunday, as was appointed, unless Berkenmeier gave 
 his consent, was not accepted, though Berkenmeier said that 
 for certain reasons he would not be present. Of the conver- 
 sation, continued for some time, Muhlenberg has unfortunately 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2$$ 
 
 left us no record. Sept. 3Oth, Miihlenberg, not yet venturing 
 upon ; the Dutch language, preached in the morning in Ger- 
 man ; in the afternoon in English. The words he enters in 
 his diary prove how much he took to heart the condition of 
 that congregation and of all Lutheranism in New York. " It 
 is a distressing condition of things," he says. " There is a 
 fine, well-built church in a good locality in the city; they 
 have four hundred pounds at interest, and there 'is a comfort- 
 able parsonage* A pastor could receive one-third of the nec- 
 essary salary from the interest, and would have a privileged 
 locality in which the gospel according to the Augsburg Con- 
 fession might be preached in German, Dutch, and English; 
 but now it seems as if the end were not far off. There are no 
 children, there is no help, and laughing heirs are waiting for 
 the dying moment." Berkenmeier's advice to the officers of 
 the congregation was to recall Knoll or to get a pastor from 
 beyond the Atlantic. Gloomy were Berkenmeier's views of 
 the future. At another visit, toward the end of the year, 
 prophesying that ravenous wolves would after his departure 
 break into the sheepfold, he left New York for ever for his 
 home at Loonenburg, where he died a year later at the age 
 of sixty-nine. 
 
 Miihlenberg and Hartwig on Monday, Oct. 1st, bade fare- 
 well to New York. At New Brunswick they were hospitably 
 entertained by Rev. Arthur, a Presbyterian pastor, who soon 
 afterward was taken away in the prime of life. Hartwig pro- 
 ceeded to Philadelphia ; Miihlenberg, to the Raritan congre- 
 gations, where (Oct. 4th) he found Weygand in a satisfactory 
 condition; met also Weygand's father-in-law, Van Dieren. 
 On Oct. /th he was again in the midst of his family at 
 Providence. 
 
 A short time afterward Catechist Raus, furnished with strict 
 instructions as 'to his conduct, was despatched to Hartwig's 
 congregations on the Hudson. Hartwig was during the ensu- 
 ing six months to assist Brunnholtz in Philadelphia and Ger- 
 mantown, and to perform services in the congregations of Old 
 Goshenhoppen and Indianfield, which at last had dismissed 
 
26O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Andrese. We know that toward the end of November, 
 Brunnholtz, Handschuh, Hartwig, Kurtz, and Schaum met 
 at Providence, and from there travelled to the Raritan con- 
 gregations to dedicate the new church, to ordain Weygand, 
 and to marry Schaum to the daughter of Elder Pickel. 
 Schaum had the misfortune during the journey, by sleeping 
 on the bare floor, to catch a heavy cold, which, settling in 
 his hip, was exceedingly painful and disabled him for a num- 
 ber of months. His wife and the child she had just borne 
 him he lost through death in May, 1752. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1748 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 The Dutch Lutherans of New York give a call to Miihlenberg. Difficulties. 
 Importance of the case. Pastoral conference at Tulpehoken. Handschuh to 
 be transferred to Germantown ; Miihlenberg to spend a limited time at New 
 York. He again visits Upper Milford and other congregations then served 
 by Catechist Schrenk. Synodical meeting at Philadelphia, 1751. Muhlen- 
 berg, accompanied by Hartwig, sets out for New York. Pastoral work there ; 
 preaches in the Dutch language. Pays his respects to some of the clergy of 
 the city. Visits the Dutch Lutherans at Hackensack, N. J. Lawrence van 
 Buskirk. Rev. J. Fr. Riess. Relation between the Dutch and the German 
 congregation at New York. Rev. Eb. Pemberton, D. D. Miihlenberg re- 
 turns to Providence. 
 # 
 
 THE officers of the old Lutheran congregation in New 
 York were in no manner relieved by Berkenmeier's final 
 admonition. They could not recall Knoll, neither would they 
 call a pastor from Europe. They resolved to invite Riess and 
 his adherents to a conference, and to lay before them the ques- 
 tion whether they were willing unitedly to call Miihlenberg as 
 pastor to serve in Dutch, German, and English. To this the 
 other party defiantly answered that their pastor, Riess, would 
 have to be acknowledged as the pastor of the whole united 
 congregation a proposition to which the other party could 
 not consent, for various and decisive reasons. 
 
 A letter written in the Dutch language, dated Nov. 8, 1750, 
 and signed by nine members among them J. M. Magens 
 of the old congregation, and probably representing also, in an 
 informal manner, the vestry, allowed Miihlenberg to see the 
 drift of the sentiments prevailing there and the direction 
 they took in regard to him. The writers say that the pres- 
 ent vacancy in their congregation cannot be tolerated any 
 longer; that they need a faithful pastor to prevent its total 
 
262 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 destruction, a man yea, a father who would be able, " as a 
 hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," to gather the 
 scattered members again under the wings of our pure evan- 
 gelical doctrine ; that after long meditation they had arrived 
 at the conviction that Miihlenberg was the man to help them 
 in their distress ; that they were convinced he would take to 
 heart the building up of the Church and do all for the glory 
 of God and the salvation of souls, and accomplish what would 
 prove a blessing not only to the present generation, but to 
 posterity, to guard souls against erring from pure doctrine ; 
 that he certainly could not refuse to come to them at least 
 for one, two, or three years, or as long as might please him to 
 care for them to the end that the estranged members might 
 be regained and finally a faithful assistant secured. They con- 
 sidered it necessary, owing to the precarious condition of their 
 congregation, that Miihlenberg should hasten to come the 
 sooner the better. The entreating tone of this letter clearly 
 demonstrates that Miihlenberg had at his^isit among them 
 won golden opinions, and that all their hopes centred on him. 
 Dec. 3, 1750, he answered in a very modest manner, thanking 
 them for the confidence bestowed upon him, but saying that 
 they ought to consider that they were assigning him an ex- 
 ceedingly difficult task : he refers to the condition of the Lu- 
 theran Church in the whole province of New York, the dif- 
 ficulty of bringing about an amelioration, and the obligations 
 he was under with respect to his present field of labor, his 
 brethren, and his family. Willing as he was to make a sac- 
 rifice, he would have to be assured that his present congrega- 
 tions would not be left a prey to the wolves, but be placed in 
 good, trustworthy hands ; would have to receive permission 
 from the Fathers in Europe for such a change ; would claim 
 the liberty to be present at the yearly meetings of the synod 
 in Pennsylvania, and as a missionary to visit forsaken congre- 
 gations in the province of New York ; would in the begin- 
 ning preach only in German and English ; and would decide 
 the whole question after having received a regular call from 
 them. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 263 
 
 It cannot escape our observation that Miihlenberg, though 
 realizing his responsibility, was not averse to making a change 
 and to undertaking a new task unexpectedly presented by the 
 invitation from New York. He not only felt that in that city 
 of-rapidly-growing social and commercial importance Luther- 
 anism, if properly represented, would have a promising future, 
 but his reflections on the condition of the Lutheran congrega- 
 tions as it then was in Pennsylvania allowed him to think that 
 a limited absence from the old field of labor would not be con- 
 nected with disastrous consequences. His external circum- 
 stances also seemed to make a change desirable. Brunnholtz, 
 as he tells us, was then in a more healthy and vigorous state ; 
 there was a probability that soon a new colaborer might be 
 sent from Halle ; Kurtz was at work at Tulpehoken ; Schaum, 
 though painfully suffering for a number of months, at York ; 
 Weygand, on the Raritan ; Hartwig, though the people com- 
 plained of his austerity and severity in discipline and preach- 
 ing, was just then active at Old Goshenhoppen and Indian- 
 field ; Handschuh was at his post at Lancaster, though under 
 considerable disadvantage. His own congregations gave 
 Miihlenberg some cause of dissatisfaction. Those members 
 who at first had given their signatures to his support had in 
 part died, in part moved away, and he felt that his just claims 
 were neglected ; his family was increasing, and at the end of 
 year he was to some extent in debt. He thought a young 
 beginner might readily continue the work where with very 
 arduous labor he had at first broken the ground. In New 
 Hanover the school was in a good condition under a faithful 
 teacher, Michael Walter, successor of J. J. Loeser. In Prov- 
 idence, where a new school-house had been erected during 
 1750, the parochial teacher and his family were a cause of 
 considerable offence. On the west side of the Schuylkill 
 Lutherans and Reformed had united to erect a school-house, 
 which was alternately used by each party for divine ser- 
 vices. 
 
 A regular call, dated Feb. I, 1751, sent to Miihlenberg by 
 the vestry of the Dutch Lutheran congregation of New York, 
 
264 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 necessitated a final decision. It was found advisable to hold 
 a pastoral conference, and to discuss not only Miihlenberg's 
 call to New York, but also Handschuh's situation at Lancas- 
 ter, and other topics connected with these problems. March 
 2Oth, Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Hartwig arrived at Read- 
 ing, a few years before laid out as a town and promising prog- 
 ress. Here they met Tob. Wagner and conversed with him. 
 Weiser had already selected here a lot of ground for a Lu- 
 theran church, to be erected as soon as circumstances would 
 allow. The following day the travellers arrived at Tulpeho- 
 ken, and on March 22d for bodily exercise they, with some of 
 the friends, ascended the highest point of the South Moun- 
 tain, three miles distant from Weiser's residence, where a 
 splendid panorama for a distance of thirty miles extended 
 before them, limited to the west and the south-west by the 
 Blue Mountain chain. The sun was shining, the sky was 
 clear. Large rocks formed a protection against the March 
 winds. Three eagles, probably having their nests in the 
 lonely neighborhood, wheeled in circles above the heads 
 of the strange visitors, rising higher and higher in the 
 air until in the golden hues of the sunbeams they finally 
 disappeared. This beautiful picture brought strange feel- 
 ings to the hearts of the brethren, for it recalled to them 
 the symbolic picture of the eagle couching in front of the 
 widespreading golden rays of the sun on the Orphan-House 
 at Halle. Many a Bible quotation having more or less bear- 
 ing upon the occasion and the surroundings was then given, 
 and some old German church-hymns were intoned on this 
 lofty height and carried the praises of God to his throne. 
 They all felt it was good to be there. Unwillingly they left 
 their grand elevation to climb down again into the valley over 
 rock and precipices, and to resume the cares and troubles of 
 a world of labor. Toward evening Handschuh arrived and 
 began a chapter of lamentations. He wished to leave Lan- 
 caster, and, as Miihlenberg somewhat ironically said, to " sit 
 with Jonah on the side of the city, and there to wait till he 
 might see what, after forty days, would become of it." It 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 26$ 
 
 was understood that Handschuh could no longer, with any 
 advantage to himself and the congregation, remain at Lan- 
 caster. After long deliberations on various propositions it 
 was finally deemed advisable to transfer him to the congre- 
 gation at Germantown. Of this we shall give an account 
 hereafter. 
 
 The views of the brethren concerning Muhlenberg's call 
 to New York we can best gather from the answers he sent 
 thither, wherein he says he had communicated the call to 
 his congregations and brethren of the ministry. He states 
 that his intended removal created much uneasiness among 
 the well-disposed members of the congregations, and occa- 
 sioned many speculations and reflections among the sects 
 and parties by which the Lutherans were surrounded. That 
 uneasiness, he says, proceeds not from want of love toward 
 the brethren at New York, but from an unwillingness to part 
 with him with whom they had been living in the bonds of 
 faith and love for nine years. The evil talk of outsiders who 
 suspect bad, selfish motives in this proposed change he regards 
 not, and refers to 2 Cor. vi. 7-9. All the circumstances in- 
 duced him to accept of the call only for a part of the time 
 fixed in it. During this period the necessities of New York 
 and of Pennsylvania will be brought to light. His family he 
 will leave at Providence, especially to serve as a pledge to his 
 beloved congregations. Possibly he might meet with a prop- 
 er person who could be an assistant in teaching the young 
 who might need instruction, provided the vestry would 
 grant the parsonage for this purpose. He intended to leave 
 Providence on May I3th and preach his inaugural sermon 
 on Ascension Day (May 1 6th) ; wherein, however, he did not 
 succeed. 
 
 During April, Miihlenberg made another tour through 
 Indianfield, Birkensee, and the other congregations then 
 served by Schrenk, as far as the Forks, where he preached also 
 in English, and returned by the way of Saccum and Old Go- 
 shenhoppen. From this and neighboring congregations Hart- 
 wig now intended to return to the field on the Hudson, whence 
 
266 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Raus was called, back to act as catechist in the congregations 
 made vacant by Hartwig's departure. 
 
 When Miihlenberg bade farewell to his congregations, their 
 great emotion proved their strong attachment to him. On May 
 9th he was at Philadelphia, and on the loth had a long con- 
 versation with Provost Acrelius on the ecclesiastical affairs of 
 Pennsylvania. It had appeared advisable to hold a synodical 
 meeting antecedent to Miihlenberg's departure for New York. 
 Sunday, May I2th, Hartwig solemnly dedicated the organ 
 which had recently been ordered for St. Michael's Church 
 from Heilbronn, now belonging to the kingdom of Wiirtem- 
 berg. At the business-meeting Tobias Wagner, whom Miihl- 
 enberg invited in a letter still preserved to us, was present. 
 May I4th Miihlenberg left Philadelphia, accompanied by Hart- 
 wig, and after a tedious voyage by water and journey by land, ag- 
 gravated by the disgusting harangues of a fellow-traveller with 
 whom Hartwig fell into an altercation, they finally (May i/th) 
 arrived at the house of a member of the vestry at New York, 
 and on the i8th moved into the parsonage, where Miihlenberg, 
 provided with the least possible furniture, began to live like a 
 hermit. 
 
 May 1 9th, Miihlenberg preached in German in the morn- 
 ing and afternoon. The vestry would not allow Hartwig to 
 preach in their church on account of his feud with Berken- 
 meier, which proves the respect they still had for their former 
 pastor and counsellor. Riess had advised his party to unite 
 with the old congregation, but, their unreasonable demands 
 being rejected, they now thought Miihlenberg might sepa- 
 rately serve both congregations. 
 
 Miihlenberg found pastoral work enough among his new 
 flock. There were in it natives of Holland and of Germany, 
 who in singing the praises of God at public worship com- 
 mingled their voices and melodies in a manner terribly grat- 
 ing to the musical ear of Miihlenberg. On the other hand, 
 his preaching a warm-hearted, living Christian piety fell 
 strongly upon souls too much given to self-sufficiency and 
 self-righteousness and thinking that an outward performance 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUJ1LENBERG. 267 
 
 of devotional acts and a respectable, inoffensive course of 
 conduct were all that the gospel required. Other members 
 at once gave evidence of their appreciation of the truths pro- 
 claimed by the new preacher. The German hearers delighted 
 in his clear voice and pronunciation; the attendants at the 
 Episcopal church, which was in close proximity, complained 
 that that clear voice interfered with their edification. 
 
 Without further delay Miihlenberg as " praeses " of synod 
 which office he held for many years, and which during the 
 official terms had connected with it an extensive and laborious 
 correspondence requested Raus's return from the Hudson, 
 and in agreement with the resolution synod gave him a call 
 as catechist to labor in the congregations of Indianfield, Go- 
 shenhoppen, and Birkensee, as we formerly mentioned. Mlihl- 
 enberg's time was much taken up with the visits he received 
 and made. A small boy prepared breakfast for him at the 
 parsonage ; his dinner and his night's rest he found with some 
 one of the vestrymeti. 
 
 May 2 ist, Hartwig started to return to the Upper Hudson. 
 May 26th, Miihlenberg preached in the morning in English, 
 in the afternoon in Dutch, which was his first effort in this 
 language ; this affords another proof of his uncommon lin- 
 guistic ability. He also says that he now was obliged to be 
 more careful in the use of the English, as in the city the ears 
 of the people are more refined than in the country. He very 
 much felt the want of a large English quarto Bible, which, 
 thus far, his means had not allowed him to buy, while his 
 weak eyes demanded a large print. In March, 1754, he com- 
 plains in a letter that in open, clear daylight he has had to use 
 spectacles, and states in another letter (of Nov. 23, 1751) to 
 Rev. J. M. Boltzius at Ebenezer, Ga., that without spectacles he 
 could hardly read or write. He was then just past the fortieth 
 year of his age. The preparation of his sermons in those for- 
 eign languages gave him much trouble, and he diligently gath- 
 ered quotations from the Bible and words from the dictionary. 
 On the above-mentioned Sunday (May 26th) Whitsunday 
 the attendance at church had increased. He sorely felt the 
 
268 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 want of a proper book containing the formularies for prayers 
 and ritual acts. He made a collection of prayers and other 
 forms as well as he could from various sources, conforming 
 them as much as possible to the customs of the Dutch and the 
 Germans. As these prayers had not yet been translated into 
 the English, he had used parts of the Episcopal Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer a fact which did not escape the ear of one of 
 his vestrymen. The praises of his fluency in the English and 
 of his good pronunciation of the Dutch were compliments 
 which made no impression upon him after the services of the 
 day. Preaching on Whit Monday in the German, he felt that 
 he more effectually reached the hearts of his hearers, whose 
 great lack of knowledge in the fundamentals of religion had 
 not escaped his observation and moved him to address them 
 in the very plainest manner. In the afternoon of that day 
 Captain C. R. Hartel, a good, faithful church-member, one of 
 the signers of the call sent to Providence, took Muhlenberg in 
 a carriage to the country-seat of his brother-in-law, whose wife 
 was also a member of the congregation. Muhlenberg, having 
 been accustomed for years to a life in the open air, severely 
 felt, amid the walls and houses of New York, the unavoidable 
 change of surroundings, and says that as soon as he had the 
 city behind him he felt as though transported into paradise. 
 May 28th, at the first meeting of the vestry which he attended, 
 after opening with prayer he showed his credentials; and 
 when he had signed the rules of the congregation, they 
 opened for his inspection their chests and account-books, 
 which all appeared to be in regular form ; and they paid him 
 four pounds for his travelling expenses, with which he repaid 
 Mr. Schleydorn of Philadelphia, who had loaned him the 
 money. They also prepaid him a quarter's salary, which 
 sum about twenty pounds was, however, spent in buying 
 necessary clothing and furniture, " before," as he says, " it 
 was earned." It was resolved at that vestry meeting that 
 every Sunday one sermon was to be delivered in Dutch, the 
 other in German. 
 
 Muhlenberg, being informed that pastors serving in the city 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 269 
 
 were expected to pay their respects to the supreme "judge" 
 of the province, thought it proper not to depart from the time- 
 honored custom, and went to the summer residence of that 
 gentleman, outside of the city. The judge had some infor- 
 mation about the newly-organized German Lutheran congre- 
 gation, and had now an opportunity of receiving more light 
 on the condition of Lutheranism in New York. Inspecting 
 the credentials of Miihlenberg, he asked many questions con- 
 cerning his life and his present situation. Seeing in his call 
 to New York that Miihlenberg was expected to preach also 
 in English, he approved of this, saying that in a few years all 
 foreign languages would die out and the English would have 
 sole possession, as demonstrated by the fact that the youth 
 of all nations, soon forgetting their mother-tongue, learned 
 the English. What would this high magistrate have thought 
 if any one had assured him that one hundred and thirty years 
 later there would be in that same city more than three hun- 
 dred thousand Germans and an indefinite number of French, 
 Italians, Bohemians, Scandinavians, and others ? The judge 
 inquired after Miihlenberg's family, and, learning of his near 
 relationship to Weiser, said that he knew Weiser personally 
 as an honest and a useful man, advised Miihlenberg to pay 
 his respects also to the governor, and told him that the Mo- 
 ravians had received permission to erect a church. He then 
 refreshed his visitor with a cooling drink and sent him back 
 to the city in his own carriage. 
 
 Miihlenberg thought it proper to present himself before the 
 leading pastors of various denominations, knowing that this 
 would increase his knowledge of the general condition of 
 Christ's kingdom in this part of the world. He was opposed 
 to denominational unionism, and on all occasions acted accord- 
 ingly, but personal and respectful friendship between repre- 
 sentatives of various confessions he cherished, and did not 
 think it wise to seal himself hermetically against those who, 
 in spite of differences of religious convictions, enjoyed his 
 esteem. He visited at New York the Rev. H. Barclay, for- 
 merly missionary among the Indians, now the most promi- 
 
2/0 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 nent among the Episcopal clergy at New York. The Episco- 
 palians were at that time engaged in building a second large 
 church; the Dutch Reformed had two large churches and 
 four pastors. The senior of them, Rev. Du Bois, who had 
 already labored fifty-two years at New York, preached regu- 
 larly, and still read the smallest print without glasses, received 
 Muhlenberg very kindly, and invited him to his table. Miihl- 
 enberg also paid his respects to Rev. De Ronda, of the same 
 denomination, who then as a preacher met with the greatest 
 applause, but did not impress Muhlenberg with spiritual- 
 ity of character as much as did his wife, a lady of noble 
 family, who in reply to a question of the visitor as to what 
 had moved her to condescend to the position of a pastor's 
 wife, answered that true nobility did not consist in blood, 
 but in the birth from above through the Holy Ghost, and in 
 other respects gave evidence of her understanding of spirit- 
 ual things. 
 
 Accompanied by a few of the elders of the congregation, 
 Muhlenberg (June 4th and 5th) visited a few members living 
 on the west side of the Hudson, in New Jersey among them, 
 especially, Mr. Lawrence van Buskirk, who formerly had 
 been an active member and officer of the Dutch congregation 
 in New York, had assisted in building the church, and as a 
 citizen maintained an honorable position, but under the pas- 
 toral term of Knoll did not attend divine service, and now, in 
 his sixty-fifth year, was suffering with dropsy. Miihlenberg's 
 visit apparently proved a blessing to him. During a pro- 
 tracted conversation the sufferer opened his heart to his visi- 
 tor, narrated to him the course of his life, and most willingly 
 accepted the counsel and spiritual encouragement which he 
 needed. Muhlenberg found out and visited some other mem- 
 bers- of the congregation. On the following day (June 5th) 
 he preached in Van Buskirk's residence to those who had 
 assembled for this" purpose, and the suffering host shed many 
 tears and confessed that he had felt the word of God as a 
 power giving him new life. 
 
 On his return to New York, Muhlenberg found Raus at his 
 
HENRY ME LC HI OR MUHLENBERG. 2? I 
 
 lodgings, who on the following day departed for Pennsylvania. 
 He was requested by Miihlenberg, while serving at Indianfield 
 and his other churches, sometimes to preach at Providence 
 and New Hanover, and in this way to relieve Brunnholtz and 
 other brethren who had promised during Miihlenberg's ab- 
 sence to take care of his pastoral charge. Soon afterward 
 Weygand came on a visit to New York, and reported to 
 Miihlenberg that at Hackensack he had met Riess and con- 
 versed with him. He had learned from him that at the insti- 
 gation of Knoll, who had resigned his charge, he had taken 
 an interest in the Lutherans of that town, who counted be- 
 tween twenty-four and thirty families. Since the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century there had been at Hackensack a con- 
 gregation of Dutch Lutherans, to whose spiritual wants the 
 pastors of the New York congregation had attended, until, 
 under the services of Knoll, who had no success as a pastor, 
 indifference began to prevail and the flock was more or less 
 dispersed. The remnants of the Lutheran congregation, as 
 well as the German Lutherans living at Remmerspach (which 
 we also mentioned before), were occasionally visited by Riess. 
 The Lutherans at Hackensack, learning through Weygand of 
 the united Pennsylvania pastors and of their principles and 
 ways, desired that Riess, who had listened to all this, should 
 join them ; for which, however, neither he nor they were pre- 
 pared. Riess would have preferred a call to a suitable coun- 
 try charge ; he did not feel at all comfortable in the hands of 
 his party in New York, but could not yet free himself from 
 that responsibility. Miihlenberg thought best to visit him. 
 Riess braced himself up, used high words, complained of the 
 gross manners of the Dutch, and seemed to be full of hope 
 that his party would come in triumph out of the struggle. 
 He had established a drug-store, was practising as a physi- 
 cian, and boasted of his large income from these sources. 
 
 June 23d some elders and deacons of Hackensack attended 
 the services held by Miihlenberg. On the following day they 
 conferred with him on the affairs of their congregation, and 
 invited him to visit them, to preach for them, and to adminis- 
 
2/2 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ter the Lord's Supper. He was willing to visit them and 
 to preach to them, for which the officers of his own con- 
 gregation had been requested to give their consent. Before 
 administering to their congregation the Lord's Supper he 
 desired first to become better acquainted with them. They 
 complained that Riess could not preach in the Dutch lan- 
 guage, while they did not understand his German ; they also 
 disliked his independent, unsynodical position. 
 
 July i8th-24th, Miihlenberg paid his first, and Aug. I4th- 
 2 1st, his second, visit at Hackensack. He was brought into 
 contact with many of the members of the Lutheran congre- 
 gation and with others. People came to see him, and he care- 
 fully improved the occasion to speak many a good word. 
 It grieved him to learn that the title " Lutheran pastor " had 
 become almost a reproach, as many had made it synonymous 
 with litigious and quarrelsome vagabonds. Sunday, July 2 1st, 
 he preached in the morning in Dutch ; in the afternoon in 
 English. In the morning the fine large church was not quite 
 filled with Lutherans and Reformed, but, says he, "they paid at- 
 tention with eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and numbers were 
 in tears. The poor Lutherans in this locality were very 
 much dispersed, and had been driven away by the long-stand- 
 ing strifes of ministers and their bad example. They have a 
 fine large church built of stone, and a parsonage. Some of 
 them still keep together, meet in the church from Sunday to 
 Sunday, and read a sermon. The singing has gone wholly 
 to ruin ; they are not able to sing even the best-known 
 hymns : the lamentable noise they make is much more like 
 a confused dispute than a melody. In the afternoon the 
 church was too small, and large numbers had to stand out- 
 side around the doors and windows. I preached in English 
 on the Prodigal Son (Luke xv.), and began singing, out of our 
 English hymn-book, Resits, deine tiefe Wundenj etc. The hymn 
 and the melody being unknown, I read the verses aloud and 
 led in singing. Some women followed with soft, melodious 
 voices and agreeable harmony, so that the people were 
 charmed. Never in my life did I see more attentive hearers. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2/3 
 
 God grant that it may not be in vain !" On the following 
 Sunday, in accordance with the wish of the church-officers, 
 he preached in German, many Reformed having expressed a 
 desire to hear " that Lutheran." After services two men of 
 the Remmerspach congregation came to him, in the presence 
 of the Hackensack elders and deacons inquired about the state 
 of affairs between the two parties at New York, and com- 
 plained that Riess had now for six months kept them in 
 suspense. He learned from them that also at Remmerspach 
 they met from Sunday to Sunday, sang a church-hymn, and 
 had a sermon read to them from a book written by Augustus 
 Hermann Francke which had been brought to this country 
 in the times of Queen Anne. The Hackensack people also 
 pathetically entreated Miihlenberg not to forsake them, but 
 to act toward them as a father, as for so many years they had 
 had such sad experiences with preachers, and were like sheep 
 without a shepherd. 
 
 Miihlenberg also here met with some cases which afforded 
 special pastoral interest and gave him occasion to speak words 
 of comfort to troubled souls. The wife of the host with whom 
 he lodged was a member of the Reformed Church. Her pas- 
 tor was a man of religious fervor, and apparently of consider- 
 able force as a preacher, but he was totally wedded to the 
 strictest Calvinistic predestinarian principles, and considered 
 it his duty to introduce them in his sermons whenever occa- 
 sion was given. This had such a powerful effect upon the 
 woman that she became horrified, fell into a dangerous sick- 
 ness, and was still a sufferer, and with tears flowing com- 
 plained that she had no assurance of being one of the elect 
 and in a state of grace, and that she frequently felt nothing 
 but fear of the divine wrath and eternal death, which in her 
 case, as Miihlenberg was convinced, was the result of inju- 
 dicious pastoral zeal. Another woman, wife of an elder, was 
 also troubled with doubts concerning her own salvation. She 
 had for a long time, feeling the force of the letter of the law, 
 scrupulously tried to give satisfaction to its demands by 
 strictly keeping the letter and fulfilling every possible require- 
 
 18 
 
2/4 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ment of it ; yet she had found no peace of mind, but after she 
 had confessed to a former pastor her sinful condition and 
 want of saving faith in Him who had borne our sins, and 
 received the answer that she should not doubt or she would 
 be lost, unable to conquer all doubt, she feared she had com- 
 mitted the sin against the Holy Ghost. Miihlenberg in- 
 structed her about the great love of God toward us, and gave 
 her the sweetest assurances of divine loving-kindness found in 
 the Bible, while he repeated to her the case of the distressed 
 widow whose unceasing petitions moved the heart even of an 
 atheistic, insolent judge, and said to her, " Certainly the heart 
 of the Saviour, which was more tender than that of any 
 mother, could not and would not remain unmoved by the 
 crying of a child in extreme danger." 
 
 July 23d, Miihlenberg preached there once more in the 
 Dutch language on the Beatitudes (Matt. v.). The two Re- 
 formed pastors of the town were both present, and the large 
 assembly was very attentive. One man, a member of the 
 Reformed Church, was so absorbed in reflecting upon the 
 truths he had heard that after service he walked 'home, a dis- 
 tance of three miles, altogether forgetting that he had left his 
 horse standing near the church. It was quite encouraging 
 to Miihlenberg to find that the Lutherans in that locality now 
 felt themselves animated with new hope, and no longer had 
 cause to be ashamed of their religion when allusion was made 
 to their pastors. But in his sober way of thinking he says : 
 " The three disciples on the heights of the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration possibly also thought they would never be ashamed 
 of their religion, but the situation had become quite different 
 in the garden of Gethsemane." On July 24th he returned to 
 New York. Before he left, the church-officers entreated him 
 to return and administer the Lord's Supper, and to endeavor 
 to have them reunited with the New York congregation. 
 
 Aug. I4th he again visited Hackensack. He had occasion 
 to enter into conversation on religious topics with various 
 individuals, and to give them instruction and comfort. He 
 also succeeded in reconciling some members of the congre- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 
 
 gation, who were finally willing to forgive each other their 
 offences. After preparatory services held Aug. I7th he cele- 
 brated (Aug. 1 8th) the Lord's Supper with the congregation. 
 An interest having been excited in the sacramental question, 
 among Reformed as well as among Lutherans, in consequence 
 of his touching upon this topic in conversation, Miihlenberg 
 resolved to preach on the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. 
 There were present, as might be expected, also many mem- 
 bers of the Reformed persuasion ; they as well as the Lu- 
 therans were desirous of hearing what Miihlenberg would say 
 on this grave subject. As his text he took the words oflthe 
 institution, and considered the Founder of it, the time and the 
 circumstances, what was offered and what was received in 
 it, and the benefits and the design of the ordinance. He says 
 in his diary : " I refrained from all scholastic and unnecessary 
 fancies, simply and sincerely rested on the clear testamentary 
 words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and acted therein like Queen 
 Elizabeth, who, when questioned by the Roman emissaries 
 about this article of faith, answered, ' It was the Word that 
 spake it; He took the bread and brake it; and what the 
 Word did make it, that I believe and take it.' " After the 
 sermon more than thirty individuals participated in the 
 sacrament. Miihlenberg learned that his plain, straightfor- 
 ward manner of preaching had made a favorable impression 
 on both sides. In the afternoon he preached to a large 
 assembly on the Gospel of the Sunday. On the following 
 day some of the elders went on horseback to a number of 
 church-members and inquired whether they were not willing 
 to accept of such a pastor and to contribute to his support, 
 provided they could have service every fourth week. Quite 
 a number of the Reformed, even, offered their assistance, 
 which, however, was kindly refused. Some young people 
 not yet confirmed, though married, who already had felt 
 inclined to join some other denomination, now resolved, 
 with the help of God, to become true members of the 
 Church and of the congregation. On the evening of the 
 same day the elders and the deacons met and presented 
 
276 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Muhlenberg a regular call. Learning that the old congre- 
 gation at New York intended to address the Fathers in 
 Europe, and to petition them to permit Muhlenberg to 
 accept of their call, they requested him to send with 'it 
 theirs also. On the following day Muhlenberg once more 
 visited sick Mr. Van Buskirk, who resided twenty miles 
 distant from Hackensack. 
 
 Aug. 2Oth, after giving the sick friend admonition and 
 encouragement and addressing a number of Lutherans and 
 Reformed who had gathered together, Muhlenberg was 
 brought safely to New York in a boat belonging to Van 
 Buskirk. In this city he was, as he tells us in his diary, 
 not unpleasantly affected by the climate. " But," says he, 
 " there is another inconvenience : they cannot give one a 
 draught of good water. The wells in the town are brack- 
 ish. The water for drinking and cooking the people are 
 obliged to buy. Not far from the city, and also at its extreme 
 limits, there are some wells containing moderately good water. 
 Many persons make a living by daily filling barrels with water 
 from the good wells and driving around with it for sale in the 
 city." Perhaps during the summer heat at New York, Muhl- 
 enberg felt a longing for the sweet, cooling waters rushing 
 forth from under the rocks and the hills around Providence, 
 as the children of Israel in the desert longed for cool, refresh- 
 ing springs. The change of locality and of manner of living 
 had already in June seriously affected his health, and, though 
 kind friends willingly paid attention to him, he was without 
 the care which would have been bestowed upon him in his 
 own house and by his family. June i/th, Weiser arrived at 
 New York on another tour for the pacification of the Indians, 
 and handed to his son-in-law a number of letters from Halle 
 and London, which greatly rejoiced the heart of Muhlenberg, 
 who, weakened as he was by the serious attack of sickness he 
 had suffered, highly valued the kind remembrance in which 
 he was held by men like Francke. Seeing that the attendance 
 at church was increasing, and that numbers of the old natives 
 of Holland who for years had forsaken their house of worship 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2JJ 
 
 had returned to it, he allowed no relaxation to his efforts, 
 though the friends advised him to rest and to recover his 
 usual strength. C. Weiser had come with one of his sons, 
 who, influenced by the request of the government, intended 
 to live for some time among the Indians, so as to be enabled, 
 by learning their language, to serve hereafter as an interpreter 
 between them and the English civil authorities. 
 
 The plan of a union between the old Dutch and the new 
 German congregation was not yet given up. During the last 
 week of June, Miihlenberg went to see some of the prominent 
 members of the German congregation. Many of them, but 
 not all, he found in a sober condition. They brought up 
 various charges against the vestry of the other congregation, 
 complaining that its members were proud, did not act rightly 
 as to the property and the charities of the church, called the 
 Germans " servants," and were against German services in the 
 church. They were ready for a reunion, provided the Dutch 
 congregation would buy the meeting-house and pay all the 
 debts of the other party. Miihlenberg, who was not antag- 
 onistic to a proper union of the two parties, since neither of 
 them gave sufficient signs of vitality to justify a separate 
 existence, could easily refute all these objections. On this 
 account he held (July 1st) a vestry-meeting, where all the 
 propositions for a union were taken into consideration. The 
 demands of the German party were found unreasonable. 
 Even if the old congregation would financially relieve the 
 Germans, the legal aspects of the act were by no means 
 settled; there was no guarantee whatever given concerning 
 the course the Germans might pursue in the future. The 
 vestry met again on July I5th. A resolution was passed to 
 frame certain articles as conditions for the proposed union, 
 and to send a copy of them to the other party. It would 
 lead us too far here to copy the preamble and articles. The 
 whole document shows the considerate, far-seeing, careful 
 mind of Miihlenberg, who had the strongest reasons for 
 desiring a union of the two parties, but who would never 
 purchase a seemingly good momentary result at the sacrifice 
 
2/8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of principles on which alone could securely rest a true union 
 and a sound progress of congregational life. Our conviction 
 is that no articles or conditions, of whatever merit they were, 
 could at that time have produced a healthful union of a last- 
 ing character. The very material of which Riess's congrega- 
 tion to a large extent consisted would have prevented the 
 desirable result. Riess, after having received these articles, 
 which were perfectly reasonable and quite liberal, when re- 
 quested by Miihlenburg to make his adherents consider their 
 own best interest and the honor of the Lutheran Church, 
 reported, on the evening of July i/th, that he had assembled 
 his party and gravely admonished them this time " not to 
 come full of liquor " and to frame a proper answer on their 
 part. Sapienti sat. ! The first two or three men whom this 
 German party after Riess's resignation elected as their pastors 
 present evidence enough of the low moral tone prevailing 
 among the leading individuals and of the total absence of a 
 higher life. The answer from Riess's adherents coming to 
 the old congregation showed that, while acceding to some 
 of the propositions laid before them, they unconditionally 
 demanded that the united congregation should bear the debts 
 of the German party that Riess should be requested to serve 
 as pastor, and in the case of his unwillingness the Rev. Peter 
 Sommer, pastor at Schoharie, a son-in-law of Berkenmeier, 
 should be called. To the document framed in this spirit and 
 handed by Riess to Miihlenberg not one man had given his 
 signature. It was, in fact, a testimonial so framed as to satisfy 
 Riess and hereafter to serve his purposes, but of no value for 
 the interests then under consideration. 
 
 Miihlenberg, who had honestly endeavored to bring about 
 a union between the two parties, saw plainly that for any prog- 
 ress in this direction the field was not prepared. To encour- 
 age and strengthen as best he could that flock which had 
 entrusted itself to his care appeared to him his sole duty. 
 He felt that by adding to the services held in the Dutch and 
 German languages others held in the English he might exer- 
 cise an influence upon numbers of those who were not bene- 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 279 
 
 fited by the services in the other languages. It had indeed 
 been suggested to him that he should preach also in English ; 
 he resolved now to do so on Sunday evenings, though he found 
 it a severe task during the hot days of summer to deliver on the 
 same Sunday three sermons in three different languages. His 
 vestrymen also were averse to any further discussion of the 
 plan for uniting the two parties, and agreed that the pastor 
 of their church should spend every fourth Sunday at Hacken- 
 sack to build up that long-neglected congregation. There 
 were numbers of people who in other churches had no even- 
 ing services, and were averse to the Calvinistic principles then 
 frequently preached and defended from many a pulpit. Sun- 
 day, July 28th, he began the evening services in English. The 
 church was not large enough to accommodate all who came. 
 The hymn-book of which, however, only one copy was on 
 hand was the Psalmodia Germanica, or the German Psalmody, 
 translated from the High Dutch, together with their proper tunes 
 and thoroughbass, first published at London in two parts, 1722 
 and 1725 ; again published at London 1732. This latter edition 
 was used in New York. Muhlenberg took for his text Luke 
 vii. 36-50. On the following Sunday he preached, as before, 
 in the morning in Dutch, administered the Lord's Supper to 
 some fifty persons, and preached in the evening again in Eng- 
 lish to a still larger assembly. The days of the week he used 
 for instruction of the young, for visits to the members of the 
 church, especially to the sick, for correspondence, study, and 
 meditation. July ioth-i2th he spent at the residence of J. 
 M. Magens (mentioned before) at Flushing. Returning thence 
 in a small craft during rough weather, his life was for a mo- 
 ment in imminent peril while he was trying to aid in adjust- 
 ing the rigging. 
 
 When, in the beginning of August, the vestry again as- 
 sembled, Muhlenberg informed them that various letters from 
 home made it obligatory on him toward the end of the month 
 to return to his family. This news produced great consterna- 
 tion among the vestrymen. Various plans were proposed. To 
 call a pastor directly from Europe would be a very hazardous 
 
28O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 undertaking, since, inexperienced as he certainly would be, he 
 would easily take wrong steps, and perhaps give the congre- 
 gation, already weak enough, a death-blow. They thought 
 the venerable Fathers in Europe might be willing to allow 
 Miihlenberg at least for a few years, if not for his lifetime 
 to settle at New York, since in Pennsylvania only one lan- 
 guage, the German, was needed, while here two in addition. 
 Miihlenberg certainly felt greatly embarrassed, and went so 
 far as to say that, provided the Fathers ordered him to New 
 York, he would have to obey. J. M. Magens was requested 
 to address the Fathers on the subject, to entreat them merci- 
 fully to consider the lamentable condition of the congregation, 
 and to order Miihlenberg to New York. 
 
 For the present Muhlenberg could not neglect the summons 
 from Pennsylvania, and particularly from his family. He was 
 willing at a later period again to devote time and strength to 
 a cause which had such strong claims upon his sympathy. 
 He had promised to stay three months during 1751 with the 
 people who had called him to New York. Being unable to 
 fulfil his promise now, he thought it his duty to continue 
 through a substitute the work begun by himself, and for this 
 reason he engaged the services of Weygand (then having 
 care of the Raritan congregations) for at least six weeks. 
 Weygand arrived Aug. 24th, and, having received all neces- 
 sary information, advice, and instruction to keep a diary and 
 to enter therein all his pastoral acts, he preached .Sunday after- 
 noon (Aug. 25th) in the German, while Muhlenberg preached in 
 the evening in the English, when he took for his subject Gen. 
 xxviii. 10. Weygand, as it seems, was at first not quite pleased 
 with the appearance of things in the congregation now tempo- 
 rarily entrusted to his care. Compared with the large crowds 
 which attended his services on the Raritan, his sphere of action 
 appeared to him very much reduced. Miihlenberg told him 
 that when beginning his work in Pennsylvania he had passed 
 through the same experience and had the same feelings, but 
 the care of even two or three souls, considering our inability 
 for the proper performance of such responsible duties, was 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 28 I 
 
 too much for us, and we were often remiss in the proper 
 attention to the interests of our own souls. Seeing in the 
 evening a crowded church, Weygand took courage. He had 
 at least some knowledge of the Dutch language, which cir- 
 cumstance particularly moved Miihlenberg to select him as a 
 substitute. 
 
 We deem it proper to mention that a number of the pas- 
 tors presiding in New York over congregations of various 
 persuasions returned the visits of Miihlenberg. Among them 
 was the Rev. Eb. Pemberton, D. D., pastor of a Presbyterian 
 congregation, who as a forcible preacher influenced by the 
 spirit of Whitefield, then a burning and shining light in the 
 American provinces, stood in high esteem. In his conversa- 
 tions with him Miihlenberg found that this Presbyterian cler- 
 gyman was not wholly uninformed concerning the peculiar 
 doctrines of the Lutheran Church. He had read some of the 
 Latin writings of Lutheran theologians, and thought that they 
 were not precise enough in their description of repentance, 
 since they stated that a sufficient recognition of sin, repent- 
 ance for it, and distress about it could be brought about by 
 the law. He admitted that by the law sin might be prop- 
 erly recognized in its quantitative relation, but that the con- 
 sideration of the sufferings and the death of Christ would lead 
 to a better understanding of its qualitative character. He also 
 thought that the Lutheran theologians did not sufficiently 
 define the elements of faith, cognitionem, assensum, fidiiciam, 
 especially the latter two. Miihlenberg, by referring directly 
 to the statements of the Confessions of the Lutheran Church, 
 succeeded in rectifying the misunderstanding of his clerical 
 visitor, who spoke in the highest terms of Luther's writings, 
 parts of which he had read. He specially mentioned Luther's 
 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. 
 
 Aug. 26th, the day on which Miihlenberg left New York to 
 return to Pennsylvania, Riess also came to say "farewell," 
 and for the same purpose some of his adherents. Trifling as 
 this circumstance may appear, it is a welcome proof that he 
 and they, though maintaining a position antagonistic to the 
 
282 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 interests Miihlenberg represented, could not but respect him 
 and were willing to make him acquainted with these their feel- 
 ings. On the same day Miihlenberg was accompanied at noon 
 by Weygand and some other friends to the vessel which took 
 him over to New Jersey. By way of Philadelphia he arrived 
 (Aug. 2pth) in the midst of his family at Providence. Sept. 
 I ^th was born his second daughter, who in holy baptism was 
 named Margaretta Henrietta, the name Henrietta in honor of 
 the wife of the Rev. J. A. Francke, D. D., at Halle. The first 
 daughter, Eve Elizabeth, saw the light of this world Jan. 29, 
 1748. The name Eve was given to her in honor of her grand- 
 mother Weiser, whose name was Ann Eve. 
 
HENRY MEL CHIOR MUHLENBERG. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 1751-1752. 
 
 Miihlenberg's pastoral work at Providence, New Hanover, and the vicinity. Cor- 
 respondence with his relatives at Eimbeck and with dignitaries of the Church 
 in Germany. Arrival of Rev. J. D. M. Heintzelmann and Rev. Fred. Schultz. 
 Heintzelmann appointed assistant to Brunnholtz. His early death. 
 Schultz, for a time assistant to Miihlenberg, labors for a few years at New 
 Goshenhoppen and at Indianfield. His further career. Miihlenberg again 
 during three months active in pastoral work at New York and Hackensack. 
 He preaches in Dutch, in German, and in English; catechises adults; in- 
 structs, confirms, and administers the sacraments. His interest in the colored 
 race; views on certain recently-introduced measures. Rev. Mich. Schlatter 
 of the German Reformed Church. His career in America and friendly rela- 
 tions with Miihlenberg. Miihlenberg returns to Pennsylvania. Statistics as 
 to his pastoral work. Extent of his influence. 
 
 THREE months and eight days Miihlenberg had spent at 
 New York and Hackensack during the summer of 1751. 
 Synod had granted him, as we learned, six months' leave of 
 absence from his congregations and from Pennsylvania : for 
 that purpose, consequently, almost three months were still at 
 his disposal. He had accepted, though conditionally, the call 
 given him by the old Lutheran congregation at New York ; 
 this call was still in force. He acknowledged the obligation 
 resting upon him. The members of the New York church 
 did not cease to remind him of their claims, and to these claims 
 were now added those of the Lutheran membership at Hack- 
 ensack. Miihlenberg intended to spend three months of the 
 ensuing winter at New York, but as early as the fall, in 
 answer to a letter of Captain C. R. Hartel (whose name is 
 familiar to us, and who had informed him that the German 
 party, in consequence of Riess's resignation, had already 
 elected another pastor, and that the old church was in great 
 
284 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 trouble), he stated that it would be impossible for him to come 
 to New York before March, 1752. This, however, did not 
 prevent further correspondence with the New York friends, 
 who felt that without Muhlenberg their cause was lost. The 
 vestry sent a pressing letter February II, 1752. It was im- 
 possible for Muhlenberg to return to New York in March, 
 but another letter of the vestry, dated April 6th, manifests 
 great joy on the receipt of his promise to come yet in 
 that month. 
 
 During the winter of 1751-52, Muhlenberg, as time and 
 strength permitted, was attending to his duties in his congre- 
 gations of Providence, New Hanover, and the various outposts 
 on each side of the Schuylkill. There was also particularly 
 entrusted to him the correspondence with the Fathers in Eu- 
 rope, who not only desired to receive from time to time the 
 diaries dutifully kept by each of the pastors sent from Halle, 
 but expected also extended reports on the general state of the 
 Lutheran Church in America. To this necessary correspond- 
 ence were added many private letters which Muhlenberg, in 
 the interests of the congregations and pastors synodically 
 united, sent to prominent men of the clergy and laity in Ger- 
 many, who often by charitable acts showed their sympathy. 
 The circle of correspondence included especially also his 
 relations and other acquaintances at Eimbeck, his native 
 place, where at the end of 1747 his mother, at the age of 
 seventy-two years and three months, less four days, had died 
 and gone to her eternal rest. March 17, 1752, he despatched 
 letters to his two brothers, Henry Christopher and John 
 Arndt, living at Eimbeck. He corresponded also with one 
 of the Eimbeck pastors and with friends from the ranks of 
 the laity. Of special value to us are his letters addressed to 
 men in high position in the Church among others, Rev. J. 
 Ph. Fresenius, D. D., Rev. Sam. Urlsperger, D. D., and Rev. 
 Ph. H. Weissensee, D. D., one of the highest dignitaries of 
 the Church of Wurtemberg. A number of such extended 
 and very instructive letters were written during the winter of 
 1751-52. One of them, dated Nov. 15, 1751, and addressed 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 2%$ 
 
 to Fresenius, gives a very striking description of the ecclesi- 
 astical and spiritual condition of the field in which Miihlen- 
 berg and his colaborers were carrying on the work of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Dec. I, 1751, two other missionaries Rev. John Dietrich 
 Matthaeus Heintzelmann and Rev. Frederick Schultz arrived 
 from Halle. Heintzelmann, a native of Salzwedel, in the 
 neighborhood of Magdeburg in Prussia, son of a physician, 
 having completed the usual preparatory classical course in 
 the place of his birth and at Stendal, received his theological 
 education at Halle, where he was for a time inspector in one 
 of the Francke schools. It appears that his superiors had 
 for some time regarded him as especially fitted for mis- 
 sionary work in America. When, finally, the call to that 
 distant field came to him, he after prayerful and prolonged 
 consideration gave his hearty consent. The Fathers at Halle 
 and the directors of the Orphan-House and of institutions 
 connected with it did not look with perfect satisfaction upon 
 certain privileges granted to unordained assistants or cate- 
 chists in the field of labor in America a point to which we 
 formerly referred. For this reason Heintzelmann and his 
 companion, Schultz, though without a call from any local 
 congregation, were ordained at Wernigerode, July II, 1751, 
 before starting on the voyage to the New World. By way 
 of Hamburg they arrived at London Sept. 2d, embarked on 
 the 1 7th at Gravesend, and after an unusually short voyage 
 landed at Philadelphia Dec. 1st. Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, 
 and Handschuh (Dec. 1 7th) held a consultation at Philadel- 
 phia, and on Jan. 15, 1752, conferred with the two brethren 
 at Providence on the future sphere of labor to be allotted 
 to them. It was resolved that Heintzelmann should assist 
 Brunnholtz, who, in his continually and rapidly-augmenting 
 congregation at Philadelphia and with his increasing infirm- 
 ities, needed help. At once entering upon this field of labor, 
 Heintzelmann, with the parochial teacher Naumann, was en- 
 gaged every day a number of hours in teaching the youth of 
 the congregation an office in which he was quite successful 
 
286 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and gave special satisfaction to Miihlenberg, who never ceased 
 to keep a watchful eye on the schools and the religious 
 instruction of the children of the Church. In 1753, Heint- 
 zelmann, whose preaching and other services were well ap- 
 preciated by the congregation, was elected its second pastor. 
 In November, 1754, he married Ann Eve, sister of Mrs. 
 Miihlenberg, and died, after a short but useful career, Feb. 
 9, 1756. Twenty-four hours after his death a son was born, 
 to whom in holy baptism the name Israel was given, in hon- 
 or of Provost Acrelius, one of the sponsors. As his mother 
 after some time entered into matrimony with a Roman Cath- 
 olic, the son, in accordance with the well-known convictions 
 of his father, was placed for a time under the care of Henry 
 Keppele, one of his guardians, a merchant in Philadelphia. 
 To escape the undesirable influence of his stepfather, the 
 youth in 1773 was sent to Georgia, where he found a patron 
 in Adam Treutlen, magistrate and merchant in Ebenezer, in 
 whose service he was. There was a prospect of marriage 
 between a daughter of that gentleman and young Heintzel- 
 mann, but after having been there not quite a year the young 
 man was thrown from a spirited horse which he was break- 
 ing, and died, in consequence of the fall, on the following 
 day. 
 
 Frederick Schultz, born at Koenigsberg, Prussia, received 
 his education partly in his native city, partly at the University 
 of Halle, paying, as it appears, attention both to theology and 
 to medical science. At Halle he had also for some time a 
 position as teacher in the Orphan-House. Already in 1750 he 
 declared himself willing to follow a call to the Pennsylvania 
 field of labor. After his arrival here he was stationed at New 
 Hanover as the assistant to Muhlenberg, preached every other 
 week at New Goshenhoppen, was present at the synodical 
 meeting held at Germantown Oct. 2, 1752, moved, with the 
 permission of synod, to New Goshenhoppen, and in the fol- 
 lowing years served also at Indianfield, where, in 1753, he 
 began the church record. It seems that as late as 1758 he 
 served in Old Goshenhoppen after Raus's removal to York, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 287 
 
 Pa., but after 1758 his name disappears from the clerical list 
 of synod. He married in 1/54, engaged also in farming and 
 the practice of medicine, was inclined to alchemistic practices, 
 paid dearly for making experiments to discover the " Philos- 
 opher's Stone," was for a time in the congregations on the 
 Raritan, applied about 1764 to Weygand at New York for a 
 situation as parochial teacher, and served from 1772-82 the 
 Lutheran congregation at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and for 
 a few months during 1784 the one at Shelburne in the same 
 province. The report that he died as late as 1 809 needs his- 
 torical confirmation. It appears that, of all the missionaries 
 sent from Halle in the times of Miihlenberg, he was the least 
 successful a fact with which harmonized a remark of Dr. 
 Francke in a confidential letter to Miihlenberg, that he had 
 had misgivings about Schultz before his call to America. 
 
 The presence of Schultz in New Hanover in 1752, together 
 with his willingness to take care of the whole pastoral charge 
 of Miihlenberg, proved a blessing to the Dutch congregation 
 at New York. Miihlenberg had finished the course of instruc- 
 tion of the catechumens in his parish, had held confirmation, 
 and had celebrated the Lord's Supper, and now thought it 
 proper again to spend a season of three months with the New 
 York and Hackensack Lutherans, who were anxiously wait- 
 ing for his return. His family, much distressed about another 
 proposed and protracted absence, remained at Providence. 
 He left them and other friends May 4th, came by way of 
 Germantown (where Handschuh was settled) to Philadelphia, 
 embarked here on the 6th, found on board of the vessel a 
 number of blasphemous, disgusting companions, but learned 
 " that a Christian can preserve and enjoy peace of soul and 
 the comforts of the Holy Spirit even in the midst of a set of 
 devils," and on May 9th arrived at New York, again taking 
 his lodgings in the parsonage. The news of his arrival pro- 
 duced much joy among the friends at New York and Hack- 
 ensack, as the many visitors who came to greet the long- 
 desired stranger clearly indicated. Some thought that now 
 he would make his home permanently with them, and were 
 
288 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sadly disappointed when in his first sermon (May loth) he 
 informed them that he had left his congregation in Pennsyl- 
 vania only to visit them for a time. Having preached in the 
 morning in Dutch, in the afternoon in German, he was toward 
 evening called away to see the same Mr. Van Buskirk whom 
 he had visited the preceding year, and who was still a sufferer 
 and growing weaker and weaker. On Monday, Miihlenberg 
 held services with the sick friend and his family, and with 
 members of the Lutheran Church and others living in that 
 neighborhood. In the afternoon the only son of the family 
 brought Miihlenberg back to New York. As he was more 
 than thirty years of age, had crossed the sea, and had not 
 yet been received by the rite of confirmation into Lutheran 
 church-membership, he was the object of Miihlenberg's solici- 
 tude and admonition. 
 
 And now during the three months of May, June, and July, 
 to Aug. 3d, Muhlenberg again devoted his time and his 
 strength to the Dutch Lutheran congregations at New York 
 and Hackensack, and infused new vitality into those flocks, 
 a long time neglected and dispersed, but once more animated 
 by new energy and hope. He pursued the course he had 
 taken the preceding year. The question of uniting the Dutch 
 and the German congregations was no longer agitated. It was 
 brought up again at a later period, and finally, in 1785, the 
 two congregations were united under the auspices of Miihl- 
 enberg's son-in-law, the Rev. John Christopher Kunze, D. D., 
 who in 1784 was called to New York by numbers of both 
 congregations. 
 
 Miihlenberg again found it necessary to preach in the 
 New York church in Dutch, in German, and in English. To 
 facilitate the singing, he allowed each party to use its own 
 hymn-book. The natives of Holland could not always find 
 hymns and melodies adapted to the hymns which the Ger- 
 mans sang, following the Marburg hymn-book. Of one Ger- 
 man hymn Muhlenberg made a translation into Dutch, which 
 was very welcome to the members ; he gave it to them in his 
 translation line after line. He announced one Sunday (June 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 289 
 
 1st) that on the following Sunday he would begin to catechise 
 also the adult membership an exercise to which we formerly 
 alluded, and one which was not at all uncommon in those 
 days and is to be commended for various reasons. This 
 caused the oldest member of the congregation a man nearly 
 eighty years of age to come to the pastor, and, while con- 
 fessing his embarrassment, to declare that in his old days he 
 could no longer publicly repeat the Catechism and was afraid 
 the young people might laugh at his mistakes. Miihlenberg, 
 while reminding him of the fact that even the learned and 
 great Dr. Luther had never been without his Catechism, and 
 in advanced years daily studied and repeated it, comforted the 
 old brother and told him that if he were in a condition of grace 
 and a new life he might answer from his personal experience. 
 The following Sunday, after the afternoon sermon, Miihlen- 
 berg began the promised catechization, and promiscuously 
 asked old and young with a view to remove their bashfulness. 
 He had also a class of catechumens, who on Saturday, Aug. 
 1st, were examined and confirmed, and on the following day 
 admitted to the Lord's Supper. It may be worth while here 
 to introduce an item which may seem in itself to be of little 
 importance, but is indicative of the impression Miihlenberg 
 was enabled to make upon persons apparently having no 
 share in his sympathies. He had preached (July 28th) on 
 Gal. vi. 14. A female slave of good report belonging to a 
 widow, a member of the congregation, and in the habit of 
 regularly attending the Dutch and English services, brought 
 Miihlenberg his dinner to his lodgings. He kindly presented 
 her a trifling gift of money, but could not move her to accept 
 it. Having heard that he was soon going to leave, she began 
 to cry vehemently and thanked him for the benefit she had 
 derived from his preaching and teaching. Muhlenberg, who 
 certainly had passed through many similar scenes, says that 
 " this poor worm indeed did break his heart." The sympathy 
 which he felt for the colored race is also brought to light by 
 the fact that when, in 1745 (Oct. 6th), the Augustus Church 
 at Providence was dedicated, three negroes, slaves of a Mr. 
 
 19 
 
2QO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Pawling, were on that solemn occasion publicly examined as 
 to their knowledge of the fundamental doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, and then baptized. Miihlenberg had taken the trou- 
 ble properly to prepare them for this rite by the necessary 
 instruction. 
 
 During his sojourn at New York in 1752, Miihlenberg paid 
 three visits to the Hackensack congregation, and continued 
 there the good work begun the year before. May 2ist-28th, 
 June i6th-23d, July I7th-23d, he spent there with the Lu- 
 therans, who "by his repeated visits were greatly refreshed and 
 encouraged. He lodged at the house of a member of the 
 congregation, Lawrence van Buskirk. There he began (May 
 25th) his instructions to a class of catechumens. He pre- 
 ferred to do this service at least, in the beginning in a pri- 
 vate room, knowing that the young people were still ignorant 
 and bashful, and no less than the older ones averse to being 
 exposed to criticism before the public. He states that he did 
 not find them advanced enough in their knowledge of the 
 truths of Christianity when he administered the Lord's Supper 
 (June 2 1st) to the congregation; he consequently delayed 
 their confirmation until some future occasion. He confirmed,' 
 however, after proper examination, one man advanced in age 
 who had given sufficient evidence of his acquaintance with 
 Christian truth, and it would have been improper not to 
 admit him on this occasion the first time to the holy 
 sacrament. 
 
 There was at Hackensack, as we found in the preceding 
 year and during the first visit of Miihlenberg, a Reformed 
 pastor who, touched by the religious excitement of those 
 times under the leadership of Whitefield, had caused a spir- 
 itual awakening among many members of his congregation, 
 while his elder colleague did not join in the spirit and the 
 measures of his younger brother. It was the age in which 
 Methodism and its methods had begun to exert an influence 
 throughout the land and considerably to agitate the minds 
 of religious people. In the Presbyterian Church in New 
 York, in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania it produced a 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 291 
 
 great commotion and caused a division which lasted for 
 many years. It very much disturbed the Episcopal Church 
 in various localities, especially in the city of Philadelphia. 
 There were many discussions occasioned, and party lines 
 were drawn between the conservatives and the revivalists, 
 who were aggressors. That there was need of a spiritual 
 awakening in many places can hardly be denied. Whitefield 
 and Methodism had in America a mission to fulfil as certainly 
 as had Ph. J. Spener and Pietism in Germany. ' But, while 
 there was on each side much that could be commended, there 
 was also much that was not gold, but dross. Deadness and 
 formalism are certainly undesirable representatives of Chris- 
 tianity, but a religion with no better foundation than the 
 transient and more or less artificial excitement of the feel- 
 ings becomes a contemptible failure in the daily trials, labors, 
 and conflicts of our moral and social life. A truly godly life 
 can proceed only from a sound equipoise of all the vital 
 forces which constitute man's higher nature. It appears 
 that the zeal of the younger pastor of the Reformed peo- 
 ple at Hackensack had led him to encourage measures 
 which seriously affected the peace and the harmony of the 
 congregation. " He had,." Miihlenberg narrates, " advised 
 those who were spiritually awakened to meet among them- 
 selves from week to week and to hold devotional exercises. 
 His intentions were undoubtedly good, but, as he did not 
 regularly attend, various disorders crept in. They attempt- 
 ed at every meeting to interpret and apply a chapter of the 
 Bible, which was beyond their ability; they used, in praying, 
 terms of an offensive character, set up a false standard of 
 regeneration, and looked for extraordinary or supernatural 
 things. One of the consequences of such assumptions was a 
 hasty judgment and condemnation of those who did not 
 experience the same state of feelings. In the end the 
 Reformed congregation was divided, bitter enmities arose 
 between the members, and sins were committed on each 
 side. Those who thought themselves in a state of grace 
 considered all those who did not belong to their circle 
 
292 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 publicans and sinners, and the elder pastor a dead literalist, 
 while they were called by the old conservative party Phari- 
 sees, enthusiasts, etc. Our people held their peace during 
 this turmoil, though some became so entangled as to give as- 
 sent to one or the other party. Those awakened had claimed 
 my authority in their favor, and said they wished to hear my 
 opinion ; the other party also were curious to learn what I 
 would say. Wherever I went the talk was about these 
 measures and exercises, and my opinion was asked. I an- 
 swered that, according to the word of God, services held 
 for the increase of godliness were necessary and useful, pro- 
 vided they were conducted in the presence of experienced 
 teachers and pastors, for the honor of God, the best interests 
 of the Church, the advantage of our fellow-men, and the 
 edification of awakened souls." 
 
 June 24th, Hartwig, ever ready to travel, came to see Miihl- 
 enberg, who then was indisposed, and while (Friday, June 
 26th) seeking relief by bleeding himself was interrupted by 
 another sudden visitor and forgot to stop in proper time the 
 flow of blood. In consequence of this accident he was so 
 much reduced that he could hardly deliver one sermon on 
 Sunday, June 28th, in the forenoon. The elders of the con- 
 gregation this time raised no objections to Hartwig's preach- 
 ing German in the afternoon and English in the evening. 
 Berkenmeier had died in the fall of 1751. 
 
 Early in the morning of Tuesday, July 28th, another visit- 
 or, Rev. Michael Schlatter, whom we have met before, and 
 who to some extent held the same relation to the German 
 Reformed Church in Pennsylvana as Miihlenberg held to 
 the German Lutheran Church, pleasantly surprised his friend 
 Muhlenberg. Schlatter, born of pious parents July 14, 1716, 
 at St. Gallen in Switzerland, received his education partly in 
 the scholastic institution of his native place, partly at the 
 University of Helmstedt in the duchy of Brunswick, where 
 he sojourned for a short time, partly in Holland, where he 
 was also employed as a teacher and finally received holy 
 orders. For a short time he served (1745-46) as assistant 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 293 
 
 pastor at Wigoldingen, Canton Thurgau, in Switzerland, then 
 in a suburb of his native place, but, being of a roving dispo- 
 sition (which word we here use in the best sense), he again 
 came to Holland in 1746. Learning of the spiritually des- 
 titute condition of the members of his household of faith, of 
 whom many successive thousands had emigrated from Switz- 
 erland and Germany to America, and especially to Pennsyl- 
 vania moved, also, by the active sympathy which was felt 
 for those emigrants among the congregations of Holland, and 
 furnished by the ecclesiastical authorities with testimonials 
 and instructions he embarked June I, 1746, landed Aug. ist 
 at Boston, and Sept. 6th reached Philadelphia, at that time 
 a town of about ten thousand inhabitants. The old frame 
 building in which, before the erection of St. Michael's Church, 
 Lutherans and Reformed alternately worshipped is already 
 known to us. Rev. J. Ph. Boehm presided at that time over 
 the Reformed congregation. With his consent, Schlatter 
 (Sept. 1 6, 1746) united the Reformed congregations at Phila- 
 delphia and at Germantown into one charge. Oct. n, 1747, 
 he married a daughter of Henry Schleydorn, well known to 
 us as a faithful and active member of the German Lutheran 
 congregation and as a warm friend of Miihlenberg. This 
 may have given occasion to a more intimate acquaintance 
 between the two representatives of the two confessions of 
 faith. Schlatter was an open-hearted, honest, straightfor- 
 ward man qualities which gained him the respect of Miihl- 
 enberg but he was more an agitator than an organizer, 
 and his zeal sometimes lacked judgment and involved him, 
 at various periods of his life, in considerable difficulties. 
 During the summer of 1747 and in the following years he 
 visited many localities in Pennsylvania and encouraged con- 
 gregations and pastors to form a synod, the first meeting of 
 which was held Sept. 29, 1747, at Philadelphia. After a most 
 sad experience in his pastoral life at Philadelphia, furnished 
 by his own ministry and by ministers of the Presbyterian 
 Church with excellent testimonials as to his character, he 
 embarked Feb. 5, 1751, for Europe to lay the condition of 
 
294 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the Reformed Church and congregations before the author- 
 ities of the Reformed Church of Holland, and to, implore 
 their sympathy and assistance. Having been quite successful 
 in this, in the following year he returned to America, and, 
 hearing of Miihlenberg's presence at New York, where he 
 landed, he on that 28th of July at once went to see him. 
 With him had come six missionaries intended for the des- 
 titute congregations of the Reformed faith. Introduced to 
 them, Miihlenberg greeted them with the words, " Behold, 
 I send you forth as sheep into the midst of wolves ; be ye 
 therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." About 
 his first acquaintance with Miihlenberg, Schlatter says in his 
 diary: " On the I5th of Oct. [1746], having humbly sought 
 the guidance and blessing of God to prosper me on my way, 
 I travelled from Philadelphia to Providence a distance of 
 thirty miles and visited the Rev. H. M. Miihlenberg, the 
 first Lutheran preacher in this country, who in the year 1742 
 was sent hither by the Very Rev. Court-Preacher Ziegenha- 
 gen of London on nearly the same footing with myself, and 
 for the same object. I found it expedient to seek an under- 
 standing as to how it was necessary for me to act toward them 
 in reference to the frequent intermarriages of these two denomi- 
 nations in these regions. His Reverence received us with all 
 possible affection and brotherly kindness, commended himself 
 and his brethren to our friendship, and desired that we might 
 dwell together in neighborly unity and peace ; which fellow- 
 ship also has been preserved sacred and inviolate during the 
 whole time I have been in Pennsylvania." On various occa- 
 sions Schlatter expresses the high esteem in which he at all 
 times held Miihlenberg. His public life caused him many 
 severe trials and afflictions. His relation to the synod of the 
 Reformed Church becoming disturbed in 1756, in 1757 he 
 accepted a chaplaincy in the British army in the American 
 provinces. Ceasing to perform the duties of this office two 
 years later, he resided with his family through many years 
 at Chestnut Hill, near Philadelphia, on a farm called by him 
 Sweetland. At the same time he served congregations at 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 295 
 
 Barren Hill, Franklinville, and other neighboring localities. 
 At the beginning of the War of Independence he again acted 
 as chaplain of the British army, but in a short time espoused 
 the American cause, and in September, 1777, when the British 
 invaded Germantown, disobeying orders, he was at once im- 
 prisoned and his house was ransacked. Returning, after his 
 release, to the country, he lived in a small house not far dis- 
 tant from his former residence. There he died, it is reported, 
 in the latter part of October, 1790, at the age of seventy-four 
 years and three months. 
 
 Miihlenberg knew that in case of his return to Pennsyl- 
 vania the progress and the very existence of the congrega- 
 tions which he served at New York and Hackensack would 
 be put in jeopardy. When he held (June nth) a vestry-meet- 
 ing at his lodgings in the parsonage at New York, the elders 
 and deacons entreated him not to forsake them. They bagged 
 him to stay with them at least until an answer would come 
 from the Fathers and the question whether he could not 
 permanently locate in their midst would finally be decided. 
 They then did not know that the Fathers did not look with 
 favor upon their petition. They insisted upon it that in 
 case Miihlenberg left them some other of the Pennsylvania 
 pastors should continue his work among them. Miihlenberg 
 corresponded, therefore, with his colaborers in Pennsylvania. 
 For a time Schrenk and Raus were intended as his success- 
 ors, but both refused to undertake the work. Finally, a call 
 was given to Weygand, at that time serving the Raritan con- 
 gregations. He began his labors at New York in the spring 
 of 1753, and continued them until 1767. 
 
 In 1751 six months were granted by synod to Miihlenberg 
 to -absent himself from Pennsylvania and to serve the Luther- 
 an cause at New York. During 1751 and 1752 he had made 
 the best use of that permission, and the time for his return to 
 the ordinary field of his labors was at hand. His farewell to 
 the congregations and the friends at Hackensack and New 
 York was very painful, and called forth many a tear from 
 those who had been benefited by his services, who had learned 
 
296 LIFE AND TIMES OF ' 
 
 to esteem and to love him as a Christian friend, and who for 
 ever kept him in loving remembrance. His labors in that 
 field had indeed come to an end, and, while always taking a 
 deep interest in the progress of the Lutheran Church in those 
 parts, he never reappeared in New York in an official capacity. 
 Aug. 3d he departed. On that day the whole vestry, many 
 members of the two congregations, and other friends came 
 once more to see him. Hartwig also did not allow this occa- 
 sion to pass without making his appearance. 
 
 After a dangerous and very disagreeable voyage, because 
 of wicked and disgusting company which could not be 
 avoided, Miihlenberg arrived at Philadelphia (Aug. 6th). 
 Having again entered upon his labors in his congregations, 
 he continued his pastoral work with unabated fervor and 
 energy. He tells us that from the New Year of 1751 to the 
 New Year of 1755 he baptized, in the congregations of Prov- 
 idence and New Hanover, three hundred and ninety-one per- 
 sons, twenty-five of whom were adults, who before being bap- 
 tized had made public profession of the Christian faith ; also 
 that during the same period one hundred and forty-eight 
 persons had received catechetical instruction and been re- 
 ceived into membership of the Church by the rite of con- 
 firmation. 
 
 But those years proved to .be years of great tribulation to 
 Miihlenberg and to his brethren. A good work had been 
 begun. " It had, under divine blessing, been successfully 
 carried forward. The synod had been organized and yearly 
 meetings were held. Congregations had been properly or- 
 ganized, and already in 1752 eight ordained pastors and two 
 catechists were in active service. A happy influence was 
 exercised over a field extending from the Maryland frontier 
 to New York and the Upper Hudson. Regular services were 
 held in a considerable number of congregations ; in various 
 places the children were gathered into parochial schools; 
 churches, school-houses, parsonages, had been erected ; and 
 the Lutherans gave pleasing signs of a healthy and hopeful 
 vitality." 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 297 
 
 But there were "breakers ahead," and the outlook became 
 at least, for a time rather gloomy. The causes of this state 
 of affairs, which brought much care and grief to the hearts 
 of Miihlenberg and his colaborers, were in part of a gen- 
 eral, in part of a local, character. During a number of years 
 immigration from Germany had amazingly increased. More 
 than seven thousand Germans arrived, as we formerly had 
 occasion to state, in the fall of 1749; during the summer of 
 that year, twelve thousand. Immigration continued on a 
 large scale until the breaking out of the Seven Years' War. 
 It was reported that in one autumn twelve parochial teachers 
 arrived, hoping to find employment in church or in school. 
 A number of pastors also came, offering their services to con- 
 gregations, but not being desirous of joining the synod. There 
 were, as we mentioned above, some years of great prosperity 
 and an abundance of provisions ; but the wheat not used as 
 bread, but distilled into whiskey proved to many a curse 
 instead of a blessing. Manners deteriorated among the masses 
 of the people. Intemperance and sensual extravagance be- 
 .came rampant. Marriage celebrations especially gave occa- 
 sion for terrible irregularities, and even funerals were often 
 conducted in a most scandalous and offensive manner and 
 changed into carousals. Many of the new-comers were exces- 
 sively carnal-minded. In a letter of 1754, Miihlenberg says 
 that Pennsylvania became surfeited with people of all sorts 
 and from all lands. He continues : " It teems with a wicked, 
 frivolous rabble and vagabond preachers and students, and the 
 devil is raging and carrying on his slanders and calumnies 
 against the poor Hallenses." 
 
298 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1752 et seq. (continued). 
 
 Difficulties arising. Pietism in conflict with carnal-mindedness. Handschuh's 
 unfortunate marriage at Lancaster. He enters upon his new field of labor at 
 Germantown. Impediments in his way. Disturbances in the congregation. 
 Rebellion against Handschuh and synod. He retires with a small number 
 of the faithful. The congregation cut loose from synod. They are as- 
 sisted by Tob. Wagner. Danger of the spread of the rebellion. Disturb- 
 ances at York. J. Sam. Schwerdfeger. J. H. Schaum leaves York; his 
 further career and death. Rev. J. S. Gerock of Wiirtemberg accepted by the 
 Lancaster congregation ; his further career. Rev. B. M. Hausihl. Muhlen- 
 berg again visits Frederick, Md. Rev. J. F. Schertlin. Miihlenberg pays 
 another visit to New York. Transient difficulties in the Raritan congrega- 
 tions. Miihlenberg restores peace and greatly encourages them by repeated 
 visits. William Kurtz. William Graaf. Jacob van Buskirk. Muhlenberg 
 at Hackensack and Remmerspach. 
 
 WE can easily understand that the pastors, coming from 
 the school of Halle, were disliked by that large class * 
 of people who externally, perhaps, were members of the Church 
 and the congregation, but retained their worldly-mindedness 
 and their religious indifference. For such the path, as those 
 pastors delineated it for the benefit of Christians and as it 
 is pointed out in the word of God, was entirely too nar- 
 row. The intruders into the pastoral office accommodated 
 themselves without any compunction to the carnal lusts of 
 the people, and, as a consequence, godly, faithful laborers in 
 that difficult field met with abundant odium. In a letter of 
 Aug. 14, 1753, addressed to Ziegenhagen in London, Muhl- 
 enberg says : " As there are now in Pennsylvania so many 
 who expect to be called to pastoral charges and find their 
 bread, as even in our united congregations there are so many 
 disaffected to whom the preaching of repentance, faith, godli- 
 ness is vexatious and disgusting, and as there are members 
 of congregations and self-appointed pastors with whom we do 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 299 
 
 not associate outside of our united congregations, it can 
 easily be seen what a formidable and abnormal constellation 
 must exist under such circumstances. At the present time 
 old and young self-appointed pastors, offended keepers of 
 inns and groceries, silversmiths and beerhouse fiddlers, dan- 
 cing-masters, entire companies of recently-arrived Nethinim 
 (i Chron. ix. 2), and the insane rabble of Sichem (Sirach 1. 
 28), gather together, throw dust into the air, and raise, with 
 their cursing and blaspheming, such a confusion that the 
 town-clerk himself might be perplexed (Acts xix. 23-40). 
 The sum and substance amounts to this : we are called Halle 
 Pietists, Moravian rogues, impostors, thieves of collection- 
 moneys, etc. etc. The German newspapers supplement the 
 deficiencies of this fermentation. The civil authorities in this 
 free latitude cannot take any steps in our behalf unless there 
 should be gross acts of violence and personal injury; law- 
 yers look upon us with contempt, since we have no money 
 to engage their services." We might quote from Muhlenberg 
 stronger expressions of a similar character, but these are 
 sufficient. In these remarks he had in view especially one 
 extremely sad experience, which now claims our attention. 
 
 It will be remembered that soon after his arrival in this 
 country Rev. J. Fr. Handschuh began his labors at Lancaster. 
 His ministry, as it appears, was for some time quite accept- 
 able to the congregation, which had gone through a hard 
 struggle in consequence of Nyberg's Moravian intrigues. 
 Handschuh lived for a time as a bachelor in quiet retirement, 
 lacking, however, in his weak and sickly condition, that atten- 
 tion which as a married man he would have enjoyed. He 
 finally took to his house as a servant the daughter of one 
 of the deacons of his congregation. With this step, as it 
 appears, nobody found fault ; but trouble began when, after 
 some time, Handschuh told his servant that it seemed to him 
 to be God's will that he should marry her, and she, after some 
 hours of deliberation, arrived at the same conclusion. Nothing 
 could justly be said against the moral character of the young 
 woman, but that she, who had formerly kept a cake-stand in 
 
3OO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the public market at Lancaster, as was known to the whole 
 town, and whose education and social position were certainly 
 not of a high order, should now be called u Frau Pastor," 
 this was more than the ruling portion of the congregation 
 could tolerate : such a marriage seemed to be derogatory to 
 the dignity of the pastor and to the social demands of his 
 office. As was to be expected, much unfriendly and wholly 
 unwarranted talk ensued among the frivolous outsiders. The 
 union between Handschuh and his espoused caused a rupture 
 between him and the congregation. Muhlenberg at once fore- 
 saw this when he heard of Handschuh's intentions. His 
 knowledge of the world made him fear the consequences. 
 Being invited, however, to participate in the marriage solem- 
 nities, he, Brunnholtz, and Kurtz repaired in proper time to 
 Lancaster. On May I, 1750, the ceremony took place. Brunn- 
 holtz in vain made endeavors, before Miihlenberg's arrival, 
 to pacify the congregation. Most of the vestrymen felt very 
 indignant, and would not change their opinions. When, 
 on the wedding-day, the pastors, with Handschuh and the 
 bride, went to the church, not one of all the dissatisfied party 
 was visible, and Muhlenberg, in his description of the trans- 
 action, quotes from 2 Sam. xix. 3 : " And the people got them 
 by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed 
 steal away when they flee in battle." Under such circum- 
 stances the joy of the day was considerably chilled. The 
 greater evil was the disrespect into which Handschuh fell 
 among the members of his own congregation. Older and 
 socially-prominent persons came rarely to the public ser- 
 vices, and it became apparent that in this locality another 
 pastor was needed. Handschuh bade farewell to Lancaster 
 .on the fourth Sunday after Easter, 1751, and soon after Whit- 
 sunday began his services in the congregation at Germantown, 
 which up to that time, with Philadelphia, had been under the 
 care of Brunnholtz, for whom, on account of his impaired 
 health, the labor in both these congregations had by degrees 
 become too heavy, especially since the Philadelphia member- 
 ship was rapidly increasing. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 30! 
 
 In Germantown an enlargement of the church-building was 
 in 1746 found necessary. Thirty feet were added to the length, 
 six to the width, of the structure. The corner-stone was laid 
 April 15, 1746. Pews were placed in the building, and a sac- 
 risty was added in 1750. In 1752 a parsonage was bought 
 The church, as we have already learned, was solemnly dedi- 
 cated Oct. i, 1752. The congregation, in consequence of the 
 increase of German immigration, gained in numerical strength, 
 but in other respects the increase was entirely disadvantageous. 
 In addition to the contributions of the members necessary for 
 building expenses, material assistance came from Germany. 
 A donation of three hundred florins was sent by the eccle- 
 siastical authorities of the duchy of Wurtemberg, and one 
 hundred and seven pounds came from Hesse-Darmstadt, one- 
 half of which was given to Germantown, the other half to the 
 Philadelphia congregation, which also was heavily in debt. 
 Concerning the inner condition of the Germantown congre- 
 gation Brunnholtz says, in a letter dated May 21, 1750, that, 
 on account of discord prevailing in the vestry, he had had 
 more trouble with Germantown than with Philadelphia. His 
 general remarks about the increase of indolence, insubordina- 
 tion, carnal security, covetousness, drunkenness, and all sorts 
 of vices everywhere at that time applied also to German- 
 town. 
 
 Under such circumstances Handschuh entered upon his 
 labors in that field. In Lancaster he had made efforts to 
 introduce strict measures of church discipline. His sincer- 
 ity we cannot for a moment doubt, but of his judiciousness 
 we are not so sure. We call it a measure of doubtful wisdom 
 that he expected every member to report to him any serious 
 offence he or she might discover in the conduct of another. 
 He judged others by his own personal very Pietistic standard. 
 His scrupulosity was not calculated to make much impression 
 upon people of low education and totally different sentiments, 
 feelings, and habits. But his character and his conduct were 
 above reproach. 
 
 Even before the synod met in 1752 at Germantown an 
 
3O2 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 agitation began in an underhanded way to distract the congre- 
 gation. A very trifling circumstance a short time afterward 
 caused a most unfortunate disturbance. An alms-bag to which 
 small bells were attached was habitually used during public 
 services to collect the charitable gifts. An elder who had 
 been ridiculed on account of the bells by a member of one 
 of the many Pennsylvania sects innocently took it upon him- 
 self to cut off those bells : this the irritated and discontented 
 interpreted as an undue liberty on the part of a vestryman. 
 Unfortunately, the spirit of contention broke out also among 
 the church-officers, and it was soon apparent that there was a 
 strong party in favor of a radical change in the government 
 of the congregation. By the leaders of this party Handschuh 
 -was requested during public services to read a document in 
 which the vestry were calumniated, and even accused of gross 
 misdeeds. Handschuh refused to comply with the request 
 a refusal which, though perfectly correct, could only make 
 matters worse. One of the elders who in that document had 
 been accused of theft began a lawsuit against his calumni- 
 ators. The agitators wanted to oust the vestry then in office, 
 but some of its members, on account of the rebuilding of the 
 church and the debts incurred thereby, were personally re- 
 sponsible for the payment and under legal bonds to the 
 amount of four hundred pounds. 
 
 In January, 1753, by request, Miihlenberg was present with 
 Brunnholtz and Handschuh at Germantown when the yearly 
 account was presented to the congregation, on which occasion 
 a sharp altercation again took place between the representa- 
 tives of the two parties. At the request of the conservative 
 elders and deacons Handschuh had framed certain articles 
 to be subscribed by all the members of the congregation for 
 the promotion of peace and harmony. Muhlenberg says that 
 he had found no time properly to make himself acquainted 
 with these articles. " In fact," he says, " we were not wise 
 enough to frame articles which in that critical period would 
 have been accepted without protest." About eighteen mem- 
 bers subscribed Handschuh's articles; the others protested. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 303 
 
 Those members who had subscribed demanded that they 
 should be publicly read on the following Sunday, and this 
 was done. But the opposing party at once protested against 
 two points viz. that Miihlenberg and the pastors united with 
 him be acknowledged as the legitimately-called pastors, and 
 that to pastors not in that union the church should be closed, 
 and that the members and their descendants for ever should 
 acknowledge the very reverend Fathers at London and Halle 
 as their superiors and benefactors. Miihlenberg afterward told 
 Handschuh that he felt that the terms here used were stronger 
 than those demanded by the Fathers themselves. The oppo- 
 site party now framed another document, the style of which 
 proved that men more learned than they had employed their 
 hands in making it. It had been circulated in taverns and in 
 private dwellings, and was covered with a large number of 
 signatures. The reading of this document during service, 
 which the party demanded, Handschuh refused, because it 
 contained offensive terms against the Halle pastors and the 
 elders, but a Philadelphia swaggerer took it upon himself to 
 recite it before the congregation. Handschuh implored the 
 assembly to exercise some forbearance, and at the same time 
 appointed a day for conference. In consequence of his en- 
 treaties, Miihlenberg and Brunnholtz were present with him 
 and Schleydorn at this conference. Handschuh was deeply 
 distressed, as was Miihlenberg also, who, being appointed to 
 preach at Germantown Sunday, Feb. nth, was likewise great- 
 ly embarrassed. A large crowd assembled among them, 
 some dissatisfied members of the Philadelphia congregation. 
 It was rumored that a tumultuous disturbance would occur. 
 Before Miihlenberg ascended the pulpit the leaders of the 
 opposition demanded of him the reading of their document ; 
 which demand he refused, but said mistakes had been made on 
 each side, and that both parties had better reconsider their arti- 
 cles. After preaching and singing, the above-mentioned Phil- 
 adelphian, Jacob Baierle, arose in the gallery and began to re- 
 cite the document. Schleydorn, who at once protested against 
 the reading, was silenced in the roughest manner. Miihlen- 
 
304 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 berg had invited both parties to meet at the parsonage on the 
 following day. The opponents, boasting of their one hundred 
 and thirty signatures, wanted the whole difficulty settled on 
 that Sunday afternoon, but were left alone. Their delegates, 
 inquiring at the parsonage as to what the other party had 
 to propose, were informed that the accusations formulated in 
 that document against the Halle pastors, and including heresy, 
 were of such a character that the difficulty must be settled 
 at another place. Handschuh and his friends each contrib- 
 uted a trifling sum of money to pay for an application to the 
 king's agent for his opinion. Miihlenberg was, however, on 
 second thought, moved to desist from this plan. He knew 
 that the conservative party could not raise the funds for a 
 lawsuit ; he also felt that it would be better to trust in God 
 than in men. He saw that the opposing party intended to 
 disconnect themselves entirely from the united pastors and 
 have free possession of the church, or to leave the church, 
 with all the debts resting on it, in the hands of the other 
 party, which was decidedly in the minority. To this the 
 friends of Handschuh were willing to consent, provided the 
 pastors and the Fathers in Europe would become security 
 for a debt of four hundred pounds and provide for the pas- 
 tor's salary. This the pastors could not undertake, much less 
 the small, well-disposed flock clinging to Handschuh. The 
 heads of the revolutionary party hinted that they would begin 
 the same agitation in all the other synodically-united congre- 
 gations, and first at Philadelphia. Muhlenberg saw that 
 Handschuh could no longer continue his labors under the 
 former conditions, and that the opponents, who had an over- 
 whelming majority on their side, wanted to have no connec- 
 tion any longer with the Halle pastors. He says that he and 
 his brethren, Brunnholtz and Handschuh, were in great tribu- 
 lation. 
 
 Monday, Feb. I2th, the heads of the revolutionists met at the 
 parsonage with the pastors and Messrs. Schleydorn and Fred. 
 Marsteller. They boldly declared that they would have noth- 
 ing further to do with the missionaries from Halle. The pas- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 305 
 
 tors reminded them that they were not intruders, but had 
 come in consequence of repeated entreaties, and declared 
 themselves willing to depart, provided that the regular call 
 handed in 1743 to Muhlenberg by the congregation at Ger- 
 mantown was returned to him, and that satisfactory testimo- 
 nials concerning his and his brethren's official conduct were 
 granted. To this their opponents at once consented. Some 
 added that Handschuh might quit his office that very week ; 
 others said that he might remain pastor, provided he would 
 no longer have intercourse with the other Halle pastors, but 
 be ruled by the party now dominant. The adherents of Hand- 
 schuh, when informed of this compact, were dissatisfied, but 
 were obliged to learn that things never would have taken this 
 distressing turn if they had formerly given their signatures to 
 articles of church-discipline, as the pastor had frequently re- 
 quested. The officers of the conservative party now offered 
 their resignation, on condition of being released from all finan- 
 cial obligation. This proposition was accepted, and a formal 
 settlement in the presence of a justice of the peace was con- 
 summated. Handschuh also now handed in a formal res- 
 ignation, after having received testimonials indorsing his 
 personal character. Before all was settled Brunnholtz was 
 accused by one of the opponents, Matthias Gaensel, of hav- 
 ing appropriated for the benefit of the Philadelphia congrega- 
 tion three hundred florins of the donation from Wiirtemberg, 
 the remittance, according to the accuser, having consisted of 
 six hundred florins. There was, of course, no difficulty in 
 procuring from Germany the official documents, properly 
 attested, which proved the untruth of the accusation. The 
 calumniator escaped a severe judgment of the court only 
 through the Christian clemency of Brunnholtz, m whom he 
 had greatly wronged. About twelve years later the turbu- 
 lent Jacob Baierle was obliged to thank Muhlenberg for a 
 position which gave him support. The party whose general 
 character was represented by those men were now masters of 
 the situation, and called the contemptible Andreae, and after 
 him Rapp, who for a short time had served the German con- 
 20 
 
306 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 gregation at New York, as pastors. Tobias Wagner, however, 
 had, after Handschuh's resignation, held the first services in 
 the old church, and on several occasions celebrated with those 
 people the Lord's Supper, thereby lowering his character and 
 showing a deep-seated bitterness against Miihlenberg and his 
 associates. His efforts to move the radicals with whom he 
 associated to petition the church-authorities of Wiirtemberg 
 to send a pastor for Germantown were in vain. His attempt, 
 also, to create a disturbance in the Philadelphia congregation 
 did not succeed. 
 
 On the very evening of the formal separation of the two 
 parties at Germantown the conservatives, finding that Hand- 
 schuh did not intend to forsake them, rented a house not far 
 from the church, and soon afterward adapted it for public ser- 
 vices. On the following Sunday, Miihlenberg preached in it 
 to an audience of about one hundred. There was sufficient 
 room in it for Handschuh's family. On week-days he served 
 also as parochial teacher. There is no doubt that as pastor 
 and teacher he performed a good work, but his flock was very 
 small and he had to live on a most scanty allowance. Let it 
 be here mentioned in praise of a Reformed pastor at that time 
 serving in South Carolina (Rev. Joachim Ziibly) that he not 
 only sent Handschuh, of whose circumstances he had heard, 
 some financial assistance, but moved some friends to send to his 
 needy family several barrels of rice, while his name was not 
 mentioned in this transaction. 
 
 There is no doubt that the leaders of the revolt in German- 
 town and their Philadelphia associates made secret efforts to 
 occasion similar disturbances in other congregations. They 
 to some extent succeeded at York, where a number of mem- 
 bers of the congregation under the care of Schaum, who was 
 physically weak, but faithful in his services, separated, and 
 called, in 1754, John Samuel Schwerdfeger who had but 
 recently landed in Maryland, and whose passage- money they 
 had to pay to serve them as pastor. The larger portion of 
 the congregation were at that time not willing to part with 
 Schaum, who, however, in 1755 accepted a call to Tohicon 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 307 
 
 and neighboring churches, married again in August, 1758, 
 his first wife having died in 1752, moved the following year 
 to New Hanover, served congregations at Oley, Pikeland, and 
 Lower Dublin, for a time preached every fourth Sunday at 
 Providence, and lived from 1763 at Weitendahl (Whitehall, 
 Lehigh county), Pa. Finally he was called to Mosellem 
 church, and there died Jan. 26, 1778. 
 
 When Handschuh had left Lancaster the congregation 
 there was advised by Wagner to request the consistory of 
 the Evangelical Church of Wiirtemberg to send a pastor. 
 Meanwhile, Wagner occasionally served them, and also a 
 vagabond student, J. Theoph. Engelland of Wiirtemberg, 
 and after him H. B. G. Wordmann, formerly pastor in the 
 neighborhood of Hamburg, a man of the roughest, most 
 indomitable temper, who, after being paid off with forty 
 pounds by the congregation, quitted Lancaster for a time, 
 served the young congregation at Reading, and in 1757 
 began pastoral labors in Charleston, S. C, but was nowhere 
 successful for any long period. In March, 1753, the pastor 
 sent by the Church authorities of Wiirtemberg, and furnished 
 with excellent credentials, the Rev. John Siegfried Gerock, 
 arrived. He had crossed the Atlantic in company with the 
 Rev. Christian Rabenhorst, a missionary of Halle, intended 
 as pastor of the Ebenezer congregation in Georgia, and who 
 was not altogether pleased with Gerock's conduct. Gerock 
 had landed at Savannah, and then by the way of Charles- 
 ton reached Philadelphia just at the time of the outbreak of 
 the revolutionary agitation in the Germantown congregation. 
 He had various meetings with Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, and 
 Handschuh, but was also influenced by the leaders of the 
 revolutionary party, who even on March i6th announced in 
 the German newspaper that on the following Sunday Gerock 
 would preach in the Germantown church. He preached nei- 
 ther there nor in St. Michael's at Philadelphia, but went with 
 his wife to Lancaster (March I7th). As a stranger he pru- 
 dently avoided committing himself on the side of either of 
 the contending parties in the Germantown turmoil. Subse- 
 
308 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 quently he joined the synod, but was never in an intimate 
 relation with the Halle pastors. As a preacher he had no 
 eminent success, but attracted to himself in Lancaster during 
 fourteen years of pastoral services a considerable number of 
 personal friends. Already in 1762 he was moved to pay a 
 visit to the German Lutheran congregation at New York. 
 When, in 1767, the congregation had finished their new and 
 spacious house of worship called Christ Church, he accepted 
 a call given him, and stayed in his new field of labor until 
 1773. Soon after his arrival at New York he found himself 
 involved in very unpleasant public controversies with Wey- 
 gand, at that time still pastor of the old Dutch church ; and 
 it appears that his position at New York was far from giv- 
 ing him satisfaction for any length of time. In 1772, fur- 
 nished with a recommendation from Miihlenberg, he had 
 visited the Bedminster congregation on the Raritan, but had 
 received, however, no call. The Germantown congregation 
 also, which from 1763 was again united with the synod (Ps. 
 cxxv. 3), found him not acceptable. In 1773 he received a 
 call to the German Lutheran congregation at Baltimore, Md., 
 and ten years later was visited there by the Rev. J. Chr. Kunze, 
 D. D., of Philadelphia, under whom, in the following year, 
 the two Lutheran congregations of New York v/ere happily 
 united. Gerock died at Baltimore in 1787, and was succeeded 
 in the service of his congregation by the Rev. John Daniel 
 Kurtz, son of J. Nic. Kurtz. 
 
 Toward the end of 1752, or at the beginning of 1753, 
 Miihlenberg and his colaborers received letters and testimo- 
 nials from the Rev. Berh. Mich. Hausihl, at that time serv- 
 ing at least a portion of the Lutheran congregation at Fred- 
 ericktown, Md. In these letters he expresses his desire to 
 be taken into the brotherhood and to become a member of 
 synod. He also complains of the intruder Streiter, of whom 
 we have formerly heard, and who, after having served as pas- 
 tor in Eastern Pennsylvania without ever having been lawfully 
 ordained, had for two years palmed himself upon the Freder- 
 icktown charge, and, being unable fully to establish his cler- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 3 09 
 
 ical character, was acknowledged only by a portion of the 
 congregation. We know that in 1747, while on a missionary 
 tour, Muhlenberg had visited that locality and established the 
 Lutherans on a confessional and constitutional basis. In 1749 
 we find there Valentin Kraft, who, though attending to some 
 clerical duties, was never elected the regular pastor, and 
 who in 1751 died there in extreme poverty. In agreement 
 with the resolution of synod, Schaum visited Fredericktown 
 during 1751 and 1752. In the latter year Hausihl had come 
 to this country. The son of a public teacher, he was born in 
 1727 at Heilbronn, then a free imperial city. In 1746 he was 
 matriculated at the University of Strassburg as a theological 
 student. As a candidate for missionary work in America he 
 was ordained by the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam, and 
 before embarking was married to Sybilla Margaretta Mayer, 
 daughter of a highly-respected actuary public of the city of 
 Ulm, who with his family also migrated to the English prov- 
 inces of North America, and whose descendants are now 
 among the prominent families of Maryland. On his arrival 
 at Annapolis, Hausihl was probably directed to Frederick- 
 town by Daniel Dulany, a landowner who in May, 1752, 
 presented the Lutheran congregation with a lot on which to 
 erect a church. The condition of this congregation was 
 deplorable. Hausihl, a man of talent, energy, and culture, 
 endeavored to establish congregational discipline, but in 1758 
 was induced to accept a call to Reading, where he served until 
 1763, after which for a short time he had charge of the con- 
 gregations at Easton and the neighborhood. After visiting 
 a brother, who also had emigrated in 1752, in South Caro- 
 lina, he appeared in 1765 in Philadelphia, where we shall again 
 meet him. 
 
 In consequence of the earnest petition of the Lutherans at 
 Fredericktown, Muhlenberg visited them in December, 1758. 
 We remember his former visit to this locality. In Maryland, 
 as in Virginia, Church and State were to some extent united. 
 The tax raised from all the inhabitants, irrespective of their 
 religious persuasion, was used to sustain Anglican ministers 
 
310 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in the province. This appeared a harsh measure to German 
 settlers, who were in no way benefited by the services of an 
 exclusively English-speaking pastor. The German Lutherans, 
 in addition to paying the tax, had, of course, to provide for 
 their own pastor. They told Miihlenberg that dissensions and 
 separations made it exceedingly difficult to elect and support 
 a pastor with unanimity. They felt that a minister placed 
 over them by a higher authority, provided he were a right- 
 minded man, would prevent many evils. Their conviction that 
 Miihlenberg was just such a man, and could serve not only 
 them, but also the English population, and give satisfaction 
 to all parties concerned, proves that they took a very practical 
 view of the case. Of course Miihlenberg could not accede 
 to the latter part of the proposition ; as to the former, touch- 
 ing the laws of Maryland, he could only try to exercise some 
 influence, which he was willing to do. The pastor of the 
 Anglican congregation at Fredericktown having died shortly 
 before, some of the elders requested Miihlenberg to preach in 
 their church, which he did on Sunday morning. In the after- 
 noon the German Reformed church was opened to him, the 
 Lutherans not yet having one of their own. The following 
 day some justices of the peace and other civil officers visited 
 Miihlenberg and proposed to him that he should become their 
 county pastor and preach in both languages, saying that the 
 endowments of the office amounted to about six hundred 
 pounds current, and that the county would probably be divided 
 into two parishes, thus reducing the labors of the incumbent. 
 Plausible as these propositions were, Miihlenberg would not 
 entertain them, but secured the promise of his visitors to 
 intercede with the governor of the province for the removal 
 of the grievances of his German brethren in the faith. He 
 informs us that he made a hurried return from Frederick- 
 town. Passing through Lancaster, he paid a visit to Gerock, 
 but it seems that he did not tarry at York to see Raus, who 
 had begun his pastoral work there in the spring of that year. 
 On this tour to Fredericktown, Miihlenberg was accompa- 
 nied by one of his neighbors at Providence, Christian Freder- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 311 
 
 ick Maertens (Martens, Martini), a surgeon, son-in-law of Rev. 
 Jacob Frederick Schertlin, who, after having been a consider- 
 able number of years pastor of congregations in Wiirtemberg, 
 in 1753, in advanced age, arrived in Pennsylvania, moved 
 with his family to Macungie, bought land, built himself a 
 house, became pastor of the Lutheran congregation there 
 and of neighboring churches, was received into the ministry 
 in 1754, like many others was obliged to flee for a time in 
 1763 on account of the barbarous attacks of the Indians, and 
 Nov. 8, 1768, is mentioned by Miihlenberg as already deceased. 
 When his daughter, with her husband, had settled in the 
 neighborhood of Miihlenberg, his advice in various matters 
 proved beneficial to them, and her father came to pay his 
 respects to Miihlenberg, who in a letter of July 18, 1754, 
 says : " Though Mr. Schertlin hated me without cause and 
 avoided intercourse with me, I always loved him, because I 
 was occasionally informed that he was diligent in preaching 
 and catechising, and by the afflictions in Pennsylvania, which 
 he could not escape, was made more humble and submissive 
 to God's purposes." Again : " I was living in hope that there 
 was growing, under a hard, choleric surface, by the influence 
 of God's good Spirit, a good core, and therefore, with the 
 consent of my brethren, invited him to be present at our last 
 synodical meeting at New Hanover, where, June i6th and 
 1 7th, he met us and the Swedish provost Acrelius and thir- 
 teen united ministers and delegates from Pennsylvania, New 
 York, New Jersey, and Maryland, and was considerably aston- 
 ished to observe that all things were transacted in a simple, 
 open, edifying manner, without any imperiousness or strife 
 of ambition." To this Schertlin subsequently testified in a 
 letter sent to Miihlenberg. 
 
 Schertlin had expected to be elected successor of Tobias 
 Wagner in the congregation at Reading, but his first sermon 
 there was not calculated to secure him the favor of the peo- 
 ple. He had made the " Pragmatic Sanction of Austria " 
 that compact giving Maria Theresa, the daughter of Emperor 
 Charles VI., the right to inherit the imperial crown the sub- 
 
312 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ject of his sermon. We do not know what religious senti- 
 ments or principles he connected with it, but we do know that 
 to the Reading Lutherans that subject offered no attraction. 
 For several years Wagner had served them. The town and 
 the congregation were young, but growing. Miihlenberg had 
 met Wagner there as early as March, 1751. Dissensions hav- 
 ing arisen between Wagner and the congregation, Miihlenberg 
 was requested by eighty-two members, who gave their signa- 
 tures, to preach the first sermon in the new church-building, 
 to which he consented, receiving special commission for this 
 purpose from synod. Wagner, greatly incensed at this step, 
 published a pamphlet against Miihlenberg, using bitter lan- 
 guage and accusing him of heresy. Miihlenberg's entreaties 
 with the congregation to recall Wagner, who had left that field 
 of labor, were in vain. Neither would they address themselves, 
 in accordance with a proposition by Miihlenberg, to the eccle- 
 siastical authorities of Wiirtemberg to send them a suitable 
 pastor, because none of the united pastors of Pennsylvania 
 could be spared for them and Schertlin was not acceptable. 
 They then called Wordmann from Lancaster. When, after a 
 short time, he proved a failure, Hausihl was called, as has 
 already been stated. In those years J. Conrad Weiser took 
 a lively interest in the Reading congregation. The dedica- 
 tion of the new church moved him to compose in honor of 
 that solemnity a piece of poetry which is preserved to us, and 
 which indicates not only a fine poetical talent, but also the 
 glowing fervor of religious feeling. 
 
 The New Jersey congregations on the Raritan continued 
 to be a care to Muhlenberg. Their original names had grad- 
 ually fallen into disuse, and even before 1760 we find them 
 denominated Bedminister and New Germantown, to which 
 maybe added an outlying congregation called "In the Valley." 
 Each of the first two had its own church, but all three still 
 formed one charge. As early as 1759 the " In-the- Valley " 
 congregation is mentioned under this name, at which time the 
 Lutherans there were still connected with New Germantown. 
 
 We find that the troubles of the Germantown congregation 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 313 
 
 were talked about also in the Raritan churches, and there 
 also, before the removal of Weygand to New York, had occa- 
 sioned a transient disturbance. A document containing cal- 
 umnies against the " united pastors " was read before the assem- 
 bled congregation during the services on Good Friday, 1753. 
 After proper investigation the two members of the vestry who 
 had been the officious agents in this matter were excluded 
 from the congregation. Miihlenberg, paying a visit there 
 July 1/j.th to 2Oth of that year, succeeded, by his preaching 
 and personal intercourse with the members, in restoring good 
 feeling and, peace among those who had been quarrelling. 
 The two vestrymen who had been particularly involved in 
 the disturbance came forward after Muhlenberg's sermon on 
 the fourth Sunday after Trinity (July I5th), offered him their 
 hands, and, having given sufficient proof of their change of 
 mind, were restored to church-membership. In the afternoon 
 of that Sunday, Miihlenberg was requested to preach in the 
 English language. Knowing that reports had been spread 
 among the English that the Lutherans were secretly inclined 
 to Romish doctrines, he not only preached on true repentance, 
 living faith, and godliness, but .elucidated also the doctrine 
 of the sacraments ; all of which was well received by his hear- 
 ers. July 1 8th he preached in German and English " in a barn 
 eight miles from the church," and on Thursday, June ipth, 
 held a meeting with the officers and members of the congre- 
 gations forming the charge, and succeeded in removing exist- 
 ing difficulties. They also were willing to accept of Schrenk 
 as their pastor; he moved there in December, 1753. We 
 already know that in consequence of great dissatisfaction 
 caused by his perverse behavior he had left that charge in 
 1756. 
 
 In the summer or autumn of 1756, Miihlenberg paid a visit 
 to New York in behalf of the old Dutch congregation, then 
 served by Weygand, who at that time had not yet received a 
 formal call. We have no information that Miihlenberg took 
 occasion at this time also to visit the Raritan congregations, 
 but we know that in 1757, after the departure of Schrenk at 
 
314 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the end of 1756, Miihlenberg, who considered those congre- 
 gations as among his pastoral responsibilities, paid them two 
 visits. He says that after Schrenk had left them, " in the 
 midst of the winter 1757, a number of right-minded and 
 trustworthy members came from there and entreated me, 
 for God's sake, to help them once more, and not to allow 
 their congregations and church to go to ruin. They moved 
 me to have compassion on them. I was at that time in daily 
 fears that Mr. Kurtz would have to flee from Tulpehoken be- 
 fore the savage enemies [the Indians]. I therefore promised 
 those people that I would 'once more concern myself about 
 them, and visit them in the spring of 1757. When this was 
 made known on the Raritan, it caused much joy, and in the 
 congregation ' in the mountains ' the oldest members met with- 
 out my knowledge, resolved to build a new church, and in a 
 short time had subscribed for this purpose two hundred pounds. 
 When the members of the Anglican church heard of this, they 
 also by subscription raised two hundred pounds, on condition 
 that the German Evangelical preacher would from time to 
 time preach in the new church, to which our people hopefully 
 assented. Accompanied by our parochial teacher, I set out 
 in the spring oft the tour to New Jersey. In consequence of 
 the swollen rivers I was twice injured in body, but arrived 
 alive on the Raritan, where I remained four weeks, while Mr. 
 W. Kurtz, Jr. [he had arrived in 1754 from Halle, and under 
 Miihlenberg's supervision continued his preparatory course 
 for the ministry] preached to my Pennsylvania congrega- 
 tions. In spite of the war-troubles caused by the Indians 
 along the frontiers, God, in his great mercy, permitted us to 
 bring together, reconcile, and finally unite the two congrega- 
 tions. The one of the two congregations I warned against 
 running into debt for an expensive church-edifice, since we 
 were now living in war-times ; but they said it was better to 
 spend their earnings in building a church than to save them 
 for the enemy. Germans and English, harmoniously working 
 together, used all possible arguments to make me promise 
 that, if ever possible, I would at least for a year come here 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 315 
 
 with my family and administer to them the means of grace, 
 inasmuch as the Pennsylvanians had all the pastors, while 
 they were left without any. All my objections were of no 
 avail, and after I had told them finally that their old parson- 
 age was too small and unsuitable for my family, these people 
 erected within four months a new roomy building, of freestone, 
 next to the old one. Considering these circumstances, with all 
 their connections, though suffering a loss in temporal things, 
 I could not but promise them that if it pleased God I would 
 be willing for a time to move to them with a view to gather 
 and establish the congregations." In the autumn of the same 
 year he visited them again, spent five weeks with them, and 
 was happy in seeing that the word of God was acceptable to 
 both the Germans and the English. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1758, Miihlenberg spent 
 nine weeks in the Raritan congregations doing the work of 
 a missionary and a pastor, preaching and instructing, and for 
 this purpose using German and English. He also confirmed 
 seven catechumens, and at an unusually great concourse of 
 people of various nationalities and persuasions held the first 
 services in English and German in the newly-erected church 
 at Bedminister. Returning to Pennsylvania/ urged by pe- 
 titions from Germans and English, he travelled through the 
 mountains to what then was called the Pennsylvania frontiers, 
 comforting the poor distressed people by his addresses, and 
 preaching and administering the sacraments to those who, 
 on account of the Indian troubles, had been in great anx- 
 iety. On that tour Miihlenberg met in most remote localities 
 acquaintances whom he had formerly known in the " united 
 congregations," and who greatly rejoiced again to see and to 
 hear him. He found that many a good word was retained 
 which he had spoken years before. He took this as an 
 encouraging proof that not all the good seed sowed was 
 lost. During his absence Schaum, then residing in New 
 Hanover, had served his congregations, William Kurtz, Jr., 
 having gone to Tohicon and the neighborhood to labor as 
 catechist. After his return to Providence, Muhlenberg was 
 
316 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 requested again to have a care of the Lutherans at Molatton, 
 who since 1752 had been served by the Swedish minister 
 John Abr. Lidenius, who in that year moved into that neigh- 
 borhood to Manathanim and performed services at Molatton, 
 but after some time moved to Amasland (Kingsessing, west 
 of Philadelphia). In connection with J. N. Kurtz of Tulpehoken 
 and with Schaum he had occasionally served also at Reading, 
 until, at the end of 1758, Hausihl entered there upon his pas- 
 toral duties. 
 
 Monday, June I ith (the day after Trinity), 1759, Miihlenberg 
 again and this time accompanied by his family moved to 
 the Raritan congregations. His family then consisted of him- 
 self, Mrs. Muhlenberg, and their seven children. John Peter 
 Gabriel was then in his thirteenth, his sister Eve Elizabeth 
 in her eleventh, year. Both had in 1755 been entrusted to 
 the care of a well-educated Englishwoman married at New 
 Hanover, who, having no children of her own, had, with her 
 husband, adopted an English youth, who, however, after some 
 years departed this life. In her dealings with this youth she 
 had shown so much wisdom, and had exercised such a happy 
 influence upon him, that Muhlenberg knew that his children, 
 while they acquired a. proper knowledge of the English lan- 
 guage, would also in other respects be well taken care of. How 
 long both of them were in that family we are unable to say. 
 They certainly went with their parents, who travelled in a 
 wagon, to the Raritan congregations. Three of the children 
 were left at Providence. Muhlenberg speaks of taking farewell 
 of them. There was an infant, Samuel, not yet one year old, 
 who afterward was in his sixth year taken by death from his 
 parents ; little Samuel also now accompanied them to New 
 Jersey. The three children left at Providence were in good 
 hands. During the winter of 1753 a man twenty-six or 
 twenty-seven years old, William Graaf, a German of good 
 education, through the intercession of friends was received 
 by Muhlenberg into his house, though former trials made in 
 similar cases greatly dissuaded him from this form of charity. 
 He succeeded in reawakening in this waif thrown upon him 
 
HENR Y MELCH20R MUHLENBERG. 3 1 / 
 
 in a foreign country the religious impressions of earlier years 
 and in leading him in the good path. During the winter he 
 sent him to an English school to acquire the language, the 
 following summer took him to the Raritan congregations, 
 continued to instruct him and to prepare him for the min- 
 istry, after his return from New Jersey procured him a posi- 
 tion as teacher on the west side of the Schuylkill, during the 
 winter of 1759 kept him again in his house, directed his stud- 
 ies, and was much gratified in finding that the good Spirit had 
 begun its work in the young man's heart. Being sent out to 
 preach in small congregations at the distant outposts, Graaf 
 gave much satisfaction. Miihlenberg, who intended again to 
 use him for a time as a teacher, advised him for divers reasons 
 to marry. Soon a very suitable partner was found for him, 
 and to this young couple Miihlenberg now for some time left 
 his house and farm-land and three of his children. It seems 
 that on this occasion he had bestowed his confidence upon 
 people worthy of it. 
 
 The Lutherans of the New Jersey congregations, knowing 
 the day on which they could expect the visitors, and intend- 
 ing to show all possible respect and attention, had sent six 
 wagons to the Delaware ferry, twenty-five miles from New 
 Germantown. When Miihlenberg and his wife and children 
 arrived, some elders and their wives were present to welcome 
 them and to offer them a well-prepared repast. And now 
 Miihlenberg again began his pastoral work at New German- 
 town, Bedminster, " in the valley," and in the vicinity, preach- 
 ing and teaching in German and English, attending to the 
 spiritual condition of many individuals, and visiting the sick 
 and the aged. He met there, also, the Rev. Fr. Schultz, who, 
 having married in 1754, had now settled in this neighborhood. 
 He held, however, no official relation to the congregations, but 
 at least, for a time kept a store and practised the medical 
 art. Miihlenberg seems to have spent some of his leisure 
 hours in agricultural pursuits, and during the busy season of 
 haymaking willingly gave his assistance. 
 
 July 26th a visitor (Dr. Ai v. B.) came from Hackensack, 
 
3l8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 related the condition of the Lutheran congregation there, 
 brought letters from Hartwig, who on the preceding Sunday 
 had preached there, and in behalf of the congregation re- 
 quested Miihlenberg to pay them a visit. Aug. 2ist, Miihl- 
 enberg set out, and on the following day, in company with two 
 gentlemen, by the way of Longhill and Newark, reached the 
 court-house near Hackensack, and later at night the house of 
 L. Van Buskirk, the justice of the peace. He preached there, 
 before an exceedingly large assembly, Sunday, Aug. 26th, 
 and again on Thursday, having promised to preach at Rem- 
 merspach on the following Sunday, and held service with the 
 celebration of confirmation and the Lord's Supper. On the 
 following Saturday, Sept. 1st, he set out for Remmerspach, 
 preaching on Sunday, in the morning, in German, in the after- 
 noon, to a still larger assembly, in Dutch. Sept. 4th, Tues- 
 day, at noon, he was again with his family. 
 
 We know that Hackensack and Remmerspach were in a 
 parochial connection with the old Dutch Lutheran congre- 
 gation at New York. Weygand had for a time served all the 
 three churches, but, rinding the labor too arduous, had inju- 
 diciously placed Schrenk over the two Jersey congregations. 
 We know, too, that Schrenk here also proved his inability, 
 and left after having done mischief. Both congregations 
 were now again vacant, and one of the topics on which 
 Miihlenberg was anxiously consulted was whom to elect 
 as pastor. 
 
 Sept. I Qth, Mrs. Muhlenberg, taking with her the youngest 
 child, and in a country wagon setting out for Pennsylvania, 
 was accompanied for a distance of eleven miles by her hus- 
 band, who was on horseback. On his return he visited an 
 aged man who had come to this country in the times of 
 Queen Anne, and for many years had been separated from 
 the congregation and the Lord's Table. In speaking of his 
 protracted conversation with this man he makes in his diary 
 some remarks which evidence his clear and unbiassed judg- 
 ment, and which may have an interest for our readers. He 
 says : " As regards the long-continued absence from the 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 319 
 
 Lord's Supper, we poor beings are on each side inclined to 
 extremes. The sainted Luther having found it necessary 
 in his times to save the article of justification by faith of 
 a poor lost sinner before God, and free it from an unfath- 
 omable abyss of human ordinances and of a righteousness 
 based upon human doings, and to place that article on its 
 proper throne, the blind zealots but too easily ran into the 
 other extreme ; and, although Luther had no less illustriously 
 taught of true sanctity than of repentance, faith, and justifi- 
 cation, they rejected with the justification by works the sanc- 
 tification and daily renewal resulting from justification by 
 faith. But the sainted Arndt, Spener, Miiller, Francke, and 
 all other right-minded theologians and servants of Christ, 
 finding it needful to refute the error of those who without 
 the exercise of repentance, faith, and true godliness trusted, 
 in their carnal-mindedness, upon the outward performance 
 and use of the means of grace, many again ran into the 
 other extreme and rejected the proper use of the means 
 of grace." These words clearly prove that Muhlenberg 
 was by no means blind as to the weak and dangerous 
 sides of Pietism. 
 
 Coming home that evening, he found his children dis- 
 tressed on account of the absence of their mother. After 
 having (Sept. 25th) preached in the Dutch language on the 
 occasion of a funeral ten miles distant from the church, 
 in a large barn, he on the following day set out for Penn- 
 sylvania, and Sept. 27th, at noon, arrived at Providence. 
 
 The members of the congregations at Providence, New 
 Hanover, beyond the Schuylkill (in the course of time 
 Zion's and St. Peter's congregations at Pikestown or Vin- 
 cent), and all other friends, greatly rejoiced again to see 
 and to hear their old pastor, who with his wonted zeal 
 went to the pastoral work. His assistant, Schaum, who 
 had special care of the membership on the other side of 
 the Schuylkill, was a faithful man and willing to do his 
 duty : this enabled Muhlenberg to absent himself for such 
 a length of time from his Pennsylvania congregations. Dur- 
 
32O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ing that summer Schrenk had for the last time after his return 
 from Curasao been an inmate of Miihlenberg's house at Prov- 
 idence, and by his bad manners created trouble enough to the 
 young Graaf family. Oct. 2d he left, in company with Fred. 
 Schultz, who had been Miihlenberg's fellow-traveller from the 
 Raritan, for Philadelphia, to embark for Europe. 
 
 Having made exceeding good use of his few weeks' sojourn 
 among his old Pennsylvania friends, and been engaged in pub- 
 lic and private services, in deliberations with his vestries, with 
 Schaum, J. N. Kurtz (who came to visit him the day before his 
 departure), in attending to the sick and to other individual 
 friends, Thursday, Oct. 1 8th, Miihlenberg again left with Mrs. 
 Miihlenberg, and, taking the direction toward the Delaware, 
 stopped at a place called Bottler's Mill, where quite a number 
 of Germans had settled. The English Baptists had a meeting- 
 house there, and their most prominent member, a justice of 
 the peace, had granted the Germans the use of it for this occa- 
 sion, provided that Miihlenberg would first deliver a sermon 
 in English. The same individual also privately requested 
 Miihlenberg, before services began, to explain in his address 
 the Lutheran doctrine of baptism, which was done to the 
 great satisfaction of the hearers. After services in German, 
 upon meeting his family Miihlenberg was informed by a pri- 
 vate letter of the conquest of Quebec by the English, and of 
 the heroic death of General Wolfe. Miihlenberg's interest in 
 the political affairs of those times was to a large extent based 
 on his sympathy with the Protestants arrayed against the Ro- 
 man Catholic powers : for this reason he also rejoiced when- 
 ever a victory of Frederick the Great over Austria or the 
 French was reported, for the Seven Years' War was just then 
 raging in Germany. 
 
 Oct. iQth he again arrived with his family at New German- 
 town. Oct. 2 ist he preached there; Wednesday, the 24th, in 
 a barn " in the valley ;" began the following day, at Bedmin- 
 ster, instruction with a diversified class of catechumens, some 
 of whom spoke German, others Dutch, and still others Eng- 
 lish. The military victories over the French on land and on 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 3 2 1 
 
 sea occasioned great celebrations at New Germantown, Bed- 
 minster, and many other localities throughout the provinces. 
 And now he continued his pastoral activity through the dis- 
 trict in which the Lutherans were settled. Nov. I2th, Mr. 
 Graaf and his wife arrived from Providence, and with them 
 Peter, Muhlenberg's first-born. Graaf preached (Nov. 22d) at 
 Bedminster, and accompanied (Nov. 2/th to Dec. 4th) his 
 patron on a tour to Hackensack, on which both of them, 
 crossing a river, were exposed to considerable peril of life. 
 On Dec. 2d, Graaf preached in the Hackensack church. 
 Miihlenberg spoke to some of the church-officers about him 
 as one suited to adminster there in holy things. During his 
 former visit he had proposed Hartwig to them as pastor, but 
 while they gave him full credit for his ability as a preacher and 
 his Christian character, knowing well his peculiarities they did 
 not wish him as a pastor. With Graaf s preaching they were 
 not displeased, but thought Miihlenberg ought to keep him 
 yet for some time as a student. Dec. 6th, Mrs. Miihlenberg 
 returned with two of her children, in company with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Graaf, to Pennsylvania. Three children remained with 
 the father, who as time and circumstances permitted gave 
 them instruction. One of them Peter, who now made an 
 acquaintance with a part of the country which in later years 
 was useful to him in much higher interests accompanied 
 (Dec. 3 ist) his father from New Germantown to Bedminster. 
 Both were on horseback. Peter was then in his fourteenth 
 year. Somewhat later his father puts down in his diary this 
 characteristic remark about him : " He does not care much 
 about female society, but is bent on fishing and hunting." 
 On that occasion Muhlenberg found at Bedminster a con- 
 siderable number of young people assembled, who gave proof 
 of their ability to sing English psalms. After this exercise 
 he began to catechise them, but says their singing was better 
 than their replies. On the same evening arrived Jacob van 
 Buskirk, a scion of the well-known and highly-respected Van 
 Buskirk family of Hackensack. We entertain no doubt that 
 the happy influence of Muhlenberg had moved this young 
 21 
 
322 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 man to prepare himself for the service of the Church. For 
 some years he had been under -the preparatory tuition of Wey- 
 gand ; now he became a student under Muhlenberg. When 
 Schaum moved to Berks county, Pa., in April, i762,Van Buskirk 
 took his place at New Hanover, was ordained in 1763, in 1765 
 was called to Germantown, in 1769 to Macungie, with which 
 Salisbury (Salzburg), Saccum, and Upper Milford were then 
 united, in 1793 to Gwynedd, Whitpain, and Upper Dublin, 
 but was recalled to Macungie in 1795, and died, much beloved 
 and universally respected, on the occasion of a visit to Gwyn- 
 edd, Aug. 5, 1800, at the age of sixty-one years five months 
 and twenty-six days. 
 
 June 15, 1760, Muhlenberg, accompanied by his son Peter 
 and Jacob van Buskirk, set out for Pennsylvania, and arrived 
 on the following day at his home at Providence; returned, 
 however (March 26th) again, with Will. Graaf, to the Raritan 
 congregations, and ministered to them in spiritual things. 
 April 3d, Jacob van Buskirk proceeded to Hackensack to 
 arrange his own affairs there and those of Graaf, who set out 
 (April 2Oth) with his wife for that district. To the Lutherans 
 of this district his services were devoted until, in 1775, he 
 was elected pastor of the Raritan congregations, and lived and 
 labored among them until he died, at the age of eighty years, 
 in 1809, and was buried at the New Germantown cemetery. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 323 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1752 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 Miihlenberg and the Raritan congregations. Death of J. C. Weiser. Rev. P. D. 
 Prizelius. Miihlenberg declines a call to Nova Scotia. Charity schools 
 among the Germans in Pennsylvania. Rev. W. Smith, D. D. Benjamin 
 Franklin. Politics mixed with benevolence. Christopher Sauer. Miihlen- 
 berg's relation to the charity schools. They cease to be supported. 
 
 MUHLENBERG returned to Pennsylvania May 2, 1760. 
 He was still the responsible pastor of the Raritan con- 
 gregations, but his personal presence and pastoral activity 
 among them had now come to an end, though he had not paid 
 them his last visit. He continued, however, in providing to 
 the best of his ability for their spiritual wants, to discharge 
 his official obligations to them, and to acknowledge the high 
 regard in which he was held there, and the close and tender 
 attachment which those congregations and many other friends 
 had formed for him. In June, 1760, J. Nic. Kurtz visited these 
 congregations, and served them a number of weeks, while 
 Miihlenberg paid attention to the Tulpehoken churches of 
 Kurtz, and also to the congregation at Reading. On this 
 occasion Miihlenberg had (June iQth to 25th) most agreeable 
 intercourse with his father-in-law, J. Conrad Weiser, Esq. It 
 was the last time he met him on earth. After two days of severe 
 sickness Weiser was called to his rest July 1 3th, in his sixty- 
 fourth year, and was buried on his farm at Heidelberg, a few 
 miles west of Reading, deeply lamented, not only by his fam- 
 ily, but also on account of his great and far-reaching useful- 
 ness and the probity of his character, by all Pennsylvania and 
 by many living far beyond her boundaries. A most interest- 
 ing and beautifully-written sketch of Weiser's life and charac- 
 
324 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ter in the Continuation of the Halle Reports we owe to the hand 
 of Miihlenberg : it is eminent among those many and instruct- 
 ive " Examples " taken from pastoral life which form an essen- 
 tial part of the Reports, and prove the conscientious manner 
 in which Miihlenberg dealt with the individual cases coming 
 under his pastoral care and attention. 
 
 It appears that in consequence of correspondence carried 
 on with the Raritan congregations Miihlenberg sent to them, 
 at the beginning of 1761, the Rev. Paul Daniel Prizelius (the 
 name in our historical sources is given in various forms), a 
 native of Sweden and an alumnus of the University of Upsala, 
 who during a protracted sojourn in Germany had joined the 
 Moravians, and in the beginning of 1742 came with Zinzendorf 
 to Philadelphia. He also styled himself a Swedish Lutheran 
 minister, but was not acknowledged by the Swedish pastors, 
 to whom his Moravianism was well known. In the interests 
 of the same cause he labored until 1745 among Swedish set- 
 tlers on each side of the Delaware south of Philadelphia, and 
 for a number of years afterward was engaged in furthering 
 the same interests in other localities. It seems, however, that 
 in the course of time, and especially through the influence of 
 the Swedish provost, Dr. C. M. Wrangel, Prizelius changed 
 his views, and, after a thorough examination and a declaration 
 given in writing fully stating his doctrinal and confessional con- 
 victions, was received (Oct. 29, 1760) into the German Lutheran 
 Ministerium by act of synod, and then, with excellent recom- 
 mendations from Miihlenberg of his learning and piety, and 
 also of the excellent character and other suitable qualities of his 
 wife, sent to the Raritan congregations, where he now served 
 in German and in English. His knowledge of the English he 
 had acquired during his stay in England and Ireland, where he 
 had had intercourse with Whitefield. A regular call was given 
 him by the Raritan congregations in 1765, but, in consequence 
 of dissensions between him and the people, he left in 1776 for 
 England ; received Episcopal ordination there on the recom- 
 mendation of the Rev. W. Smith, D. D., of Philadelphia, and 
 was after his return, in 1767, called to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. $2$ 
 
 where in 1753 or sooner Germans had settled and formed a 
 Lutheran congregation. He used there a German translation 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, and sub rosa received per- 
 mission to confirm catechumens, but, in consequence of his 
 endeavor to unite Episcopalianism and Lutheranism, gave no 
 satisfaction, and left after a short time. 
 
 Already, in 1755, Muhlenberg, through the influence of 
 Rev. Mich. Schlatter, then chaplain to the English army, had 
 received a call from the governor of Nova Scotia to the con- 
 gregations at Lunenburg and Halifax to serve among the 
 German and English at a salary of seventy pounds sterling, 
 and twenty pounds in addition provided he would devote 
 some time to the instruction of the youth. He says : " All 
 natural feelings did not disincline me to spend my last hours 
 in a locality where I would have opportunity to serve the 
 Church and her schools, to bring up my seven children in a 
 respectable way, and would be released from this never-ceas- 
 ing being on horseback, which injures the vigor of body and 
 soul ; but, not being able to reach a hasty resolution in such 
 important matters, I petitioned for time to consider and pray 
 over this proposition, to ponder well all the circumstances, so 
 as to recognize the gracious will of God. It was subsequent- 
 ly made clear to me that it was not according to the will of 
 God." Rev. Daniel Schuhmacher, who labored in the years 
 175558 at Reading, Pa., was not a member of synod, could 
 not prove his ordination, and, as Muhlenberg states in his 
 diary, was anything but exemplary in his walk and conversa- 
 tion ; before his arrival in Pennsylvania he served at Lunen- 
 burg, Nova Scotia, and said at that time the congregation 
 there had been too poor to sustain him. 
 
 We are fully aware of the great interest which throughout 
 his life Muhlenberg took in Christian schools and the Chris- 
 tian education of the children. He was often and at various 
 localities engaged in teaching. He entertained in the years 
 1750-60 the plan of establishing an orphan-house for the 
 Lutheran churches under the care of synod, and frequently 
 refers to it in his letters to Europe. He desired his orphan- 
 
326 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 house also to serve as a school for training teachers and pas- 
 tors as they might be needed. He was grieved to find that 
 want of means prevented the execution of his design. That 
 a proposition originating among English people and aiming 
 to establish, in behalf of the children of the German immi- 
 grants in Pennsylvania, free or charity schools, addressed itself 
 at once to his sympathy, we can easily understand. Had this 
 plan been kept free from other interests, it might have done 
 much good, and would have found no more intelligent, ener- 
 getic, and persevering supporter than Muhlenberg. 
 
 As the prime mover in this work we recognize the Rev. W. 
 Smith, D. D., who was born 1727 at Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
 matriculated in 1741 in Aberdeen University, and published in 
 
 1750, in London, an address to the leading men in Parliament 
 called the Memorial for the Established and Parochial School- 
 masters in Scotland, etc., and an Essay on Liberty of the Press. 
 It is probable that he held in London the position of a clerk 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. March 3, 
 
 1751, he embarked as tutor with two young Americans re- 
 turning to their native country, landed at New York May I, 
 took up his residence on Long Island with Colonel Mar- 
 tin, the father of his pupils, and published during his stay 
 there, in 1753, a few articles, and under an assumed name a 
 plan for the establishment. of a college in New Jersey. About 
 that time Princeton College, New Jersey of which the first 
 charter dates 1746, the second 1748 was going into ope- 
 ration. Smith, however, was an Episcopalian. He sent copies 
 of his pamphlet to the Rev. Rich. Peters, from 1742 provincial 
 secretary of Pennsylvania and clerk of the council of the prov- 
 ince, and to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, at that time president of 
 the board of trustees of the academy and charity school at 
 Philadelphia, founded 1749, incorporated 1753, raised to the 
 rank of a college 1755, to that of a university in 1779. Peters 
 and Franklin recognized Smith as the man well qualified to 
 be at the head of the Philadelphia institution of learning. 
 Having by a visit in Philadelphia, in June, 1753, formed their 
 personal acquaintance, he re-embarked the same year for Eng- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 327 
 
 land and there (Dec. 1 3th) addressed a letter to the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel concerning the " melancholy 
 situation, through want of instructors and their utter inability 
 to maintain them," of the German Protestants in Pennsylvania, 
 " with the distressing prospect of approaching darkness and 
 idolatry among them, as these things have been represented 
 to their fellow-Protestants in Europe in the most moving 
 terms." 
 
 We know that Miihlenberg, Schlatter, the Moravian mis- 
 sionaries, and others gave truthful descriptions of the spirit- 
 ual destitution of the German settlers in Pennsylvania. The 
 efforts of these men to improve the intellectual, religious, and 
 moral condition of the settlers were free from any other inter- 
 est. This we cannot say of the movement of Smith and his 
 friends in Pennsylvania ; which, however, does not mean that 
 we ascribe to him and to them sinister motives ; but we main- 
 tain that their interest in behalf , of the intellectual and moral 
 culture of the Germans in Pennsylvania was not without some 
 political alloy. Immigration from Germany, particularly in 
 those years, was going on at a very rapid rate. It is main- 
 tained by some historians that a short time after the middle 
 of the last century the Germans composed the half of the 
 total population of Pennsylvania. It appeared very possible 
 that if this influx should continue in the same proportion 
 they would at least numerically exceed the English part of 
 the inhabitants, and the continued dominion of the English 
 language as the governmental, official language would be 
 jeopardized. Besides, in those years an outbreak of the con- 
 flict with the French plans and forces became more and more 
 imminent. The political party which favored preparations 
 for the military defence of the frontiers, and of which Franklin 
 was the leader, did not hold the reins of governmental power; 
 but they were in the hands of the Quakers, who strenuously 
 and obstinately laid impediments in the way of every military 
 measure. The Germans in Eastern Pennsylvania were in this 
 matter largely in sympathy with the Quakers partly on ac- 
 count of their moral principles, held by numbers of them in 
 
328 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 connection with their peculiar religious persuasions, partly, 
 and much more extensively, because the no-war standard was 
 with them identical with the no-tax imposition. They con- 
 sequently served to uphold the political power of the Quakers, 
 which to Franklin and his friends in those days not without 
 good reason appeared to be a great misfortune to the prov- 
 ince and to the whole country. There was also lurking in 
 the background or at least used as a pretext the fear that 
 the Germans might secretly be influenced by the Roman Cath- 
 olic emissaries of the French. The Moravians, who, on ac- 
 count of the daring enterprises of their heroic missionaries in 
 distant parts and in the nearer settlements in Pennsylvania, 
 were in constant intercourse with the Indians, then generally 
 suspected of disloyalty, and afterward, on account of their 
 cruel and barbarous atrocities, intensely hated by many, were 
 exposed to the worst suspicions of favoring the French. Their 
 purely religious and philanthropic principles and measures 
 were misunderstood and misinterpreted. Roman Catholicism 
 was considered by thousands as the power secretly working to 
 undermine and to destroy the Protestant religion and its rep- 
 resentative power, the English government. Smith, referring 
 to the danger to which the Germans were exposed of again 
 falling into "idolatry," means perhaps no more than the 
 Roman Catholic forms of worship. The state of feeling in 
 this direction is peculiarly illustrated by a letter sent after 
 Braddock's defeat, July 23, 1755, to Governor Morris of Penn- 
 sylvania, and signed by the five justices of the peace of Berks 
 county among them J. Conrad Weiser. It says : " As all 
 our Protestant inhabitants are very uneasy at the behavior 
 of the Roman Catholics, who are very numerous in this coun- 
 ty, some of whom show great joy at the bad news lately come 
 from the army, we have thought it our duty to inform Your 
 Honor of our dangerous situation, and to beg Your Honor to 
 enable us by some legal authority to disarm or otherwise dis- 
 able the Papists from doing any injury to other people who 
 are not of their vile principles. We know that the people of 
 the Roman Catholic Church are bound by their principles to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 329 
 
 be the worst subjects and worst of neighbors, and we have 
 reason to fear just at this time that the Roman Catholics in 
 Cussahoppen [Goshenhoppen], where they have a very mag- 
 nificent chapel and lately had large processions, have had bad 
 designs ; for in the neighborhood of that chapel it is reported, 
 and generally believed, that thirty Indians are now lurking, 
 well armed with guns and swords and cutlasses. The priest 
 at Reading as well as at Cussahoppen last Sunday gave notice 
 to their people that they could not come to them again in less 
 than nine weeks, whereas they constantly preach once in four 
 weeks in their congregations ; whereupon some imagine they 
 are gone to consult with our enemies at Duquesne. It is a 
 great unhappiness at this time to the other people of this prov- 
 ince that the Papists should keep arms in their houses, against 
 which the Protestants are not prepared, who, therefore, are 
 subject to a massacre whenever the Papists are ready." 
 
 We can easily understand that the increase of the numerical 
 strength of the Germans in Pennsylvania, with but little oppor- 
 tunity to acquire a knowledge of the English language, could in 
 various ways also in the administration of the government and 
 its laws produce considerable inconvenience. This Smith in- 
 dicates, saying: " In courts of judicature interpreters are con- 
 stantly wanted through the vast increase of German business, 
 and may soon be wanted in the Assembly itself to tell one 
 half of the legislature what the other half says." Convinced 
 that a diversity of languages in one and the same political 
 body might prove a great impediment to strength and prog- 
 ress, he advocated the establishment of schools in the Ger- 
 man districts of Pennsylvania in which not only the German, 
 but also the English, language should be taught, while relig- 
 ion according to the tenets of each party represented by the 
 pupils should not be excluded. To this end contributions 
 were solicited from the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel and from individuals, and were liberally granted. In 
 his address to the society Smith says : " The masters of such 
 schools can only be found in America. They must under- 
 stand the English and High Dutch [!], mathematics, geog- 
 
330 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 raphy, drawing, history, ethics, with the constitution and 
 interests of the colonies." 
 
 Dr. Smith while staying in England was ordained a dea- 
 con Dec. 21, 1753 ; two days later, a priest. March 15, 1754, 
 he was present at a meeting of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel. It was owing to his influence that " a 
 number of noblemen and gentlemen in England, being appre- 
 hensive that the ignorance of the German emigrants settled in 
 Pennsylvania might render them liable to be led away from 
 the British interests by French emissaries, and being, also, 
 greatly desirous of giving them means of continuing the free 
 exercise of that religion among them for which very purpose 
 they had migrated from the land of their nativity to those 
 parts, formed themselves into a society, and requested Dr. 
 Samuel Chandler, an English dissenter of prominence, and 
 then secretary of the society, to address a letter to certain 
 gentlemen in Pennsylvania, appointing them their trustees, 
 etc." Chandler wrote the letter. The gentlemen appointed 
 trustees were James Hamilton, lieutenant-governor; William 
 Allen, chief-justice of Pennsylvania; Richard Peters, secre- 
 tary of Pennsylvania; Benjamin Franklin, postmaster-gen- 
 eral ; Conrad Weiser, interpreter ; and the Rev. Will. Smith. 
 The letter is dated March 15, 1754. It is apparent that the 
 whole plan was fully prepared before Smith set out for Eng- 
 land. It was a judicious measure to make Weiser, who 
 understood English as well as German and had most influ- 
 ence among the Germans, one of the trustees. The society 
 had also requested the trustees to " accept gf the inspection 
 and management of the whole charity in Pennsylvania, and 
 particularly to assist, encourage, and counsel the Rev. Mich. 
 Schlatter, whom the society has ordered, with a salary of one 
 hundred pounds sterling, made, under your direction, to be 
 their supervisor and visitor of the schools they had agreed to 
 erect in Reading, York, Easton, Lancaster, Schippach, and 
 Hanover, where the Germans are settled. The intention of 
 the schools is to instruct their youth in the English language 
 and the common principles of the Christian religion and mo- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 331 
 
 rality. The schoolmasters must understand both languages, 
 German and English, and the proper persons may be found 
 in the province/' The plan to send over German ministers 
 was also entertained, but, probably by the advice of the trus- 
 tees, was never carried out. 
 
 Smith returned to Philadelphia May 22, 1754, and was on 
 the 24th inducted into office as provost of the college and 
 academy of Philadelphia and professor of natural philosophy. 
 To advanced scholars he lectured also on ethics and rhetoric. 
 The trustees appointed in England held their first meeting 
 Aug. 10, 1754. They had opened correspondence with indi- 
 viduals whose advice was valuable, but, the intentions of the 
 board becoming known, great opposition was soon excited. 
 No one was more antagonistic to the whole plan than Chris- 
 topher Sauer, printer and publisher at Germantown, the editor 
 of a German periodical which exercised much influence among 
 the Germans. Sauer, who in 1743 had published the first 
 American edition of Luther's translation of the Bible, by his 
 peculiar religious views was in affinity with the Quakers in 
 his anti-war principles. He fully believed in Christianity as 
 he understood it, but was convinced that it would have been 
 better for Christianity and the world if there never had been 
 a " Church," and was totally opposed to a Church clergy, 
 against whom in a very irritating manner he continually made 
 insinuations and aroused the ill-will of the people. His intel- 
 lectual horizon was a very narrow one. True it is that the 
 " vagabond preachers," of whom there were in those days so 
 many in Pennsylvania, gave him ample cause of complaint, 
 but he was grossly unjust in not discriminating between them 
 and the better class of pastors, whose happy and most desir- 
 able influence he in his indiscriminate way also undermined 
 and counteracted. He was right in maintaining that the con- 
 dition of the Germans was by no means so abominable as had 
 been reported, and that the scheme of the charity schools had 
 a political view which was not to his taste. On this head what 
 we read in a letter addressed by the Pennsylvania trustees to 
 the society in London, Philadelphia, Sept. 24, 1756, may suffice: 
 
332 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 " Nothing in this whole business gives us more real satisfac- 
 tion than to be strongly assured in your letter of Jan. 28, 1/55? 
 that the whole of what you aim is not to proselyte the Ger- 
 mans to any particular denomination, but (leaving all of them 
 to the entire liberty of their own judgments in speculative and 
 disputed points) to spread the knowledge of the avowed, un- 
 controverted principles of religion and morality among them, 
 to render them acquainted with the English language and 
 constitution, to form them into good subjects of His Majesty 
 King George, whose protection they enjoy, and make them 
 friends of that nation which has received them into her bos- 
 om, blessed them with liberty, and given them a share in her 
 invaluable privileges." Such opinions Sauer interpreted in 
 his own way. His charging the society with the intention of 
 depriving, under a charitable pretext, the Germans of their 
 native language, and of making them servants of the Pro- 
 prietors and of their representatives, and forcing them to sell 
 their plantations, was a mere pretence to arouse bad feelings 
 among the Germans. Sauer was never scrupulous about the 
 means he used to accomplish his purpose. Sept. 6, 1756, the 
 governor laid before the Provincial Council a letter of Weiser 
 wherein it was stated that the people had been made extreme- 
 ly hostile to the Proprietaries and the governor by insinuations 
 thrown out in Sauer's periodical, especially in the numbers of 
 Aug. 1 6th and 2Qth, wherein a false interpretation was given 
 of the late transactions of this government with the Indians, 
 and a suggestion that their hostility was owing to the Pro- 
 prietaries' covetousness in not paying them the full equiva- 
 lent for their lands. 
 
 The trustees found difficulties enough in carrying out their 
 scheme of establishing schools in the districts settled by the 
 Germans. One of them was to find properly-qualified teach- 
 ers who were masters of bbth languages. In the Philadelphia 
 academy there were a number of children of poor parents who 
 spoke German and English ; it was thought that after some time 
 they might be advanced to serve as teachers. Smith reported 
 that he had prevailed upon Brunnholtz to board in his house 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 333 
 
 a young man, Samuel Magaw, in later years rector of St. 
 Paul's, doctor of divinity, and vice-provost of the university, 
 that he might rpake further progress in the German lan- 
 guage. 
 
 To gain information and advice from one who thoroughly 
 knew the Germans, their condition, way of thinking, and man- 
 ners, Franklin addressed himself to Miihlenberg, and read his 
 answer before the board of trustees. Miihlenberg rejoices in 
 hearing of the scheme for promoting among the Germans in 
 Pennsylvania the knowledge of God and for making them 
 loyal subjects of the venerated Protestant throne of Great 
 Britain. He was pleased that the management of that char- 
 ity was entrusted to such impartial persons. But, as long 
 experience had made him acquainted with almost every part 
 of Pennsylvania and with the temper and circumstances of his 
 countrymen, he much feared some ill-minded persons would 
 strive to defeat so just and noble a scheme, as they had of 
 late done many others, to the offence of many thousand igno- 
 rant but well-meaning souls, unless proper measures were 
 taken to prevent it. Chr. Sauer, he observed, who printed a 
 German newspaper which was universally read by the Ger- 
 mans all over Pennsylvania and the neighboring colonies, was 
 making haste to prejudice them against the scheme, as might 
 be seen by extracts from his paper. Miihlenberg further re- 
 marks that Franklin had at great expense set up another Ger- 
 man press to rescue the Germans out of Sauer's hands and the 
 bonds of those whose interest it was to keep them in igno- 
 rance ; but for the want of a German printer of sufficient skill, 
 and of a correspondence necessary to support such a paper as 
 Franklin had undertaken, Sauer had the advantage, continuing 
 to turn the Germans against their clergy and every one who 
 endeavored to bring them to good order in Church and State 
 affairs. Miihlenberg furthermore says that he himself had 
 attempted to buy a printing-press, to serve by this means his 
 countrymen and to instil into them sound notions concerning 
 the inestimable privileges they enjoy under the British Protest- 
 ant government ; he had, however, on account of his increas- 
 
334 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ing family and straitened circumstances, been obliged to drop 
 his design. He proposes to the trustees that they buy a 
 press and edit a newspaper, almanacs, etc. of a proper cha- 
 racter. He would be willing, under the trustees, to direct 
 such a press to use his whole influence among the people 
 and his brethren to support it. He had no doubt of the suc- 
 cess of such a paper, and would to this end open correspond- 
 ence with friends throughout the colonies. He lamented the 
 riotous, disloyal, irreligious character of many Germans, who 
 were stirred up against regularly-ordained and pious pastors 
 by vicious vagabonds who came without orders and creden- 
 tials and enjoy all liberty to do their nefarious work. He 
 proceeds to depict a few specimens of this kind Carl Ru- 
 dolph and Engelland and says, " There were many more of 
 the same sort which we shall never get rid of, nor reduce the 
 people to proper order until our gracious superiors are pleased 
 to demand proper credentials of all who exercise the minis- 
 try, and no longer suffer vagabonds to laugh at us, who are 
 regular clergymen, by saying it is a free country, and by turn- 
 ing liberty into licentiousness." Miihlenberg added to his letter 
 portions of Sauer's paper translated into English. 
 
 We see that Miihlenberg acknowledged the good contained 
 in the scheme of the charity schools. He knew well enough 
 how much well-kept schools were needed among the Ger- 
 mans, and how much the rising generation would be benefited 
 by them ; but he felt deeply that to the wicked characters en- 
 tirely too much freedom was given to destroy all the good 
 which right-minded persons endeavored to do. In agreement 
 with his representations, the trustees resolved to send out a 
 printed account of the real design of the " Society for Propa- 
 gating Christian Knowledge" among the Germans, couched 
 in the most unexceptional language ; also to buy a press, en- 
 gage a suitable printer, and publish a newspaper. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting of the board, Aug. 23, 1754, pe- 
 titions were presented from Providence, New Hanover, and 
 other localities requesting the board to establish chanty 
 schools, and to use for this purpose the school-houses erected 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 335 
 
 by various congregations. Lutherans and Reformed united 
 here and there for this end. The work was actually begun : 
 schools were established in 1755 a ^ Providence, New Hanover, 
 Vincent, Reading, Tulpehoken, Lancaster, York, and other 
 places. Rev. M. Schlatter was appointed inspector of the 
 schools. Pastors of Lutheran and Reformed congregations 
 were engaged as catechists, to attend to the religious instruc- 
 tion of the children according to the denomination to which 
 they belonged. The editing of a German newspaper was 
 begun at Philadelphia, and Handschuh had the supervision 
 of it.* In a short time there were upward of four hundred 
 subscribers to it, which was a promising beginning. It was 
 also intended to give some poor children a higher education 
 in the Philadelphia academy, to take up Indian children and 
 to instruct them, and to distribute religious literature among 
 the Germans. 
 
 Admitting that there was ample room in Pennsylvania for 
 the general features of an educational scheme as represented 
 by the charity schools, we can see many reasons why it could 
 not succeed well for any length of time. The whole enterprise 
 contained a seeming reproach to the German population. It 
 may not have been intended, but it was felt as such. It put 
 the Germans into a position of utter inability to take care of 
 themselves and of their children in the matter of intellectual, 
 moral, and religious culture. To this must be added the im- 
 pression created by the influence of Sauer and of others, who 
 operated upon the credulous minds of a population not able 
 to take an independent position and consider and solve the 
 questions involved in the scheme. The absurdities published 
 by Sauer, though never so great, nevertheless controlled the 
 feelings and the opinions of many. In a letter of Sept. 5, 
 1755, he says that he had been thinking whether it was really 
 
 * The title was "Philadelphische Zeitung -von allerhand auswaertigen und ein- 
 heimischen merkwiirdigen Sachen. Philad. Gedrukt und zu haben bey Benj. 
 Franklin, General Postmeister, und A. Armbruster, in der Markt Strasse, das jahr 
 fiir 3 schillinge." What we have of this paper indicates no originality. There 
 are no leaders ; the whole is very commonplace. 
 
336 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 true that Gilbert Tennent (a prominent Presbyterian pastor at 
 Philadelphia), Schlatter, Peters, Hamilton, Allen, Smith, Frank- 
 lin, Miihlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and others have the 
 slightest care for the real conversion of the ignorant portion 
 of the Germans in Pennsylvania, or whether the institution of 
 the free schools is not rather the foundation to bring the coun- 
 try into servitude, so that each of them may look for and 
 have his own interest and advantage. Again : " Concerning 
 Hamilton, Peters, Allen, Shippen, and Franklin, I know that 
 they care very little about religion ; nor do they care for the 
 cultivation of the minds of the Germans, except that they 
 should form the militia and defend their properties. Such 
 people do not know what it is to have faith and confidence in 
 God, but they are mortified that they cannot compel others to 
 defend their goods." Such things, and even worse, Sauer pub- 
 lished at a time when, after the defeat at Fort Duquesne, the 
 Indians broke in upon the settled frontiers in Pennsylvania 
 and committed all sorts of cruel atrocities. But it cannot be de- 
 nied that there were interests on the other side; that there was 
 in the scheme of those schools some ulterior object in view; 
 that it did not proceed from pure, unalloyed charity; that po- 
 litical party proclivities, and even certain ecclesiastical party 
 interests, were connected with it. The biographer of Rev. W. 
 Smith, Horace Wemyss Smith, to whom we owe a more de- 
 tailed knowledge of the whole history of the plan of the 
 Pennsylvania charity schools, when speaking of the wisdom 
 of the scheme, makes the remark : " The Rev. Mr. Muhlen- 
 berg of the Lutheran Church, who was a co-worker with 
 Smith, sincerely respected the Church of England, and after- 
 ward was even a trustee of the venerable corporation estab- 
 lished A. D. 1769 for the relief of widows and children of its 
 clergymen. Moreover, a portion of that Church has always 
 been disposed to recognize the validity of Lutheran orders, as 
 the Church generally does, I believe, the validity of the Swe- 
 dish and Moravian. Thus, even if the whole body of poor 
 Germans passed into the Lutheran Church, a great gain was 
 made to the Church of England on their previous forms of 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 337 
 
 faith or, rather, on their previous want of all faith." Do 
 these words reflect the sentiments of Smith, Peters, and other 
 Episcopalians who were the prime originators of the whole 
 school plan ? Considering the disturbed condition of Penn- 
 sylvania society in 1755 and the following years, the impos- 
 sibility of exercising, through those schools, a lasting influ- 
 ence upon the whole German population, dispersed over a 
 vast territory, the large expense necessary from year to year 
 for the maintenance of the schools and the teachers, to be 
 gathered merely from charitable people, and all the antago- 
 nistic impeding elements, we cannot wonder that after some 
 years the whole work of the chanty schools had to be aban- 
 doned. We hear the last of them in 1763. 
 
 Smith's outspoken opposition to the Quaker government in 
 Pennsylvania the Quakers resented by having him brought 
 before their official body, tried, found guilty, and imprisoned, 
 Jan. 25, 1758. Visiting England in 1759, he was received 
 with many honors, was made by the University of Oxford 
 and by that of Aberdeen a doctor of divinity, brought an 
 appeal before the privy council, was declared not guilty, and 
 the Pennsylvania Assembly was reprimanded for assuming 
 powers which did not belong to it. 
 22 
 
338 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 1760-1761. 
 
 Distinguished visitors at Providence. Rev. Rich. Peters, D. D. Rev. Chas. M. 
 Wrangel, D. D. His friendship with Mtthlenberg. His activity as pastor 
 and as provost of the Swedish churches. His voice in behalf of the history 
 of the Lutheran Church in America. Miihlenberg accepts the call to the 
 German Lutheran church at Philadelphia. History and condition of this 
 congregation. Gerhard Henkel. J. Eneberg. J. Chr. Schultze. J. C. Stoe- 
 ver. J. Dylander. P. Brunnholtz. J. F. Handschuh elected pastor. 
 
 T)ROVIDENCE, from 1745 the home of Muhlenberg and 
 -[ the centre of his parochial district, was not destined to 
 be his abode during the whole extent of his earthly career. 
 His attachment to the locality never ceased. There he lived 
 in a house and on a piece of ground which he could call his 
 own ; there after his marriage he had begun family life ; there 
 most of his children were born, and with a large number of 
 people, even outside of his congregation, most friendly rela- 
 tions had through the course of many years been formed. 
 We know that on various occasions and from divers locali- 
 ties calls had repeatedly come to him to enter upon distant 
 fields of pastoral activity. Some of them offered to him unde- 
 niable advantages in various points of view. Temporarily he 
 had taken care of congregations in distant places. To some 
 he had shown himself a real help in their distress, but he had 
 never felt himself at liberty to part with the field of labor upon 
 which, after his arrival in Pennsylvania, he had first and suc- 
 cessfully entered. Only the most pressing necessity could 
 convince Muhlenberg that the time for a change had come 
 and that his services were permanently needed in another 
 locality. * 
 
 Providence, though remote from the political, social, and 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 339 
 
 commercial centre of the province of Pennsylvania, could not 
 play the role of a bushel to hide the excellent qualities of an 
 eminent man. Miihlenberg's name was already and most 
 favorably known, not only within the Lutheran Church and 
 the large circle of her membership, but to representative men 
 of other denominations and in the different portions of public 
 life. He kept up an extensive correspondence with these, and 
 to some of the men of high standing Providence was not too 
 much out of the way to prevent them from paying a visit to 
 the Lutheran pastor there, and entering into conversation with 
 him on subjects of common interest. 
 
 Among such visitors we find the Rev. Richard Peters, secre- 
 tary of the province of Pennsylvania, agent of the Penn family, 
 the Proprietaries, and president of the Philadelphia academy. 
 Aug. 9 and 10, 1760, this gentleman was the guest of Miihlen- 
 berg at Providence, attended on Sunday the morning service in 
 the Augustus Church, and in the afternoon preached there in an 
 instructive and edifying manner to a large assembly. In this 
 exceptional case Miihlenberg felt himself perfectly justified 
 in inviting an Episcopalian to a Lutheran pulpit. Richard 
 Peters was for a time prevented, under very unusual circum- 
 stances, from exercising the functions of the sacred offiqe, 
 though he had received holy orders in his native country, 
 England. The life of this man had taken a very extraordinary 
 course. He was the talented son of Ralph Peters, town-clerk 
 of Liverpool, was sent by his father to the Westminster School 
 of London, went most honorably through it before he was 
 fifteen years of age, and was unfortunately deluded by a 
 servant-maid where he lodged into a Fleet marriage. His 
 parents, hearing of it, altered their mind as to the remaining 
 part of his education, and, instead of sending him to Oxford, 
 removed him to Leyden in Holland, where he remained three 
 years. Upon his return to England he was put to study under 
 the care of Mr. Rootle of the Inner Temple, by the command 
 of his father, against his own will, for he was always inclined 
 to go into holy orders. "In the study of law he spent five 
 years. Though capable of practising the law to great advan- 
 
340 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tage, yet, his religious turn of mind increasing, he prevailed 
 upon his father to let him take holy orders, which were con- 
 ferred upon him by the bishop of Winchester in the year 
 1730 to be deacon, and the year following, at Chelsea, to be 
 priest. Some little time after Mr. Rootle collated him to 
 Latham Chapel, a donative in the parish of Prinskirk, in the 
 county of Lancaster, diocese of Chester, in which neighbor- 
 hood he lived ever since (sic), and was there taken notice of by 
 the late earl of Derby and entrusted with the education of two 
 of his relations, and lived with His Lordship in his palace at 
 Knowsly till the 1st of July last. During all this time, knowing 
 in what a base manner he was tricked by the woman, he never 
 cohabited with her nor gave himself any trouble about her ; 
 and about three years ago, upon his return from Leyden, where 
 he had been to place the two young gentlemen My Lord's 
 relations, he was congratulated by all his friends in a public 
 manner for his deliverance from the woman, who, they had 
 told him, had died while he was in Holland, and her death 
 was confirmed afterward by several letters from his friends 
 in London. Taking himself, and being taken by the whole 
 neighborhood, to be at full liberty, he made his public ad- 
 dresses to Miss Stanley, sister of the two young gentlemen 
 whom he had placed in Leyden, and married her Christmas 
 was twelve months. In June last it was discovered that the 
 woman was alive ; upon which he voluntarily, with the con- 
 sent of his wife, came over here, where, as I said, he has 
 assisted Mr. Cummings in the church of Philadelphia, and to 
 my certain knowledge he has given the greatest satisfaction to 
 the people of any clergyman that was ever here." Thus writes 
 Mr. Jerem. Langhorne (May 28, 1736) to the bishop of Lon- 
 don. When the circumstances under which Peters had come 
 to Pennsylvania became known, his clerical character was 
 seriously attacked, he was denounced as living in bigamy, 
 and in 1737 he left the service of the Church. But his emi- 
 nent talents and his education as a lawyer soon opened other 
 doors for him. In that same year he accepted the secretary- 
 ship of the Pennsylvania land-office, and in 1742 was called 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 341 
 
 to the honorable and lucrative position of secretary of the 
 province and clerk of the council. 
 
 There were many who heartily wished Peters's return to the 
 service of the Church. Among these was Miihlenberg, who 
 in a letter to him (Dec. 6, 1756) refers to meeting him and 
 Acrelius on the evening of Oct. 3ist of the same year, speaks 
 in high terms of the talents and the merits of Peters under 
 the distressing circumstances of that tifne, and adds : " Don't 
 you think it your incumbent duty now to satisfy and dedicate 
 your catholic spirit, together with all the faculties and un- 
 common talents and gifts entrusted you, but which have been 
 dormant, to act the more vigorously in the eleventh hour 
 solely for the use and benefit of God's vineyard in the present 
 critical and dangerous situation?" Peters was in 1763 elected 
 rector of Christ Church at Philadelphia, in which capacity 
 he died in 1776. He had always taken a decisive position 
 against Methodism, which in those years seriously affected 
 the churches and congregations in the provinces. In the 
 Episcopal congregation at Philadelphia the Rev. Will. Mac- 
 clenachan, an adherent of Whitefield, created by his extrava- 
 gant enthusiasm much disturbance, which resulted in the 
 separation of a portion of the membership, the organization 
 of a new congregation, St. Luke's, over which Macclenachan 
 under many discomforts presided for more than two years, 
 and then left for Maryland, where he is said to have seen the 
 errors of some of his ways. Complaints about him were sent 
 by a convention of the Pennsylvania Episcopal clergy to Eng- 
 land in May, 1760, and referring to "his exceeding ill-beha- 
 vior to the members of this convention during their sitting, 
 his scurrilous and abusive language to many of them, his 
 railings and revilings of his brethren in the pulpit, his singular 
 manner of preaching," etc. Such a man was not at all to the 
 taste of Peters, who, while conservative in his views and prac- 
 tices as a Churchman, leaned neither to the enthusiasm nor 
 asceticism of Methodism. That he was neither an enthusiast 
 nor an ascetic is perhaps indicated by a letter of Colonel John 
 Stanwix sent to him from the military camp near Carlisle, Pa., 
 
342 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 July 25, 1757, where we find the following: "Have built a 
 hut in camp, where the captains and I live together, and, as 
 you have promised to come this way about August, shall be 
 glad you could see how we make it out. Cockram says the 
 rule at whist is at present only shillings, but that is to be 
 changed into dollars when you and Mr. Allen come here." 
 This Mr. Allen is probably the chief-justice of Pennsylvania. 
 We have here a glimpse of the character of the recreations 
 in which in those times men of society indulged. 
 
 In the same month and year in which Rich. Peters had vis- 
 ited Miihlenberg another stranger, who in subsequent times 
 came infinitely nearer to his heart, the Rev. Chas. Magnus 
 Wrangel de Saga, provost of the Swedish churches on the 
 Delaware, pastor of the Wicaco (Gloria Dei) congregation at 
 Philadelphia, paid his respects to him in his quiet rustic home 
 at Providence. He arrived in the afternoon of Aug. 24th, 
 and enjoyed the hospitality of his host and family until Aug. 
 26, 1760. It was the first time the two men had met, and 
 they at once began to form an intimate friendship. Wran- 
 gel had come with the special intention personally to invite 
 Miihlenberg to be present at the yearly convention of the 
 Swedes at Wicaco church, Sept. I4th and I5th. Wrangel, 
 like his predecessors in the provost's office, had been author- 
 ized and advised by the highest ecclesiastical authorities of 
 Sweden to entertain fraternal relations with the German Lu- 
 theran ministry an injunction which under no other provost 
 of the Swedish churches was more vigorously carried out 
 than under Wrangel, and, although the official interests of 
 each side were necessarily kept asunder, was supported by the 
 friendship existing between him and Miihlenberg. Wrangel, 
 a scion of the family made famous by the exploits of General 
 Torstenson Wrangel during the Thirty Years' War, had re- 
 ceived his education partly in his native country, Sweden, 
 partly at the University of Gottingen, was made a private 
 chaplain to King Adolphus Frederick (1751-71), and then in 
 1759 was sent as provost to the Swedish pastors and congre- 
 gations on the Delaware. He is often spoken of as " a young 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 343 
 
 man" when he arrived in this country, and, in fact, in the per- 
 formance of his duties as pastor and provost exhibited the 
 zeal and vigor of the prime of life. It is certainly a proof of 
 his talent, education, and energy that during his career in 
 America he preached the gospel in German and in English 
 no less than in Swedish. Frequently he interchanged pul- 
 pits with Miihlenberg, who then in Wrangel's congregations 
 preached in English, which was understood equally as well as 
 the Swedish by many of his hearers, and even better by a con- 
 siderable number of the younger generation. Wrangel must 
 have been a fluent preacher, of much fervor. He was often 
 necessitated, when visiting congregations, to preach in the 
 open air, the churches being too small for the number of his 
 auditors. His religious fervor was to a large extent of the 
 Halle type, but, while he was meditative and demanded per- 
 sonal experience and Pietistic inwardness, he was certainly 
 not quietistic, but, like his friend Miihlenberg, unceasingly 
 active in preaching the gospel, in building up congregations, 
 and in searching after the spiritually destitute within, and even 
 beyond, the limits of his diocese. One of his missionary jour- 
 neys in the search after dispersed Swedish settlers took him 
 across Jersey down to Egg Harbor, at that time considered 
 by Philadelphians as an ultima thule. As a friend he was 
 very sympathetic and ever ready to share the burdens lying 
 on others. To Miihlenberg he often acted as an assistant. 
 He participated in the affairs of the German Lutheran con- 
 gregations and gave his advice and labor, and at times was 
 present at meetings of vestries and congregations, where his 
 opinion also carried weight. It happened not merely once 
 that in Philadelphia he stayed with Miihlenberg so late that 
 only on the following day he returned to his own house, a 
 mile or more distant, near the Wicaco church. At other 
 times the same happened to Miihlenberg, who had to be 
 satisfied with' the accommodations which his bachelor friend 
 Wrangel could offer him. Wrangel sought to come into con- 
 tact with all those in whom he discovered that form of piety 
 which was to him of uppermost concern viz. personal, indi- 
 
344 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 vidual experience of grace. He entertained friendly relations 
 with Whitefield, and, without sympathizing with the extrav- 
 agancies of his adherents outside of and within the Episcopal 
 Church, was among the advocates of the Methodist move- 
 ment, which in these years was pushing itself to the fore- 
 ground in the religious world. Some light is thrown upon 
 the situation by a letter of the Episcopal missionary Hugh 
 Neill to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel, dated Oct. 17, 1763, which says: "Mr. Whitefield, 
 arriving lately among us, and meeting with a most cordial 
 reception from the Episcopal clergy of Philadelphia, hath 
 thrown the clergy and laity into a great consternation. The 
 unanimity among the Church clergy both in city and country 
 for these three and twenty years past prevented his hurting 
 the Church (a few individuals excepted). The divisions that 
 he created among the dissenters in this province and all over 
 America [this refers especially to the Presbyterians] were 
 examples sufficient to warn us from splitting upon the same 
 rock. But such has been the fatality of our city brethren 
 that they have received him with open arms, and still con- 
 tinue to follow him from the church to the meeting-house, 
 and from there to the church again, with a greater degree of 
 veneration, I really believe, than if His Grace of Canterbury 
 were to condescend to pay them a visit. Mr. Duche [his 
 name is several times respectfully introduced in the Halle 
 Reports}, one of the assistant ministers of Christ Church at 
 Philadelphia, and Mr. Wrangel, the Swedish minister, have 
 appeared more openly than the others in preaching up his 
 doctrine and espousing his cause : they have set up private 
 meetings in town, where they admit of none but such as they 
 deem converted. The Swedish missionary, Mr. Wrangel, has 
 set up a week-day lecture within a small distance of my church 
 of Oxford [north of Philadelphia City], with a view to make 
 some impression upon my people; but he hath failed hith- 
 erto." 
 
 For a time Wrangel delivered lectures on Monday evenings 
 in a private house at Philadelphia. The house not giving 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 345 
 
 room enough to all the attendants, the German Lutheran ves- 
 try allowed him St. Michael's Church for that purpose. The 
 lectures were delivered in English. Miihlenberg speaks of 
 them as being mainly excellent exegetical expositions of 
 Bible passages. He was himself a regular attendant when- 
 ever time would permit. We never meet with a trace indi- 
 cating that Wrangel went into any extravagances .or that dur- 
 ing his administrations any disorders took place, but this did 
 not prevent three of the Swedish pastors under his supervis- 
 ion from lodging complaint against him with the ecclesiastical 
 authorities in Sweden. They (Rev. Messrs. Borell, Wicksell, 
 and Hegeblad) refer especially to his Pietistic proclivities, but 
 seem to have made no impression in Sweden. Of the pastoral 
 activity of his clerical friend Miihlenberg thus speaks in his 
 diary (April 1 8, 1762): " Dr. de Wrangel, at the present time 
 Swedish provost, preaches on Sunday, in the forenoon, in 
 Swedish, in his own church [Wicaco] ; in the afternoon he 
 goes on horseback a distance of six miles to a congregation 
 on the other side of the Schuylkill, and delivers a second ser- 
 mon ; in the evening he again preaches in his own church, 
 and this third time in English. Every fourth week he under- 
 takes a laborious tour through the province of Jersey to his 
 destitute congregations. Through the week-days he visits 
 other scattered outposts of his Church, goes from place to 
 place, holds catechizations in the houses, and, in spite of his 
 indescribable labors and exertions among his dispersed sheep, 
 he is willing from time to time to visit the destitute flocks of 
 poor German Lutherans, and to bring joy by administering 
 to them the means of grace, although he could give convincing 
 proofs that he has laid upon him more than enough work 
 among his own nation. Some might think that personal in- 
 terests have an influence in this matter, but there is not the 
 least room left for such thoughts, since here the poorest flocks 
 of Lutherans are referred to, and Provost Wrangel cannot be 
 moved to take a single penny from the Germans." 
 
 It is a proof of the interest Wrangel to^k in the whole 
 Lutheran Church and its history and of his well-cultivated 
 
346 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 mind that at the meeting of the German Lutheran Ministe- 
 rium at Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 1763, he solemnly addressed 
 the brethren and requested each of them to furnish for a his- 
 tory of the Lutheran Church in this country, according to his 
 ability, some documents concerning the first beginning and 
 the progress of their respective congregations. They prom- 
 ised to do \\. Whether the promise was kept we know not, 
 but we may well ask, What would we now know of the his- 
 tory of the Lutheran Church in this country if the Halle 
 missionaries, and especially Miihlenberg, had not, in agree- 
 ment with the rules laid down in Halle, kept their diaries, 
 sent them to the Fathers, and continually kept up corre- 
 spondence with them ? 
 
 When, in 1768, Wrangel visited England on his recall to 
 Sweden, Richard Peters, then rector of Christ Church at 
 Philadelphia, introduced him to the bishop of London by 
 the following letter, the interpretation of which we leave to 
 our readers : 
 
 "PHILADELPHIA, 30 Aug., 1768. 
 
 " MY MUCH-HONORED LORD : It is not unknown to Your 
 Lordship that the Church of England in this province has 
 always been in connection with the Swedish churches, and 
 that the missionaries sent from Sweden, who have, except a 
 few instances, been persons of eminent learning and piety, 
 have at all times given us a very ready assistance and done 
 us many substantial services. 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Wrangel, whom I have made bearer of this 
 letter on purpose to introduce him to Your Lordship, is of 
 the first rank amongst those missionaries, and is now on his 
 return to Sweden after an absence of nine years. Before he 
 came here he was in high esteem with the king of Sweden, 
 and is one of His Majesty's domestic chaplains. 
 
 " His Majesty, indeed, appointed him commissary of the 
 Swedish churches here and rector of the old Swedish church 
 at Wicaco, in the neighborhood of this city, as a parochial 
 pastor. I can truly say that he was indefatigable. He has 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 347 
 
 given very instructive lectures on week-days that have spread 
 among his people a good knowledge of religious principles, 
 and as commissary it has been his constant care to visit all 
 the churches though they are at great distances from one 
 another carefully, and wherever he could has given encour- 
 agement to settle regular and pious ministers, and has actually 
 built churches and brought into church communion numbers 
 of people who were without any public worship. 
 
 " He kncws all the affairs of this province and the state 
 of religion and the situation of our own and the German 
 churches, and I most humbly and earnestly recommend it 
 to Your Lordship to enter into a free and full conversation 
 with him. The Presbyterians, under a pretence of answering 
 Dr. Chandler [who had in a pamphlet advocated the appoint- 
 ment of bishops for America], have gone into many abusive 
 publications, and have raised against them all other churches 
 in common from the bitterness and vengeance that appear in 
 their writings. As they are numerous, all other persuasions 
 begin to tread and unite against them as people who have 
 more tyranny in their system and temper than any other 
 Church whatever. Dr. Wrangel wants to take a just advan- 
 tage of this general antipathy to the Presbyterians, and to 
 unite the great body of Lutherans and Swedes with the 
 Church of England, who, you know, are but few and in 
 mean circumstances in this province ; but were they united 
 with the German Lutherans we should both become respect- 
 able. This Dr. Smith and I think may be done by the 
 means of our academy. We might have a professorship of 
 divinity opened in it wherein German and English youth 
 might be educated ; and by having both languages as a part 
 of their education they might preach both in German and 
 English in such places where there is a mixture of both 
 nations. This would conciliate us all, and make us live and 
 love as one nation. It is an happy thought. I wish Your 
 Lordship would talk with Dr. Wrangel and encourage it all 
 you can. I have wrote to the two archbishops on this head, 
 and beg they may consider this well together with Your 
 
348 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Lordship. I am sure there is now a good opportunity of 
 bringing this desirable thing to a good issue. 
 
 " I am Your Lordship's most dutiful son and servant, 
 
 " RICHARD PETERS." 
 
 As a pastor Wrangel was very conscientious. To regulate 
 his visits to the families under his care he made lists of the 
 parents, children, and servants, and noted both their profectus 
 and defectus. On Sunday, an hour before the beginning of 
 the public services, he gave an exegetical explanation of a pas- 
 sage of the New Testament, adding a practical application, 
 delivered a sermon of about three-quarters of an hour's 
 length, and questioned his hearers about its contents. In 
 this he followed the custom of his native country (Acrelius, 
 Hist.,^. 218). It proves his intense interest in the progress 
 and the state of the entire Lutheran Church that he was often 
 present at the meetings of the German Lutheran Synod, at 
 the dedication of churches, opening of school-houses, and sim- 
 ilar festival occasions. He and J. Nic. Kurtz made in the 
 autumn of 1761 a tour of visitation to New York and the 
 New Jersey congregations and attended a college commence- 
 ment at Princeton, to which Wrangel was specially invited. 
 On the other hand, Miihlenberg took pleasure in accompany- 
 ing his friend Wrangel on pastoral tours. Thus we find the 
 two paying a visit to the island of Tinicum in the Delaware, 
 some miles south of Philadelphia. There, one hundred and 
 twenty years before, the Swedes had made a settlement, built 
 a fort, and erected the first Lutheran church on the Western 
 continent. There had also been a cemetery on the island. 
 They found some decayed bones and also scanty remnants of 
 the church. We meet here and there in Miihlenberg's diaries 
 with remarks which amply indicate how sweet to him was the 
 intercourse with such a friend as Wrangel. This intercourse, 
 as may be expected, was strengthened when Miihlenberg, in 
 consequence of a pressing call given by the German Lutheran 
 congregation, Oct. 29, 1761, moved with his family to Phil- 
 adelphia. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 349 
 
 Surely nothing but the most urgent necessity and a keen 
 sense of imperative duty could induce Muhlenberg to leave 
 his home at Providence and the field of action on which he 
 had labored as pastor during so many years. He met also 
 with very strong opposition on the part of his people, who 
 had allowed him from time to time to sojourn at New York 
 and in the Raritan congregations, considering that his tem- 
 porary absence was justified by the necessities of these con- 
 gregations and of the brethren in the faith. But a regular 
 call to Philadelphia presented a different aspect. They were 
 afraid of entirely losing him and his services, and, though he 
 comforted them with the promise that his absence should 
 only last " a time," they made many efforts altogether to pre- 
 vent that change. When, on Sept. 6, 1761, he preached at 
 Providence, the church was crowded in consequence of the 
 rumors of his intention to leave. That day was his birthday ; 
 he was now fifty years of age. He felt keenly that he was 
 taking a most critical step. In his country churches he had a 
 strong home-feeling. He knew the people, and they knew, 
 esteemed, and loved him ; he had established among them a 
 certain order, and things moved on in a quiet way. He knew 
 that in Philadelphia new and heavy burdens would be laid 
 upon him. On the very day of his arrival at the city he told 
 his wife that they had to prepare themselves to endure afflic- 
 tions and sufferings. And, indeed, all his friends at Provi- 
 dence, New Hanover, and the vicinity well enough knew that 
 by entering upon the service of the Philadelphia congregation 
 he could not expect to lead an easier life. Neither could they 
 deny the force of his reasoning with them. He had never 
 formally resigned the call once given him by the Philadelphia 
 Lutherans in connection with those at Providence and New 
 Hanover. The condition of the Philadelphia congregation 
 had of late become so deplorably critical that an extraordi- 
 nary measure was imperatively demanded there to prevent, if 
 ever possible, rupture and ruin. As may be expected, the 
 representatives of the Providence and New Hanover congre- 
 gations replied to these reasons that, while Philadelphia might 
 
350 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 possibly be saved, their own flocks might be scattered. By 
 way of a compromise they proposed that Miihlenberg should 
 spend every fourth Sunday at Philadelphia, but not move 
 there with his family. Finally, it was agreed that he should 
 not resign at Providence and New Hanover, neither forsake 
 them, but keep them under his supervision, visit them from 
 time to time, procure for them during his absence pastors of 
 good qualities, and as soon as possible return to his home. 
 Rev. Hartwig was selected by them as a substitute during his 
 absence, and served Miihlenberg's parochial charge for six 
 months. The congregation on the west shore of the Schuyl- 
 kill was under the care of J. H. Schaum, then residing at 
 New Hanover, until, in April, 1762, he moved to Berks coun- 
 ty. His successor at New Hanover and at Pikestown, beyond 
 the Schuylkill, was J. van Buskirk, until in 1765 he moved 
 to Germantown. 
 
 The origin of the Philadelphia German Lutheran congre- 
 gation, like that of thousands of congregations throughout 
 Christendom, is shrouded in mystery. When, in 1683, Ger- 
 mantown was founded by Germans of peculiar religious tenets 
 antagonistic to the existing Church bodies of Germany, their 
 confessions, ritual, and mode of administration, there were 
 perhaps no German Lutherans. in Philadelphia. Some may 
 have arrived in the following years. Jacob Fabricius, who was 
 from 1677 pastor among the Swedes settled where (1682) 
 Philadelphia was located and elsewhere on the Delaware, and 
 even after he had become blind in 1682, continued his ser- 
 vices for some years more, and may have occasionally preached 
 to their increasing numbers. For decades of years succeeding, 
 there was, however, no German Lutheran church organization 
 in Philadelphia. When Gerhard Henkel, after his arrival in 
 Pennsylvania, about the year 1717 or 1718, as an itinerant 
 preacher served the German Lutherans at New Hanover and 
 other localities, he may occasionally have exercised the func- 
 tions of the sacred office also at Philadelphia, but the histor- 
 ical proof is wanting. About 1730 a Swedish Lutheran 
 minister, John Eneberg whom, by permission of Bishop 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 351 
 
 Dr. Swedberg, Rev. Norberg, pastor of the Swedish church 
 in London, had ordained with a view to missionary services 
 among the Swedes on the Delaware arrived here, and first 
 preached to the German Lutherans, and among them espe- 
 cially to those at Philadelphia. But when Rev. J. Lidman, 
 pastor of the Wicaco congregation, in November, 1730, re- 
 turned to Sweden, Eneberg presided for two years over the 
 vacant Wicaco church, and in 1733 entered upon his pastoral 
 duties at Christina (Wilmington), to which a royal commission 
 given at Stockholm July 4, 1732, had called him. 
 
 In company with a man whom many years later Miihlen- 
 berg met at Cohansey, N. J., and designates as " J. M. M.," 
 the first and oldest settler in that vicinity, there arrived (Sept. 
 25, 1732) Rev. John Christian Schultze, who, as it appears, 
 convinced the German Lutherans at Philadelphia, Providence, 
 and New Hanover of his legitimacy as a Lutheran pastor, 
 served them a short time, and was then, already in the spring 
 of 1733, delegated with two laymen, Weisiger and Schoener, 
 to travel to Europe and raise collections in behalf of these 
 three churches. From this voyage he never returned. Be- 
 fore leaving he ordained at Providence the younger one of 
 the two J. C. Stoevers, who now entered upon pastoral duties 
 at Philadelphia and as itinerant preacher in other and in some 
 very distant localities. This Stoever whose namesake and 
 relative had in the passenger-list of the ship in which they 
 had arrived at Philadelphia, Sept. n, 1728, entered himself 
 as a missionary, and, as we have learned, accepted in 1735 a 
 call to Virginia is found in that list as student of theology. 
 He moved (1729 or 1730) to the vicinity of Earltown (New 
 Holland), Lancaster county, Pa., and seems to have performed 
 ministerial acts before he was ordained by Schultze. In the 
 church record commenced by him at Philadelphia in 1733 he 
 entered such acts, performed as early as 1729. Through a 
 series of years he served in periodical rotation a considerable 
 number of congregations and began their church records. 
 The title of the Philadelphia record, a small-sized folio, reads 
 thus : " Church-book and Protocol in behalf of the Evangelical 
 
352 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia, wherein are contained 
 and recorded i. Objects presented and bought in behalf of 
 the maintenance of public services ; 2. Baptized children, 
 with the names of the fathers and sponsors ; 3. Persons 
 confirmed and the first time admitted to the Lord's Supper ; 
 4. Persons betrothed and married; 5. Those who were buried 
 honorably and in a Christian manner. Begun by me, John Cas- 
 par Stoever, at this time Evangelical Lutheran High German 
 pastor in this place. Anno Salvatoris Nostri, 1733." 
 
 The entries made in that book by Stoever cease with Jan- 
 uary, April, and May, 1735. There are no minutes of any 
 vestry-meetings, and it appears that there was no regular 
 organization ; or if there was anything of the kind, it was of 
 a very imperfect character. That the services of Stoever, who 
 for a short time periodically appeared and then again disap- 
 peared and left the congregation without any services, were 
 not satisfactory, we learn from the fact that Rev. Dr. Francke 
 as early as March II, 1735, alludes to a petition sent to him 
 from Philadelphia for godly ministers. We know that the 
 congregations of Philadelphia, Providence, and New Hanover 
 unitedly addressed Rev. Dr. Ziegenhagen at London and 
 Rev. Dr. Francke at Halle, and entreated them to send a suit- 
 able pastor. The letters are signed by " Vorsteher " of these 
 churches : since elders are not mentioned, we cannot take that 
 word here in the specific sense of " deacon," but in the gen- 
 eric sense of " officers of the congregation." It indicates at 
 least some sort of organization. 
 
 The correspondence of the " Fathers " had no practical re- 
 sult until the sending of Miihlenberg in 1742. We know 
 that in that same year Zinzendorf had made efforts to control 
 the German Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia and those 
 in other localities of Pennsylvania, and that in Philadelphia, 
 after the rupture separating the Lutherans from his influence, 
 Val. Kraft had acted as pastor until, Nov. 25th of that year, 
 Miihlenberg arrived. During the preceding years the Phil- 
 adelphia German Lutherans had no pastor. They continued, 
 however, when Stoever left them, to meet in a building which 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 353 
 
 they and the German Reformed had about 1730 unitedly 
 rented, alternately holding Sunday services. Rev. John Dy- 
 lander, from Nov. 6, 1737, until his death, Nov. 2, 1741, pas- 
 tor of Wicaco church a man highly esteemed and much 
 beloved used his ability to preach the gospel also in the 
 German language for the benefit of the German Lutherans at 
 Philadelphia ; he also dedicated the stone church which the 
 German Lutherans for some years had been erecting at Ger- 
 mantown. Acrelius says of him: "No one can deny to Mr. 
 Dylander the honor which he gained for himself in his min- 
 isterial office, in that for more than a year he held morning 
 service at eight o'clock in German, High Mass in Swedish, 
 and vespers in English in the church at Wicaco." We find, 
 however, that before Dylander had arrived here a certain 
 John Albert Langerfeldt, of Halberstadt, Germany, who had 
 attended lectures on jurisprudence and on theology at Halle, 
 but who had not intended to serve as a pastor and never pre- 
 tended to be ordained, at the request of the people among 
 whom he was of good report for a time preached every 
 other Sunday to the German Lutherans at Philadelphia. 
 Thus we read in a letter of the three united congregations 
 dated Feb., 1735, to Dr. Francke. 
 
 At an earlier stage of our narrative, when speaking of Zin- 
 zendorf we mentioned that he had formed a sort of consti- 
 tution for the German Lutherans at Philadelphia. This 
 constitution never entered into the life of the congregation, 
 yet it may have been the cause of Muhlenberg's finding in 
 the congregation two distinct orders of lay officers, elders 
 and deacons a division maintained by a very large number 
 of Lutheran congregations throughout Pennsylvania and be- 
 yond it, while in many to these two orders is added the third 
 one of trustees. This was during a number of years the case 
 in the Philadelphia congregation. 
 
 In the year 1745, Brunnholtz entered upon pastoral duties 
 in Philadelphia. Miihlenberg, without resigning in Philadel- 
 phia, took charge of the country congregations. Entries of 
 the Philadelphia vestry-meetings are not found until Aug. 17, 
 
 23 
 
354 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 1746; from that time they are kept with more or less regu- 
 larity. When Brunnholtz was called as the second pastor 
 there was no congregational constitution adopted, though a 
 certain order was established and maintained by custom. In 
 an address delivered on the first Sunday after Epiphany, 
 1757, from the pulpit, Brunnholtz, referring to the years 
 174348, during which St. Michael's was built, says: "On 
 the twelfth Sunday after Trinity I formally, from the pulpit, 
 appointed about twelve men as elders. Assisted by these, 
 I selected four deacons, who should serve alternately two 
 years, as had been our custom up to this time. The elders, 
 together with the deacons, were, when assembled, called 
 a church council, because in their meetings they were to 
 counsel together and to adopt resolutions. We find that in 
 1746 these four men were placed before the congregation, and, 
 no objection being raised against them, they were publicly 
 reminded of their official duties, and, giving their hands, sol- 
 emnly promised faithfully to serve." It is stated that these 
 four men served " until New Year, 1748, or the end of 1747." 
 When, in 1757, Brunnholtz presented to the congregation two 
 men selected by him and the elders out of four who had been 
 nominated, he. reminded them of their duty to live in a Chris- 
 tian way and to give a good example to others ; to further the 
 interests of the congregation in all internal and external matters; 
 to live with their two brethren in the office in peace and har- 
 mony ; to keep strict account of the moneys entrusted to their 
 care, and to lock them up in the box the key of which was in 
 the hands of one of the elders ; never to open the box but in 
 the presence of a fellow-deacon ; never to loan even a penny 
 of the money of the congregation to any one, " not for eight 
 days ;" to demand for all bills paid receipts in writing, and to 
 preserve them, and carefully to have a strict eye upon all dis- 
 order that might happen during public services ; " better than 
 was the case formerly " to provide for the minister's salary ; 
 kindly, modestly, and patiently to deal with the members of 
 the congregation ; and to be satisfied with their reward viz. 
 " that orderly members will honor and love you, disorderly 
 
HENR Y MEL CHIOR MUHLENBER G. 355 
 
 and censorious persons will calumniate and scold you." To 
 all this the two selected, J. Kuhn and Chr. R. Uhl, assented, 
 and were installed in their offices for the two years 1757 
 and 1758. The elders, as it appears, were elected for life a 
 circumstance which occasioned later considerable difficulty. 
 June 5, 1757, Brunnholtz died. It may serve as a proof that 
 a regular order of business was not strictly maintained in 
 those times, to state that often members of the congregation, 
 not in office were called to the vestry-meetings to give their 
 advice. This was probably done in remembrance of the word 
 that there is wisdom in the multitude of counsellors. We add 
 that during the erection of St. Michael's Church in 1743 four 
 members of the congregation gave security for the payment 
 of the debts incurred. When the building was erected and 
 dedicated the deed of the lot and the church was handed 
 (Nov. 8, 1748) to eight trustees, among whom were Miihlen- 
 berg and Brunnholtz. 
 
 We remember that J. F. Handschuh, when driven out of 
 the Lutheran congregation at Germantown in 1753, served 
 there a small flock of such members as were averse to the 
 spirit then ruling in that congregation. He could not, how- 
 ever, find the necessary means of subsistence, and was glad 
 when Miihlenberg's influence with the trustees of the charity 
 schools and academy procured him at Philadelphia (to which 
 place he moved Aug. 15, 1755) the situation of teacher of 
 French in the academy, proof-reader in the printing-office of 
 the Charity-school Society, and translator of English articles 
 into German for the same. Pastor Heintzelmann beginning to 
 suffer in health, and Brunnholtz being often in a weak condi- 
 tion, Handschuh assisted in their pastoral work. When Heint- 
 zelmann died (Feb. 9, 1756), and Brunnholtz (June 5, 1757), 
 the pastoral work of -the congregation devolved wholly upon 
 him. Nov. 21, 1757, the assembled vestry sixteen members 
 of the congregation elected him pastor. In March, 1758, 
 he resigned his other engagements. 
 
356 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1760-1761 (continued}. 
 
 Difficulties within the Philadelphia congregation. Need of reorganization. Dis- 
 cordant parties. Mtihlenberg's presence in the congregation demanded. 
 He visits Philadelphia as a mediator. Salaries of pastors and teachers. 
 Electing church-officers. Need of a congregational constitution. Adoption 
 of the new constitution. Wrangel's friendly co-operation. Mtihlenberg's 
 eminent merits in the pacification and organization of the congregation. 
 Presiding officer of synod. 
 
 THERE is no doubt that Handschuh undertook his work 
 as pastor of the Philadelphia congregation with an ener- 
 getic will. In various directions there was ample room for 
 improvement. In connection with the numerical increase of 
 the membership doubtful elements also entered and discipline 
 was lacking. To make his own position clear, in the vestry- 
 meeting Dec. 12, 1757, he declared orally and in writing that 
 without the knowledge of the vestry he would under no cir- 
 cumstances permit any one, whosoever he might be, except 
 Miihlenberg, J. Nic. Kurtz, or Schaum, to preach in his pul- 
 pit. Nov. 21, 1757, two overseers of the poor of the congre- 
 gation were appointed. It was also resolved (Dec. I2th) that 
 a regular meeting of the vestry should be held every second 
 month ; also that on Epiphany the yearly account should be 
 read to the congregation and the two deacons elected for the 
 following term ; also that the Lord's Supper should be sol- 
 emnized every second month and on all important church 
 festivals. On Dec. 18, 1758, it was resolved by the vestry 
 that on New Year's Day the whole congregation should be 
 specially admonished to begin a new and a higher spiritual 
 life, and that it should be announced that hereafter no one 
 given to gambling or drunkenness or impurity or strife or 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 357 
 
 cursing or dancing or dishonesty should be admitted to the 
 Lord's Supper, and that every one found guilty of such sins 
 would have to appear before the vestry to be disciplined. We 
 find that cases of such a character from time to time claimed 
 official attention. 
 
 But, while Handschuh exhibited much devotion to his pas- 
 toral office and good and energetic will, he proved, on the 
 whole, no success, and entangled himself more and more in 
 never-ending difficulties. 
 
 There is sufficient evidence that immediately after the death 
 of Brunnholtz a number of members of the congregation 
 desired Muhlenberg's return to the city to take his place as 
 first in rank, with Handschuh as the second pastor. Hand- 
 schuh, however, had ingratiated himself with the elders, and 
 Muhlenberg, who openly declared his disinclination to renew 
 his pastoral activity at Philadelphia, was called upon during 
 the meeting of the elders to write the call to Handschuh, 
 whom they had elected. When Muhlenberg stated in this 
 call that the congregation promised to provide the necessary 
 support for the pastor, an elder at that time the leading man 
 excitedly censured him for doing this, and was not quieted 
 by the remark that this was conformable to Christ's doctrine 
 and customary in all properly-constituted churches, and that 
 the pastor should not be necessitated to go begging for his 
 support among the members of the congregation. To the 
 question whether they considered Muhlenberg as still retain- 
 ing an official relation to the congregation, as having the 
 position of first or second pastor and the right of voting in 
 the vestry, the same elder answered that they needed neither 
 a first nor a second, but only one, pastor; whereupon Muhl- 
 enberg cut out of the minute-book his call and threw the 
 sheet into the fire also, as it seems, the call intended for 
 Handschuh and told the vestry that they might now write a 
 call for the pastor elect as it suited them. When Handschuh, 
 now called in, accepted of his election, Muhlenberg asked him 
 whether in his formal call he wanted no reference to a stipu- 
 lated salary, and received the answer, " What do you think ? 
 
358 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 To have a thought of support is carnal, worldly, irreligious. 
 I am no hireling serving, for my stomach's sake, for filthy 
 lucre. God preserve me against anything of the kind !" In 
 this strain he went on. At the entreaty of the elders Miihl- 
 enberg now in a few words wrote another call according to 
 their and Handschuh's idea, and to his own signature simply 
 and meekly added " oldest trustee." On the following day he 
 left the city, and paid no visit there for three years. Hand- 
 schuh broke off correspondence with him, and to a letter of 
 Miihlenberg addressed to him in kind words, in consequence 
 of letters from Halle counselling peace and harmony, answered 
 in a pathetic, affected manner. We omit other particulars, all 
 clearly indicating how little Handschuh was mindful of the 
 numerous acts of kindness and of the material assistance he 
 had received from Miihlenberg when he was obliged to leave 
 Lancaster, when he was embarrassed by the situation at Ger- 
 mantown, and when a living was procured for him in Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 We have every reason to suppose that Muhlenberg was 
 from the beginning convinced that the course pursued by 
 Handschuh as pastor of the Philadelphia congregation could 
 not lead to happy results. He well enough knew that an 
 extravagant subjectiveness and a morbid enthusiasm will soon 
 exhaust themselves. What a pastor needs in addition to all 
 other requirements is a good portion of strong common sense: 
 this was wanting in Handschuh. He tried to make himself 
 agreeable to the elders of his vestry, who were the ruling 
 power, but in doing this he had to defend all their actions, 
 made himself responsible for their frequent arbitrary rulings, 
 and alienated the more intelligent members of the congrega- 
 tion from himself. His efforts to stigmatize as rebels those who 
 demanded some changes in the management of the affairs of 
 the congregation were without effect. That some changes were 
 very desirable cannot be denied. The elders held the offices 
 for life or until they voluntarily resigned. Vacancies were 
 filled by their fellow-elders, who would, of course, elect such 
 as agreed with them. Suspicions arose that in taking care 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 359 
 
 of the congregation they took care of themselves and their 
 friends. When, in 1759, in consequence of the increase 
 of the membership through a fresh and powerful tide of im- 
 migration, the galleries of St. Michael's Church had to be 
 enlarged, an addition to the existing cemetery to be bought, 
 and in the following year, in Fourth street north of Cherry 
 street, a parsonage and ground for the erection of a new 
 school-house were needed, and the interest-paying debt of 
 the congregation amounted to about two thousand four hun- 
 dred pounds, the congregation in all these weighty matters 
 had no voice, and could only once in a year, on Epiphany 
 Day, listen to the reading of the yearly account, while ques- 
 tions raised by members often received unsatisfactory answers. 
 No doubt, Handschuh endeavored faithfully to perform his 
 duties, but, while his zeal gained him the good opinion of 
 many, he was more and more considered, by a portion of the 
 membership increasing in influence, the champion of the vestry 
 and as a strict party-man, whereby his position and his use- 
 fulness were endangered. Unfortunately, he referred to the 
 existing difficulties in a perfectly one-sided manner in the 
 pulpit, treated those who differed from him with coldness 
 and distrust, and seems to have been convinced that any 
 change in the constitution and the administration of the con- 
 gregation would unavoidably lead to ruin. His behavior 
 toward Wrangel, who could not in all things agree with him, 
 was offensive, and Miihlenberg, who approached him in the 
 most careful manner, he considered an enemy. 
 
 We can easily understand that Miihlenberg whose interest 
 in the congregation had never ceased since he had served in 
 it, had, as presses of synod, a special duty toward it and tho- 
 roughly knew its history and its constituent elements con- 
 tinued during his protracted absence from Philadelphia to be 
 well informed about all the proceedings and conflicts taking 
 place there. What he once states of all the German Lutheran 
 congregations in their beginning in this country is eminently 
 true. He says : " Before the second generation grew up the 
 congregations consisted of all imaginable varieties of Germans, 
 
360 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 from Hesse-Darmstadt, Hamburg, Dantzig, Mecklenburg, 
 Holstein, Denmark, Hanover, Wiirtemberg, Zweibriicken, 
 Durlach, Baireuth, Saxony, Brandenburg, Frankfort, Palati- 
 nate, Alsace, Frankia, Westphalia, etc. etc. And since every 
 province, town, and village in the German empire has some- 
 thing of its own and special variations and turns in the church- 
 melodies, and as some sing slowly, while others rapidly, each 
 one thought that his manner and custom was the most proper, 
 and made most strenuous efforts to carry through his melody 
 and to teach the others to keep time." Now, this description 
 suits also for conditions not directly connected with public 
 worship. Miihlenberg was fully convinced that the Philadel- 
 phia congregation needed a new constitution and a different 
 administration, but he was very careful not to take a party 
 position ; and even at the time when he was in his conscience 
 necessitated no longer to be silent, but to open his mind, he 
 as much as possible avoided all friction with the represent- 
 atives of views differing from his own. Among those who 
 were laboring for a change were large numbers of Wurtem- 
 bergers : when it was found out that Miihlenberg defended 
 some of the positions taken by them, he was called the 
 "Schwaben Pfarrer." 
 
 When, in consequence of stubbornness on the one hand 
 and excitement on the other, things had taken such an aspect 
 that the very existence of the congregation seemed to be 
 endangered, Miihlenberg finally yielded to letters and peti- 
 tions pouring in upon him and offered his services as a me- 
 diator. He was fully aware that the number of those who 
 after Brunnholtz's death wanted him to be recalled to Phil- 
 adelphia had since that time greatly increased. He had to 
 avoid every appearance of a desire to remove Handschuh, but, 
 while personally he much preferred the country, he felt that 
 his presence in Philadelphia might prevent much evil, and 
 that there was work enough in that steadily-growing congre- 
 gation for two pastors. This was sufficiently evidenced by 
 the fact that during the year 1762 no less than three hundred 
 and four individuals were baptized and one hundred and forty- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 361 
 
 eight buried. When the new constitution was adopted, in the 
 same year, no less than seven hundred members signed it. 
 
 With the consent of the vestry, Miihlenberg paid his first 
 visit to Philadelphia, after long-continued absence, March 12- 
 16, 1716. On Sunday, March I5th, he preached in the morn- 
 ing on the " Causes of Christ's tears over Jerusalem ;" in the 
 afternoon, when the auditory was still more numerous, on a 
 part of Josh. xxii. : " The strife and misunderstanding between 
 the tribes of Israel ; how they originated, how they were ad- 
 justed; how this was to be applied to this congregation." 
 After the latter sermon Handschuh was in such a state of 
 feeling that he embraced and kissed Provost Wrangel, who also 
 was present. Unfortunately, the thermometer of Handschuh's 
 feelings frequently fluctuated between hot and cold. In a sub- 
 sequent conversation with members of the vestry Miihlenberg 
 admonished them to forgive those who were fault-finding, to 
 meet them with kindness, and to gain their good-will by follow- 
 ing the example of our Lord. They said that if he would pay 
 them more such visits peace would follow. The main result 
 of that first visit and that first sermon in St. Michael's for 
 some time was that the cry, " Miihlenberg must return to 
 Philadelphia," became stronger. At a second visit (Apr. 17* 
 1761) Handschuh was found in a bad humor, and Miihlenberg 
 felt inclined to return to Providence the following day, but 
 was persuaded by two elders to preach again on Sunday, Apr. 
 iQth. On this occasion he avoided, as before, every word 
 which would allow a partisan interpretation. At a third visit 
 to Philadelphia, after the meeting of synod at Lancaster, 
 Miihlenberg, having preached twice Sunday, May 24th, per- 
 suaded the elders to give a hearing on the following day, at 
 two o'clock P. M M to those who were dissatisfied and complain- 
 ing. When he informed the complaining members of the fact 
 he enjoined them to prepare themselves by prayer and to 
 come with a Christian, conciliatory mind. On the following 
 morning Handschuh exhibited much uneasiness. Miihlenberg, 
 passing the parsonage of the Episcopal church, was called in, 
 and found a numerous assembly of Anglican missionaries 
 
362 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 holding their yearly meeting. They took him to the church, 
 showed their respect for him in various ways, and were glad 
 to have him passive with themselves. Miihlenberg writes : 
 " This did no harm to me, but occasioned a report that the 
 poor prases ministerii had subscribed to the Articles of the 
 Anglican Church, though there was not a shadow of truth in 
 it." In the afternoon the Lutheran vestry met in the parson- 
 age with about eight of the complainants, one of which, apo- 
 thecary Schneider of Wurtemberg, read the points of dissatis- 
 faction. Both parties decently refrained from showing temper. 
 Handschuh had been advised by Miihlenberg rather to hear 
 than to speak. After some discussion Miihlenberg requested 
 the complainants to hand him their gravamina in writing, to 
 which, in behalf of the vestry, he would give an answer. The 
 two main points contained in the document of .the complain- 
 ants were that Miihlenberg should be recalled to Philadelphia 
 as pastor, and that a proper congregational constitution should 
 be formed. Some of the features of this new constitution 
 were indicated. Handschuh unwisely referred to these pro- 
 ceedings in his sermons, and in a letter of June 3d addressed 
 to Miihlenberg spoke of these proposed new rules and regu- 
 lations as most surely leading to destruction, and of the exist- 
 ing condition of things as unchangeable. In this he gave the 
 opinion of his friends in the vestry. Miihlenberg, who knew 
 that the party demanding a change was constantly increasing, 
 was not willing to present to the congregation the judgment 
 given by Handschuh and his friends. The main point on 
 which the progressive party insisted was that hereafter the 
 elders should not serve during life, and that they should no 
 longer have the right to fill vacancies in their number. Miihl- 
 enberg, while admitting that in bygone years much could 
 have been said in defence of the system then prevailing, clearly 
 saw that in the course of time abuses had crept in ; that, while 
 the growth of the congregation had increased, the financial 
 responsibility, the power, had remained too largely in the 
 hands of the elders, who did not feel sufficient accountability 
 to the congregation ; and that the pastors, being totally de- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 363 
 
 pendent on the good-will of the vestry, were in danger of 
 flattering the ruling few, and of defending all their actions 
 even against the claims of justice. 
 
 This was exactly the situation in which Handschuh found 
 himself. Muhlenberg could see no wrong in the demands of 
 those in favor of progress in the congregation. With them, 
 he was convinced that the regularly-contributing members 
 should have the right, every two, three, or four years, to elect, 
 by a majority of votes, a certain number of elders, and also, 
 in consideration of their good services, to re-elect them ; that 
 pastors and parochial teachers should have sufficient fixed 
 salaries, so as not to be forced to flatter and to beg this or 
 that elder to advance sums in an irregular manner out of the 
 contribution-box; and that no important transaction such as 
 buying or selling ground or houses, taking down or erecting 
 buildings, incurring debt, appointing trustees, elders, pastors, 
 or teachers should take place without the knowledge and 
 consent of the congregation. It was added that, as the first 
 legitimate pastor, Muhlenberg should be recalled to Philadel- 
 phia, and that Handschuh should maintain the position as 
 second in rank. Seeing that Handschuh and his elders and 
 friends treated these demands simply as a monstrosity which 
 they for conscience' sake would reject, Muhlenberg was wise 
 enough not to communicate these symptoms of incurable 
 stubbornness to the other party, and refrained from revisiting 
 Philadelphia during June. He sent, however, a letter, care- 
 fully couched, to the vestrymen, who, noticing considerable 
 agitation among the membership of the church, were not will- 
 ing to lay his response before the congregation, but found it 
 advisable specially to invite him to be present at the dedication 
 of the new parochial school-house, which, erected in Cherry 
 street east of Fourth, served for this end for more than one 
 hundred and ten years ; it is now used for commercial purposes. 
 It had come to this that Handschuh was requested by the 
 elders to deal with Muhlenberg in a brotherly manner. When 
 Miihlenberg (July 25th) arrived in Philadelphia, Handschuh 
 received him kindly. Sunday, the 26th, Muhlenberg preached 
 
364 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in the morning in St. Michael's ; in the afternoon, in the place 
 of Wrangel, to the congregation on the west side of the 
 Schuylkill, in English ; and stayed over night with Wrangel 
 at Wicaco, and with him came next morning to Handschuh's 
 house, from which the vestry accompanied the pastors to the 
 church, which was filled with young and old. Miihlenberg 
 preached on 2 Kings ii. 19-22. After services the school- 
 house was solemnly dedicated, the children were examined 
 by the teacher, and a collection amounting to twelve pounds 
 three shillings was made. In the afternoon the vestry had a 
 long discussion on the question whether Miihlenberg should 
 be recalled to Philadelphia unitedly to labor with Handschuh. 
 Toward evening Miihlenberg, Handschuh, and Wrangel were 
 called into fche vestry-room, and the speaker informed Miihl- 
 enberg that they had nothing to say against his returning to 
 his former service in Philadelphia. Wrangel interposed the 
 question whether they had nothing to say in favor of it. To 
 this an evasive answer was given, Handschuh lowering himslf 
 to such a depth that he said to Miihlenberg, with loud voice, 
 before all, " You will not grow rich the first year in Philadel- 
 phia ;" but was answered by an expressive silence. On the 
 following day Miihlenberg undertook, with Wrangel, the tour 
 before alluded to, during which they visited Tinicum Island. 
 On Friday, July 2ist, Miihlenberg paid to publisher H. Miil- 
 ler four pounds for some dozen copies of the English edition 
 of Luther's Small Catechism, which Wrangel had undertaken. 
 Two of the leading men of the progressive portion of the 
 congregation insisted that on the following Sunday Miihlen- 
 berg should announce to the congregation that in the coming 
 week a meeting would be held with a view to settling the 
 existing difficulties. On Saturday, Aug. 1st, Miihlenberg, in 
 a letter addressed to the vestry, referred to the fact that for 
 sundry reasons they had agreed to his return in an official 
 capacity to Philadelphia, and stated that he was willing to 
 come on condition that he could here enjoy brotherly love, 
 and that his other congregations would agree to it ; also, that 
 to forestall objections the members of the congregation would 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 365 
 
 be asked, in the presence of the vestry, whether or not they 
 consented to this arrangement. He also stated what he in- 
 tended to lay before the meeting of the congregation, and 
 asked whether, in case the question of the election of elders 
 should be raised, he should announce that such questions 
 should be laid before the next meeting of synod, to be held 
 here in Philadelphia, and that a carefully-prepared Christian 
 congregational constitution, corresponding with the political 
 liberties of this country, should be introduced in all our united 
 congregations. 
 
 We see on what a broad basis Muhlenberg considered this 
 whole question of a congregational constitution, and how 
 strongly he was convinced that all his congregations needed 
 proper organization and should also herein stand on one 
 common ground. We also observe how carefully he pro- 
 ceeded, so as not to hasten a matter of such importance. 
 He wished to receive an answer to his letter before he con- 
 sented to preach on Sunday afternoon in St. Michael's. From 
 Saturday to Sunday he stayed with Wrangel, preached at 
 Wicaco in English, celebrated the Lord's Supper, and in the 
 afternoon met Handschuh, who, greatly excited, used harsh 
 words, as did also some elders, who thought a meeting of the 
 congregation in the church would only lead to rebellion and 
 strife. Finally, they agreed to this that after preaching he 
 should announce that with their consent he might re-enter his 
 pastoral office in Philadelphia, and that whosoever had objec- 
 tions against this or entertained doubts as to the financial ac- 
 counts of the congregation should appear on Tuesday, Aug. 
 4th, from eight to twelve A. M., in the school-house. This 
 being announced after services, Muhlenberg returned Sunday 
 evening to Wrangel. On Monday he was appointed an advis- 
 ing member by the Wicaco vestry, and was requested to give 
 answer in writing to the question whether, in connection with 
 the Swedish language, the Lutheran doctrine could advan- 
 tageously be propagated in the English language. At a later 
 time he gave an elaborate affirmative answer. In the after- 
 noon, Wrangel being absent on official business, he read Dr. 
 
366 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Michaelis's paraphrase of the shorter Epistles of St. Paul, and 
 was reminded of his meeting with that scholar nineteen years 
 before at Ziegenhagen's in London, and also of having four 
 years before, at Halle, received instruction from him concern- 
 ing the accents in Hebrew. In later years also the works of 
 Michaelis offered to him a peculiar interest. 
 
 Accompanied by Wrangel, Miihlenberg on Tuesday morn- 
 ing repaired to the school-house, which was well rilled by the 
 pastors, vestry, and membership. After prayer he announced 
 that he was willing again to undertake his office in Philadel- 
 phia, provided they would lay aside all strife and quarrelling. 
 Thereupon words and sentiments were exchanged, and the 
 sharpness of personal feelings seemed to grow " beautifully 
 less." To Miihlenberg's question whether any one here pres- 
 ent objected to his returning to pastoral, work in the city, all 
 present, with loud voice and offering their hands, joyfully 
 wished God's blessing. The speakers of the progressive 
 party took occasion specially to urge that improved con- 
 gregational rules of order and discipline should be intro- 
 duced. Wrangel and Miihlenberg impressively entreated 
 Handschuh to make peace with those whom he considered 
 as doing him wrong. He solemnly affirmed his innocence 
 and complained of the persecution he and his beloved elders 
 had suffered, but was willing to forgive, provided the oppo- 
 nents would behave better. This led to various pleasant 
 handshakings, and the meeting broke up. To show their 
 good-will, some of the opponents accompanied Handschuh 
 to his house. Miihlenberg, with Wrangel, paid visits to a 
 number of families, and inspected the house which druggist 
 Schneider intended to buy for Miihlenberg. It was situated 
 in Vine street, and was somewhat removed from the then set- 
 tled and built-up part of the city. Muhlenberg sold his house 
 at Providence, with a portion of his land, to Surgeon Maertens, 
 who, however, afterward could not complete the bargain. On 
 Wednesday, Muhlenberg and Wrangel received at Wicaco 
 a visit from Handschuh. The following day Miihlenberg, 
 after having taken dinner at Handschuh's, returned to Prov- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 367 
 
 idence and entered upon the difficult task of making arrange- 
 ments with his country charges concerning his moving to 
 Philadelphia. We add that some of the adherents of Hand- 
 schuh intimated to divers of the members of the congrega- 
 tions at Providence and New Hanover that Miihlenberg's ser- 
 vices were not wanted at Philadelphia. 
 
 Sunday, Sept. 2/th, Miihlenberg, again visiting the city, 
 held services in St. Michael's in the morning and in the after- 
 noon, and on the following day held a conference with Wran- 
 gel and Kurtz concerning their tour of visitation in New Jer- 
 sey and New York. Amid considerable commotion in the 
 congregations he delivered his farewell sermons Oct. 1 8th, in 
 German and English, at Providence, Oct. 25th at New Han- 
 over. Oct. 29th he arrived with Mrs. Miihlenberg and the 
 youngest child at Philadelphia. About six miles distant from 
 the city five " respectable citizens " met them, and conducted 
 them to the house which Muhlenberg had bought with the 
 view not to lay more burden upon the vestry. That youngest 
 child was Samuel; another son, John Charles, born Nov. 18, 
 1760, had died seven days after his birth. In Philadelphia 
 three more children were born Catharine Salome, Apr. 18, 
 1764; Mary Salome, July 13, 1766; Emanuel Samuel, July 
 n, 1769. Of these three, the first and the last died in early 
 infancy. Samuel also was taken from his parents, Feb. 16, 
 1764, at the age of six years. 
 
 Muhlenberg read to the congregation (Sunday, Nov. 1st), 
 after preaching, a document wherein he affectionately alluded 
 to former times and experiences, to the laborious and faithful 
 services of the elders some of whom were still living dur- 
 ing the erection of St. Michael's Church, to the causes which 
 had moved him again to begin his work in this congregation, 
 and offered his services to all who might desire them. Of 
 course, no one knowing human nature could ever expect that 
 the strife for years existing between the parties, the frictions 
 among individuals who misunderstood, misrepresented, and 
 mistrusted one another, and the settled differences of opinion 
 on grave points, would at once come to an end. Unfortunately, 
 
368 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the press had been used to make the difficulties of the congre- 
 gation still more public a thing against which Miihlenberg 
 protested in the strongest terms. There is no doubt that his 
 presence and personal influence often prevented the outbreak 
 of passion, and that by his unselfish and unbiassed deport- 
 ment he commanded universal respect. It came to pass that on 
 Epiphany (Jan. 6, 1762), when the yearly financial report was 
 read to the congregation, and also H. Keppele, treasurer, had 
 read the account of the building of the school-house, Miihl- 
 enberg was able to quiet those members who found much 
 fault with the vestry for not having asked the consent of 
 the congregation to such an undertaking. He convinced 
 them that the building of the school-house and of the 
 parsonage in which Handschuh then Miihlenberg after- 
 ward resided had been unavoidable, and that the school 
 should never*be separated from the church ; to all of which 
 all finally gave their assent. Subsequently, in a vestry-meet- 
 ing held Jan. I2th, to which Wrangel and some other impar- 
 tial friends were specially invited, Miihlenberg, after referring 
 to the necessity of maintaining peace and harmony of action, 
 proposed that a congregational order or constitution agreeing 
 with the laws of the province should be framed for the united 
 Evangelical congregations not, however, without due consid- 
 eration, repeated deliberation and revision, and full examina- 
 tion in all its parts and that it be published. He also stated 
 that some of the elders had for some years been moving in 
 this direction at the meetings of synod. To all this the im- 
 partial friends and some of the elders of the congregation 
 added their explanations, and finally it was unanimously re- 
 solved to introduce a new congregational order or constitu- 
 tion. This being finished, various disagreements and personal 
 offences were discussed in proper spirit, hands were again 
 shaken as a pledge of reconciliation, tears also were not 
 wanting, and at last, after all was properly finished, every one 
 went his way rejoicing. Of the resolutions passed at that 
 vestry-meeting Miihlenberg gave notice on the subsequent 
 Sunday to an unusually large assembly in St. Michael's. 
 
HENRY ME LC HI OR MUHLENBERG. 369 
 
 That the burden of framing the congregational constitution 
 would be laid upon Miihlenberg was to be expected. We are 
 assured that he went to work with a prayerful mind, that he 
 examined constitutions in use in various churches, and that 
 he discussed point after point with Wrangel, Handschuh, and 
 other friends. The sketch of a constitution drawn up by 
 Brunnholtz and himself in 1753 (the year of the revolution 
 in the Germantown congregation) he laid (April I4th) before 
 the vestry, and they promised to take it into consideration. 
 It seems that Miihlenberg, moved by good reasons, did not 
 bring up this subject before the synodical meeting held June 
 27-29, 1762, at Philadelphia. Finally (Oct. I7th), he informed 
 the congregation that with the co-operation of Provost Wran- 
 gel, the two pastors, and the whole vestry the long-desired 
 and needed congregational constitution was now prepared, 
 and that it was of such a character " that it might without 
 any fears be laid before God, all Christendom, and all the 
 congregations in this country, since it had in view the honor 
 of God, the best interests of the congregation, and the pro- 
 motion of peace, order, and harmony in the same, and since 
 it was calculated to extend among us the comforting gospel 
 and the holy sacraments, and to make them the possession 
 of our children, provided that we give room within us to 
 God's grace and the influence of his Spirit and do not trifle 
 with our soul's salvation." He added that, in agreement with 
 the promise already made to have this new constitution, as 
 was right, properly and distinctly read to the congregation, 
 the pastors, elders, and deacons request all those members of 
 St. Michael's who already had been admitted to the Lord's 
 Supper to appear to-morrow morning at ten o'clock in the 
 church to hear first a short admonition and then the reading 
 of the constitution. He also warned them that the house of 
 God was no place for strife or altercation, neither would God's 
 servants and children indulge in such. The great object was 
 to have and to preserve in the congregation peace, unity, con- 
 ciliation, order. He wanted every one who intended to come 
 first to offer his private prayer to God, and to bring to the 
 
 24 
 
37O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 house of God a sober, quiet, peaceful mind. He requested 
 all godly mothers, widows, and orphans to bring their suppli- 
 cations to the throne of mercy during the transaction, that 
 God, the heavenly Father, for Christ's sake, might crown the 
 day with his blessings, "to the end that in our country espe- 
 cially among us Germans as strangers the honor of God 
 may be promoted, piety and faith dwell, and righteousness 
 and peace embrace and kiss each other. Amen." 
 
 On the following day Wrangel accompanied Miihlenberg to- 
 the church, which was filled with men, among whom was a 
 sprinkling of women and children. After the first hymn 
 Wrangel read the twenty-fourth chapter of Joshua. When 
 giving out the second hymn, " Commit thou all thy griefs and 
 ways into His hand," Miihlenberg stated that at the laying of 
 the first stone of this church-building (1743) this same hymn 
 was sung. After singing, the provost made a very impressive 
 address on Phil. ii. 1-4. Finally, after prayers, Miihlenberg 
 dismissed the women and the children, and then with loud 
 and distinct voice read the constitution. Having finished, he 
 did not hesitate to say that, for one, he was now going to sign 
 his name, and in case of need for it sacrifice his last hour, just 
 as it might please God : any one who was of one mind with 
 him should now do the same. He then signed his name to 
 the document. Handschuh followed next, then the elders 
 and the deacons, and, pressing forward, more than two hun- 
 dred and seventy members subscribed their names. Many left 
 because the transaction occupied too much time ; they were 
 subsequently given occasion to sign. In the aggregate, the 
 names of about five hundred heads of families were in a short 
 time entered. 
 
 If in his whole life Miihlenberg had done nothing else of 
 a remarkable character, the framing and introduction of this 
 constitution in the Philadelphia congregation would suffice to 
 crown his head with lasting honor. He braved the storms of 
 passion previously raging in that congregation. With won- 
 derful skill he controlled the two parties arrayed against each 
 other. He fully acknowledged the rights of the Christian 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 371 
 
 congregation as such in the election of pastors, vestrymen, 
 and other officers and in the decision of all questions of im- 
 portance. But he was not inclined to make the vestry simply 
 a committee to do the bidding of any number of members 
 meeting ad libitum and arbitrarily decreeing one thing and 
 another. He clothed the board of officers, to whom the 
 pastors belonged ex officio, with proper rights, even retain- 
 ing during life or until resignation the twelve trustees and 
 * elders then in office ; and, above all, he guarded the confes- 
 sional and doctrinal position of the congregation in terms 
 as decisive and strong as such a popular document demands. 
 When, three years later, the congregation received its charter 
 from the provincial government, the vestry were made a cor- 
 poration legally to transact business in behalf of the congre- 
 gation, and therein exercising freedom within certain well- 
 defined limits. The constitution, ratified Oct. 18, 1762, was 
 in that document embodied under the title " Fundamental 
 Articles." Later, additional acts in no way changed these 
 fundamental articles. Under this charter and constitution 
 the congregation has now been living for one century and a 
 quarter. Taken all in all, a better one could not be given to 
 it. Miihlenberg could not foresee that a Supreme Court of 
 Pennsylvania would give to the words touching qualification 
 for membership, and among other points saying that those 
 who claim rights of membership must "take the Lord's 
 Supper with this congregation," the interpretation " whoso- 
 ever there once communed." In 1791 the "Fundamental Ar- 
 ticles " were in some minor points, such as the mode of the 
 election of a pastor, changed, but none of the essential fea- 
 tures of the document were thereby affected. It was adopted 
 by many congregations in Pennsylvania or was the model 
 after which they framed their constitutions. In Halle the new 
 constitution was added in its original form to the tenth con- 
 tinuation of the Halle Reports. 
 
 When synod met in Philadelphia (June 27-29, 1762), Miihl- 
 enberg's request not to be re-elected praeses was not granted : he 
 was told that he was wanted in that responsible and honor- 
 
372 - LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 able position until the congregations were brought to order. 
 When, in spite of his decided remonstrance at the synodical 
 meeting of the following year (Oct. iQth), he was again elected 
 "praeses" and the brethren congratulating him offered their 
 hands, he refused to take them. Certainly, he had in those 
 times work enough on hand in taking care of the field of labor 
 in Philadelphia and of his country congregations, among which 
 he made it a rule to appear at least once in six weeks, and for 
 the rest had undertaken to provide for them as best he could.- 
 But synod had no man who could command the respect which 
 he enjoyed among all the congregations, and who could exer- 
 cise an equally strong and happy influence. At the meeting 
 of synod in 1762 two Swedish pastors A. Borell of Wilming- 
 ton and J. Wicksell from Raccoon, N. J. were present besides 
 Wrangel, and all three actively participated in the German 
 public services. J. Sam. Schwerdfeger, whom we mentioned 
 on a former occasion, was at that meeting of synod received 
 into the ministerium. He underwent an examination and laid 
 satisfactory testimonials before synod. It appears that he was 
 ordained, not in Europe, but by some " orthodox " pastors in 
 this country ; which ordination synod acknowledged. These 
 pastors seemed to have been stationed in the neighborhood 
 of York, but were not members of synod. The ordination 
 may have taken place soon after Schwerdfeger's arrival in 
 this country. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 373 
 
 CHAPTER XXTII. 
 
 1762 et seq. 
 
 New York and Germantown claim the attention of synod. J. N. Kurtz for a time 
 at Germantown. Rev. J. A. Krug and Rev. J. L. Voigt arrive. Voigt elected 
 pastor at Germantown. The congregation reunited with synod. Succeeding 
 pastors. Arrival of Rev. J. Fr. Schmidt and Rev. J. H. Chr. Helmuth. Origin 
 of St. Peter's Church at Barren Hill. Difficulties in its progress. Muhlen- 
 berg's embarrassment and release. The Solms-Roedelsheim legacy. Mtihl- 
 enberg's plan to establish an orphan-house and a seminary for the education 
 of pastors. His care of all the congregations connected with synod. Re- 
 peated visits at Reading," Tulpehoken, Cohansey, the Raritan, and other con- 
 gregations. J. G. Jung. Christian Streit. Baron Stiegel. Rev. J. G. Eager. 
 Rev. Chas. F. Wildbahn. Extent of synod. J. C. Stoever in membership 
 with synod. 
 
 AMONG the subjects engaging the attention of the synod- 
 ical meeting in 1762 was the condition of the German 
 Lutheran congregations at New York and at Germantown. 
 Rev. J. S. Gerock was prevailed upon to pay a visit to New 
 York which subsequently led to his being called there, as 
 we formerly learned. The Germantown congregation, as we 
 know, was from 1753 divided into two parts. The smaller 
 one, remaining faithful to Handschuh and the synod during 
 the congregational revolution going on there, had been 
 attended to, after Handschuh's removal to Philadelphia, as 
 well as the Philadelphia and other pastors could do it. In the 
 other congregation, which was under the care or the care- 
 lessness first of Andreae, afterward of Rapp, and which had 
 possession of the church and the parsonage, in the course of 
 years a reaction began to take place. It seems that some of 
 the members of Rapp's party joined the other and better side. 
 At the synod of 1762 more than one hundred Lutheran fam- 
 ilies of Germantown and the neighborhood petitioned for a 
 
374 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 pastor and regular services. Synod, fully understanding the 
 importance of the situation, resolved to send J. N. Kurtz there 
 as the proper man at that time to take charge of the Lu- 
 theran interests at Germantown. Miihlenberg himself laid 
 (June 26th) the case before the Tulpehoken congregation, who 
 were opposed to Kurtz leaving them, and succeeded in receiv- 
 ing their assent to the temporary absence of their beloved pas- 
 tor ; they also resolved to leave the parsonage unoccupied 
 during the interval. After some time, however, J. N. Kurtz's 
 younger brother, William, whom we met before, moved into 
 it, and served the congregation during his brother's absence. 
 He had from 1745 to 1750 been educated in the Halle Or- 
 phan-House, and had then until 1754 attended the Halle Uni- 
 versity lectures on various branches of theology. We know 
 that after his arrival in this country, in 1754, he was for a time 
 under Miihlenberg's tuition, in 1757 began pastoral labors at 
 Tohicon, was ordained at the synodical meeting at Lancaster 
 in 1761, and entered in 1763 upon his work as pastor at New 
 Holland and its vicinity. 
 
 Surely, J. N. Kurtz performed a good work at Germantown. 
 The genuine Lutheran elements there took courage. The 
 German Reformed congregation kindly granted to such Lu- 
 therans the free use of their house of worship whenever cir- 
 cumstances permitted. But it needed the strong arm of the 
 civil court to settle some of the questions at issue between the 
 two parties. It seems that some of those who for a number 
 of years had held to Rapp, but now forsook him in disgust, 
 claimed the right of burying in the cemetery belonging to the 
 church ; this right Rapp and his adherents disputed. , The con- 
 troversy became so exciting that the opponents of Rapp formed 
 the plan of forcibly ejecting him from the church and the pulpit 
 on a Sunday ; which plan did not at all meet with the assent' 
 of Miihlenberg. The questions laid before court embraced 
 the right not only to use the cemetery, but also the use of 
 the church. The decision given April 12, 1763, granted to 
 the petitioners the right to have possession of the key and to 
 be entitled to use the church mornings and afternoons alter- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 375 
 
 nately with the other party. Sunday, April 1 7th, in the after- 
 noon, Muhlenberg, though he had been informed that some 
 ill-willed people intended grossly to insult him, went to the 
 Germantown church and preached there. He preached again 
 on Sunday morning, April 24th, to a very large and attentive 
 assembly. The difficulties, however, were not totally removed 
 by the decision of the court. Each party wanted to have sole 
 and exclusive possession. March 27, 1765, Muhlenberg learned 
 that both sides had agreed to submit the matter to four arbi- 
 trators. The final decision came when, July 12, 1765, both 
 parties, in consequence of an agreement, held an election in 
 the presence of two justices of the peace. The candidates 
 nominated were Rapp and Rev. J. L. Voigt. The latter had 
 arrived, with Rev. J. A. Krug, from Halle, April I, 1764, and 
 in June of the same year had been appointed by Muhlenberg, 
 prasses of synod, to serve the Lutherans at Germantown and 
 at Barren Hill, a locality which we shall hereafter mention. 
 The result of the election which result surprised the whole 
 community was that Rapp did not receive one vote, while 
 one hundred and thirty-five heads of families elected Voigt. 
 This ended Rapp's scandalous career in Germantown. Now 
 the Lutherans deserving this name were again in legitimate 
 possession of the church. J. Nich. Kurtz had returned to 
 Tulpehoken. Voigt at once began his labors in the Ger- 
 mantown congregation, but continued only until Dec. 8th of 
 the same year, when he moved to New Hanover, and served 
 also Zion Church, west of the Schuylkill, formerly under 
 the care of Jacob van Buskirk, who in December, 1765, took 
 Voigt's place at Germantown. Already in May, 1763, J. N. 
 Kurtz, then stationed at Germantown and Barren Hill, report- 
 ed to Muhlenberg, on his return from a visit to his country 
 congregations, that by his agency, assisted by Provost Wran- 
 gel, the conservative, faithful part of the Germantown congre- 
 gation had been moved to adopt and subscribe to the constitu- 
 tion' adopted in St. Michael's. The successor of Van Buskirk 
 from 1769 to 1786 was Rev. John Fr. Schmidt (born 1746), 
 who with his devoted friend, Rev. Justus H. Chr. Helmuth 
 
376 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 (born 1745), had arrived in this country from Halle April 2, 
 1769. Under him as a pastor the congregation increased, 
 though the times were warlike and Germantown (Oct. 7, 
 1777) became the field of battle. During this stormy period 
 Schmidt had to leave Germantown. Miihlenberg says in 
 his diary (Jan. 21, 1778) : " We had a welcome visit from our 
 brother, Rev. Schmidt, formerly pastor at Germantown, but 
 for some time without any engagement and a fugitive, his 
 congregation being scattered and deprived of their means of 
 subsistence. Schmidt sojourns with his family at the present 
 time at Upper Milford, in the house of a Jew converted to 
 Christianity and baptized. He narrates to us various dread- 
 ful and distressing events." It was the time during the war 
 when the English had temporarily made themselves masters 
 of Philadelphia. Schmidt, having returned to Germantown 
 after their retreat, greatly encouraged his people and took 
 care of a number of outposts. When, in 1784, Dr. Kunze 
 was called to New York, Dr. Schmidt was elected Dr. Hel- 
 muth's colaborer in the Philadelphia congregation, and with 
 him fraternally continued to do the work of the common 
 Master until May 16, 1812, when he was called to his rest. 
 Helmuth was considered the more powerful and popular 
 preacher; Schmidt was a man of profound scholarship in the- 
 ology, literature, and languages; both received the title of 
 D. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Helmuth resigned 
 his office which he had held forty years in 1820, and died 
 in 1825. Schmidt's successor at Germantown was Rev. J. 
 F. Weinland, born at Roemhild in Prussian Saxony. After 
 studying theology at Halle (1769-72) and serving as private 
 tutor and assistant preacher he was sent in 1783 to Pennsyl- 
 vania by the directors of the Halle institution, the last mis- 
 sionary sent from that place. He left Germantown in 1789, 
 served (1789-9 5) at New Hanover, and became involved in dif- 
 ficulties, and after that his name disappears from the ministe- 
 rial list. His successor at Germantown for a period of twenty- 
 two years was Rev. Fred. Dav. Schaeffer, after the death of 
 Schmidt called to the Philadelphia congregation. During his 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 377 
 
 official term at Germantown the English language occasion- 
 ally came into use in the public services of the congregation. 
 The disturbance of the Germantown congregation during 
 1753 led to the formation of a new Lutheran congrega- 
 tion near Whitemarsh, about twelve miles north of Philadel- 
 phia, where, on a sandy hill called Barren Hill, a church, St. 
 Peter's, was erected, which gave unexpected anxiety and dis- 
 tress to Miihlenberg and some of his friends. In that neigh- 
 borhood Germans had been settled for a number of years ; 
 some of them had been in the membership of the Germantown 
 church. When, in 1755, Handschuh moved to Philadelphia 
 and no hope was entertained that the Germantown congre- 
 gation then, under Rapp, having possession of the church- 
 building and the cemetery would ever return to the synod or 
 be reunited with the Philadelphia congregation, some Luther- 
 an and German Reformed families bought on that sandy hill, 
 where the roads from Philadelphia and Germantown meet, 
 an acre of land for the erection of a school-house and for a 
 place of burial. The deed is dated May 14, 1758. Both par- 
 ties united in building the school-house, which was used not 
 only for school purposes, but occasionally for public services 
 held by Lutheran pastors. Some heads of families, formerly 
 elders of Germantown, attached themselves to this new enter- 
 prise. It was soon discovered that the school-house was 
 entirely too small for public services. In 1759, Christopher 
 Raben of Whitemarsh, Wighard Miiller, and Chr. Jacobi of 
 Germantown informed Miihlenberg at Providence that they 
 intended to erect at Barren Hill a church which was to be 
 under synod and in connection with the Philadelphia congre- 
 gation. They expected financial assistance from Europe, but 
 were told that from that source they could at the utmost 
 receive, possibly, fifty pounds. Chr. Raben bought an addi- 
 tional piece of ground (not quite an acre), elected Rich. Peters, 
 Wrangel, Miihlenberg, and other gentlemen some of them 
 formerly members of the Germantown congregation trustees, 
 transferred the deed to them, and appointed the parochial 
 teacher, Selig, accountant for the building expenses. The 
 
3/8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 erection of the church began, but at the same time the clamor 
 for money. Miihlenberg was the man who was expected to 
 help by sending through the united congregations collecting- 
 agents with testimonials given by him. In the building of 
 the church the Reformed had no share. Under pressing neces- 
 sity Raben and three of his associates created, June 30, 1760, 
 an interest-bearing debt of one hundred pounds, and June 4, 
 1761, another debt, of two hundred pounds. Before the roof 
 was put on the building Miihlenberg and Wrangel were urged 
 time and again to preach between the bare walls. Raben 
 tried to help himself out of his difficulties by the instrumen- 
 tality of a lottery in those times a means often used to raise 
 funds with which to erect houses of worship. He realized 
 thereby about fifty pounds. In 1763 the church was under 
 roof, but the debts had increased and there was no security 
 for their payment. When (June n, 1764) Raben and Selig 
 laid the whole account before the trustees, no one was will- 
 ing to make himself responsible for the debt. Public services 
 were continued by Wrangel and Muhlenberg, and, the attend- 
 ance being large, an impression was thereby made upon the 
 decreasing Rapp party at Germantown, about six miles dis- 
 tant, and the credit of the Halle pastors began to rise. When, 
 in February, 1765, one of the creditors wanted his loan of 
 two hundred returned, and other debts were to be paid, an- 
 other loan, of three hundred pounds, was made in Philadel- 
 phia, for which Henry Keppele gave bonds. There was now 
 an interest-bearing debt of four hundred pounds, to which 
 other obligations for building material, etc. had to be 
 added. When the .Germantown congregation was again 
 united with synod, a number of members who for a time had 
 assisted Barren Hill returned to their former congregation, 
 which was nearer to their homes. This increased the Barren 
 Hill difficulties. Raben and his friends thought of extricat- 
 ing themselves by sending a church- officer and the teacher 
 Selig as collecting-agents to Europe, and to strengthen their 
 bonds by recommendations to England through Rich. Peters, 
 to Sweden through Wrangel, to Germany through Miihlen- 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 379 
 
 berg, and by testimonials from the governor of Pennsylvania. 
 At a conference held in Philadelphia, March I, 1765, the pre- 
 liminaries for this plan, inclusive of a constitution of the con- 
 gregation, were resolved upon, and Raben and his friends 
 rejoiced; but a reaction set in, and for various and strong 
 reasons the plan was dropped. Another meeting took place 
 Mar. 13, 1765. With tears in their eyes Raben and his asso- 
 ciates insisted upon the carrying out of the collecting-plan, 
 and Raben finally made the threat that unless he was extri- 
 cated from his embarrassing condition he would sell the 
 church to " any sect, even to the Papists." Finally, in this 
 crisis Keppele, Wrangel, and Miihlenberg each obligated 
 himself for one-third of the debt. Of course this noble act 
 caused much rejoicing at Barren Hill. Miihlenberg addressed 
 Rich. Peters, then in England, also Ziegenhagen at London, 
 Francke at Halle, and others, in behalf of the needy congre- 
 gation at Barren Hill. A collection in the Anglican Church 
 for a non-conformist congregation was not allowed in Eng- 
 land, but the archbishop of Canterbury sent twenty guineas 
 out of his private means. In the Lutheran churches at Lon- 
 don impediments were found, and in Sweden some prejudices 
 had been excited against Wrangel, who made his appeals 
 there through letters sent by pastors under his own superin- 
 tendence. Miihlenberg was greatly embarrassed by a Re- 
 formed creditor who in 1766 wished his loan of one hundred 
 pounds, with fifteen pounds' interest, paid to him, and threat- 
 ened to bring the matter before court. Under these circum- 
 stances Miihlenberg had a transfer made of the ground and 
 buildidgs at Barren Hill by deed to St. Michael's corporation 
 at Philadelphia, so as to afford a legal protection. On Dec. 
 9, 1766, Miihlenberg was obliged to borrow one hundred and 
 twelve pounds on his own personal responsibility to pay the 
 Reformed claimant. He had even considered the advisability 
 of satisfying the claims against him as one of the bondsmen 
 with the rest of his wife's paternal inheritance ; but Mrs. Miihl- 
 enberg who most probably was not ignorant of the fact that 
 already in May, 1762, no less than three hundred pounds of 
 
380 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 her inheritance from her father, Conrad Weiser, had been con- 
 sumed for the support of the family very properly interposed 
 the claims of her children, and in this just view of the case 
 would not be moved even by her husband's quoting, " Take 
 they then our life, goods, fame, child, and wife," but on her 
 part quoted verses and gospel words in reply. Wrangel was 
 at that time engaged in building two churches, at Kingsessing 
 and Upper Merion, and H. Keppele was heavily burdened by 
 the very expensive building of Zion Church, then undertaken 
 by the Philadelphia congregation. Some of the creditors had 
 already given into the hands of lawyers the obligations held 
 by them. A lawsuit was averted by H. Keppele, who in 
 June, 1768, liberally satisfied some of the most pressing 
 claims. Miihlenberg and his friends paid the interest of 
 other debts, and by united efforts removed some of the 
 smaller obligations. 
 
 It is doubtful how long they would have been able to keep 
 the enemy from their doors. Creditors could unite and at 
 once bring calamity upon the men who, moved by most lib- 
 eral and Christian principles, had taken a great responsibility 
 upon themselves. In those times debtors, though without any 
 moral blemish upon their character, could be sent to prison. 
 But the darkest night is followed by the light of morning. 
 Miihlenberg had frequently sent petitions to Halle in behalf of 
 Barren Hill. The answer was that the money collected for the 
 Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania had in these years 
 been used to pay the travelling expenses to America of the 
 missionaries Voigt, Krug, and Chr. Em. Schulze ; there was 
 no money for Barren Hill. But during that year (1768) ninety 
 pounds' worth of the widely-celebrated Halle medicines came 
 to Miihlenberg, with the direction to give of the proceeds 
 sixty pounds as a Halle contribution to the building of Zion 
 Church at Philadelphia, and thirty pounds to extinguish in 
 part the Barren Hill debts. This was some glimmer of help 
 much prayed for, and, indeed, an earnest of better things to 
 come. Aug. 4, 1768, Miihlenberg received from good old 
 Ziegenhagen in London a draft for one hundred pounds 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 381 
 
 sterling, payable at sight in Philadelphia. Now he could 
 discharge his own obligations and those of his friend H. 
 Keppele. When in his diary Miihlenberg arrives at this 
 point in his narrative, he breaks out in praises and thanks to 
 God, who hears the prayers and remembers the cares and 
 anxieties of his children. But not all the burden resulting 
 from the Barren Hill enterprise, carried out by well-meaning 
 men in an inconsiderate manner, was taken away by this most 
 timely assistance : there was yet an interest-bearing debt of 
 three hundred pounds. This difficulty, however, was also 
 relieved in a most unexpected manner. It appears that the 
 Fathers at Halle had told a godly German nobleman, Count 
 Solms-Roedelsheim, of the embarrassed condition in which 
 Miihlenberg and his friends found themselves in consequence 
 of their connection with Barren Hill. Moved by the good 
 Spirit from on high, the count set apart, of a donation of 
 thirteen thousand florins intended for the relief of well-ap- 
 proved indigent Lutheran pastors and teachers in Pennsyl- 
 vania, and to be safely invested for this purpose, three thou- 
 sand florins, for the purpose that with this sum amounting 
 to about two hundred and eighty-four pounds sterling the 
 Barren Hill obligations should be satisfied, and that Miihlen- 
 berg, his wife, and his children, should be entirely relieved of 
 all further claims in that matter. The remaining sum, fifty- 
 eight pounds, was by Miihlenberg applied to other interests 
 of the Church needing charitable attention. To prove that 
 the sympathy and the active liberality of the Fathers in Lon- 
 don and Halle, of the noble-minded count, and of other Chris- 
 tian friends beyond the Atlantic were fully appreciated on this 
 side of the ocean, the St. Michael and Zion corporation for- 
 mally assigned, for the period of ninety-nine years (Jan. 14, 
 1771), all the ground, buildings, and appurtenances of the 
 Lutheran church property at Barren Hill to Ziegenhagen and 
 the Rev. Gust. Burgmann at London, and to the doctors and 
 directors, Geo. Knapp (G. A. Francke had died Sept. 2, 1769) 
 and A. Freylinghausen, at Halle, for an orphan-house and 
 school to be established there, and for Lutheran church ser- 
 
382 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 vices. It was for a long time in the mind of Miihlenberg to 
 establish an orphan-house, and at the same time to use it for 
 the education and the preparation' of young men for the min- 
 isterial office. He also thought that old and decrepit pastors 
 might find a refuge in such an institution. That the plan was 
 not executed was not his fault The Barren Hill congregation 
 was served at first by Miihlenberg and Wrangel in connection 
 with Germantown by J. N. Kurtz, Voigt, and Schmidt. Fred. 
 Dav. SchaefTer, D. D., served Germantown, Barren Hill, 
 Frankford, White Plain, and Upper Dublin. Barren Hill is 
 now in connection with the Syftod of East Pennsylvania. 
 
 While seriously engaged with the care of the Philadelphia 
 charge, Miihlenberg kept a watchful eye upon all the churches 
 connected with synod. In this he not only performed his 
 duty as praeses of synod, but followed also the inclination of 
 his heart. If of any one we might say that he was born a 
 missionary, we can say it of him. From time to time, as he 
 had promised, he paid visits to his country congregations, 
 which would not formally release him from his obligations to 
 them. From these he extended, as circumstances required, 
 his tours to Reading and Tulpehoken. He also visited the 
 Lutherans at Cohansey in New Jersey. In 1767 (Apr. 23d) he 
 left Philadelphia and visited the congregations at New Ger- 
 mantown and Bedminster in New Jersey, and Friday, May 
 1st, was present in New York at the dedication of Christ 
 Church, erected by the Germans, who at that time had ex- 
 tended a call to Gerock. Sunday, May 3d, Miihlenberg 
 preached in the new church on Gen. xxii. 7, 8 ; on Tuesday, 
 May 3d, in the old Dutch church ; left New York the follow- 
 ing day; paid another visit to Bedminster, New Germantown, 
 and " In the Valley;" preached^in German and in English, and 
 administered the Lord's Supper to these congregations, which 
 then were vacant, Prizelius having left them in 1766. They 
 tried their best to persuade Miihlenberg to come and spend 
 his old age with them; they even gave him a regular call. 
 Friday, May 1 5th, he returned to Philadelphia. Again he 
 paid a visit to these New Jersey congregations in February, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 383 
 
 1 769, when his oldest son, Peter, was there as a beginner in 
 ministerial work ; on this occasion the son read the Liturgy 
 and his father preached. Peter had won golden opinions, and 
 was unanimously demanded as his father's substitute in the 
 charge. When, in consequence of a call from Virginia in 
 the spring of 1772, Peter had gone to England to receive 
 Episcopal ordination (whereof we shall speak hereafter), his 
 father visited this field in May of that year. His third 
 son, Henry Ernest, had for some weeks instructed there a 
 class of catechumens, and the father now came to finish the 
 course, to examine and confirm them. He also wanted to be 
 released from all further responsibility concerning these con- 
 gregations, and proposed to them, as pastor, Gerock, then in- 
 volved in difficulties at New York. Van Buskirk, also J. Geo. 
 Jung, sent from London by the Rev. Dr. Wachsel (1768), 
 ordained 1770, and Christian Streit, born in New Jersey some 
 miles distant from New Germantown, educated at Philadel- 
 phia, and there prepared by Miihlenberg and Wrangel for the 
 sacred office, after being licensed (1769) by synod, serving 
 during ten years the Lutheran church at Easton, paid them 
 visits. But it appears that the services of none of these men 
 were acceptable. On this tour Miihlenberg was accompanied 
 by one of his daughters, who unfortunately suffered an acute 
 attack of fever. This occasions his remark : " When I had 
 my home in the country my children ran about barefooted 
 and were used to rough ways of living ; but since I live in the 
 city they are reared rather delicately, can no longer endure 
 joltings when riding in country wagons and the many changes 
 of the weather, and their wings droop like those of turkeys 
 when they get wet." But he hurried to see and to comfort 
 his sick child. With her he returned (May nth) to Phil- 
 adelphia. In 1762 (Feb. i6th until March 8th) Miihlenberg, 
 during an unusually cold season, visited Providence, New 
 Hanover, Reading where he had intercourse with his rela- 
 tives and the Rev. B. M. Hausihl also Heidelberg, Tulpe- 
 hoken, Lebanon, the iron-works of Henry William Stiegel 
 (called Elizabeth Furnace), and Conestoga. In most of these 
 
384 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 places he delivered sermons and attended to other pastoral 
 duties. On account of the eccentricities of his character 
 Baron Stiegel, as he was called, deserves special mention. 
 He was a member of the Lutheran Church, appeared as a 
 delegate at synod, and took care of the spiritual wants of 
 the many who were in his employ by erecting a church for 
 them and endeavoring to supply them with pastoral ser- 
 vices. It is said that he was born at Mannheim on the 
 Rhine. About his former life nothing is known, but his 
 manners indicated that he had moved in well-bred society. 
 When, in 1/58, he appeared in Lancaster county, Pa., he 
 established Mannheim on a tract of land bought by him, 
 and besides extensive glass-works, built for himself a splen- 
 did mansion, and in connection with the latter a chapel, in 
 which he himself " was accustomed to conduct divine wor- 
 ship for those in his employ." He also built in Lebanon 
 county, six miles from Schaefferstown, an iron-furnace, and 
 named it, in honor of his wife, Elizabeth. He is said to have 
 driven a team of eight fine horses, to have been accompanied 
 on his journeys by a band of musicians, and to have had a 
 cannon fired whenever he visited his furnaces or returned 
 home. The impression the man and his whole bearing made 
 upon the simple-minded, rigoristic Mennonites and other sects 
 in his neighborhood is reflected in these legends. But, with 
 all this, he was a practical character, and for a time was finan- 
 cially successful. Perhaps undertaking too much in conse- 
 quence of the disturbance of the provincial trade by the 
 unhappy relations with England, he was overwhelmed by 
 misfortune and put in prison as an insolvent debtor, but was 
 set free (Dec. 24, 1774) by a special act of the legislature. 
 Yet in 1783 we trace him to Heidelberg, Berks county, Pa. 
 His further history is shrouded in obscurity, the vague 
 rumors of his having at last served as schoolmaster or 
 having died in the poorhouse not being substantiated. 
 
 When the dedication of the new church-building at York 
 took place (Sept. 17, 1762), Miihlenberg, though praeses of 
 synod, was glad that his friend Provost Wrangel consented 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 385 
 
 to be present, as it would have been very unpleasant to him 
 then to appear in that locality. Rev. Raus, of whom we 
 formerly heard, was at that time pastor of the York congre- 
 gation. Prejudiced as he was against Miihlenberg, who in 
 various ways had benefited him, he had in 1761, at the meet- 
 ing of synod at Lancaster, lodged against Muhlenberg charges 
 of heterodoxy and misconduct, which, as we formerly men- 
 tioned, were handed to Wrangel and Borell as an investigating 
 committee. In an elaborate refutation in writing, still extant, 
 with just and manly indignation and in a perfectly dignified 
 manner Muhlenberg shows the palpable and gross injustice 
 done him by Raus, who persisted in his wrong. His name 
 was then stricken from the roll of synod; he lost &lso, in 
 1763, his position as pastor of the York church. After the 
 act of dedication at York, Wrangel took occasion to extend 
 his tour to Carlisle, thence to Quitopohilla (Steitstown, later 
 Lebanon), and Swatara Cave (Atolheo, Rehrersburg), and, 
 returning, to preach at Tulpehoken and at Molatton. In the 
 following month the congregational constitution was adopted 
 at Philadelphia. Oct. 22d, Muhlenberg received an invitation 
 to preach in the Episcopal St. Paul's Church, whose pastor, 
 William Macclenachan, already known to us, was then sick. 
 In consequence of his methodistic proclivities he had moved 
 a portion of Christ Church to separate from the mother-con- 
 gregation and to build St. Paul's, in Third street south of 
 Walnut. Muhlenberg laid the invitation before the vestry 
 of St. Michael's, and it was politely and wisely declined. 
 
 On Dec. 18, 1765, Muhlenberg was visited by the Rev. 
 John Geo. Eager, who was born March 29, 1725, at Nieder- 
 linxweiler, in Nassau-Saarbrucken, had prepared himself for 
 the sacred office at Halle University, and after doing some 
 pastoral service in Germany had arrived at Philadelphia (Oct. 
 23, 1752) and settled at Conewago (sometimes identified with 
 McAllistertown, later Hanover, York county, Pa.). In that 
 region Rev. David Candler, as we formerly learned, had 
 settled in 1743, and begun first in his house, then in a log 
 church erected next to it pastoral work and the organization 
 
 25 
 
386 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of a Lutheran congregation, but had died in the year 1744. 
 After his decease the Moravian Nyberg tried to creep in there 
 as a pseudo-Lutheran, but met with opposition. In 1747, 
 Muhlenberg found the Lutherans there in complete disorder. 
 Val. Kraft, having succeeded Nyberg in that locality, was not 
 calculated to improve the condition. In his presence Hand- 
 schuh preached there (June 2, 1748); he also made arrange- 
 ments that Schaum, whom May 3<Dth of the same year he 
 installed at York, should preach there every fourth Sunday, 
 wherein Schaum appears to have continued until 1752, when 
 Eager, who first had settled at Quitopohilla, was (Dec. i6th) 
 elected pastor, and, March 10, 1753, entered upon that field 
 of labor. He continued serving there until the arrival of 
 Raus, at the same time serving at York those Lutherans who 
 there were still attached to Schaum, until, in 1763, he followed 
 a call to the German Lutheran congregation at New York, 
 where during his term the erection of Christ Church (Old 
 Swamp Church) was commenced. In 1767 he accepted a call 
 to York, and two years later returned to his first field of labor 
 in this country, which during his absence had been served by 
 Rev. Chas. Fred. Wildbahn, who, licensed in 1762, resided in 
 that region until in 1782 he was called to Reading. Eager, 
 who also was a member of the ministerium, served a number 
 of neighboring churches, and (1777-85) again that at Han- 
 over. He departed this life June 9, 1791. 
 
 Miihlenberg's frequent absences from his Philadelphia pulpit 
 evoked some murmurings. On Sunday, April 17, 1763, he 
 preached in the morning at Barren Hill, and in the afternoon, 
 for the first time after ten years in consequence of the decree 
 of the civil court in behalf of the original Lutheran congre- 
 gation, and as praeses of synod again opened services in the 
 Lutheran church at Germantown. On the following Sunday 
 morning (Apr. 24th) he again preached there before a very 
 large audience; and when, in the afternoon, he found St. 
 Michael's Church at Philadelphia crowded, he took occasion 
 before preaching to refer to the murmurings by narrating to 
 the assembly the story of the man who on his way to Jericho 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 387 
 
 had fallen into the hands of thieves and then into those of 
 the Samaritan. There was in this an irony which very well 
 suited the man who had absented himself from home, not to 
 seek his own comfort, but to do the work of the King, which 
 at that time especially demanded haste. 
 
 When, in June, 1763, Miihlenberg paid visits to his 
 country congregations, still under his supervision, he pro- 
 ceeded to Reading and Tulpehoken. In this latter place he 
 had to quiet the minds of the people, dissatisfied with the 
 protracted absence of their pastor, J. N. Kurtz, at German- 
 town. It was resolved that J. N. Kurtz should not be allowed 
 to resign, but should at the usual times come and celebrate 
 the Lord's Supper ; that his brother William should attend 
 to the ordinary Sunday services and casitalia; and that the 
 united pastors not living at too great a distance should from 
 time to time visit there. During such excursions into the 
 country Miihlenberg made it a point to pay special attention 
 to families and to individuals who had shown their fidelity to 
 the Church and derived in sickness or other distress comfort 
 from his visits, exhortations, and prayers. 
 
 In August of the same year he visited the Lutherans at 
 Cohansey, N. J. When he preached there (Aug. 6th), people 
 came from a distance of ten and fifteen miles. He also held 
 the Lord's Supper on Sunday, Aug. 7th ; but before this sol- 
 emn act he had to baptize no less than twenty-two little chil- 
 dren whom parents and friends had brought in that destitute 
 region from far and near, and who now in that overcrowded 
 church annoyingly cried at the top of their voices. On the 
 1 9th of the same month he left Philadelphia for Providence, 
 preached there Sunday, the 2ist, in German and in English, 
 and celebrated the Lord's Supper. Mrs. Miihlenberg, who 
 had accompanied him, left Monday, the 22d, on horseback 
 for Philadelphia; he, with CatechistVan Buskirk, went to New 
 Hanover, preached there on Tuesday to a large assembly, and 
 started the following day for Reading, where he had to listen 
 to much complaint on account of Hausihl's intended depart- 
 ure for Easton. Miihlenberg pitied the people, who, though 
 
388 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 beginners, had liberally erected a church and a school-house, 
 sustained pastor and teacher, built an expensive wall around 
 the cemetery, and now wanted him to come to them and after 
 twenty-one years of hard labor to stay among them and devote 
 himself to the supervision of his family. His mother-in-law 
 and other relatives were settled at Reading. Aug. 2/th he 
 rode on horseback twenty miles to Tulpehoken, preached 
 there Sunday, the 28th; rode in the afternoon, returning, 
 seven miles to Heidelberg, held services there; and in the 
 evening came again to Reading. Here the vestry handed 
 him a petition to the Fathers in Europe to send them a pas- 
 tor. Sept. 2d he returned to Philadelphia. Oct. 1 2th we find 
 him again at New Hanover, where he and J. N. Kurtz, his 
 fellow-traveller, met Wrangel and Hegeblad. In agreement 
 with the desires of tlue congregation, Van Buskirk was then 
 and there . ordained a diaconus, or assistant pastor. 
 
 Oct. i/th-ipth of that same year (1763), synod met .in 
 Philadelphia, where Philadelphia, Germantown, Barren Hill, 
 Lancaster, York, Fredericktown (in Md.), Providence, New 
 Hanover, Reading, Tulpehoken, New Germantown and Bed- 
 minster (N. J.), New York (German and Dutch congrega- 
 tions), Hackensack, Remmerspach, Wahlkiel (N. J.), Rhine- 
 beck, Camp, Statesbury, Claverack (N. Y.), Earltown, Cone- 
 stoga, Muddy Creek, Easton, Greenwich (N. J.), Macungie, 
 Heidelberg, Jordan, Indianfield, Saccum, Upper Dublin, Up- 
 per Milford, Allentown, Cohansey, Oley, and Whitendahl, 
 were acknowledged as belonging to the united congrega- 
 tions. Letters and petitions came from Conewago, Man- 
 chester, Paradise; also from Winchester (Va.). Diaconus 
 Joseph Roth, successor of Raus in Old Goshenhoppen and 
 vicinity, was serving in an acceptable manner at Indianfield, 
 Saccum, and Upper Milford, but died in May, 1764. J. C. 
 Stoever also, whose former associate, Tobias Wagner, had in 
 I 759> with his wife and one daughter, returned to Germany, 
 was at that synodical meeting received into the ministerium. 
 Whitefield also, who then visited Philadelphia, was invited 
 by a committee of synod (Oct. i8th) to be present at the 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 389 
 
 public examination of the children of the parochial school 
 in St. Michael's. He accepted the invitation, and, though in 
 very feeble health, ascended the pulpit, prayed, and addressed 
 the children, and gave also to the parents words of admoni- 
 tion. A number of Episcopal and Presbyterian clergymen 
 were present, and the church was crowded with English and 
 with German people. Wrangel and Muhlenberg examined 
 the children. 
 
39O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 1762 et seq. (continued}. 
 
 Pietism and Methodism. Lutheranism and Episcopalianism. Progress of the 
 Philadelphia congregation. Miihlenberg on confirmation. Relation to pol- 
 itics. He sends his three sons to Halle. Handschuh's death. German 
 Benevolent Society of Pennsylvania. Erection of Zion Church, Philadelphia. 
 Flourishing condition of the congregation. Arrival of Chr. Em. Schulze. 
 He is MUhlenberg's colaborer in Philadelphia. He follows a call to Tul- 
 pehoken. Career of Krug, Voigt, Schmidt, Helmuth. Struggle in later years 
 between English and German in Philadelphia. Organization of an English 
 Lutheran congregation. 
 
 IN our times we think it strange that Whitefield, as we nar- 
 rated, was invited to participate in the services and the 
 exercises of the Lutheran congregation. We find it stranger 
 yet that when, in 1769, the large Zion Church, built by the 
 same Lutheran congregation in addition to St. Michael's, was 
 in a condition to be used for public services, Whitefield was 
 invited to preach in it, and that when among the Episcopalians 
 at Philadelphia a vacancy occurred Miihlenberg was invited 
 to fill it and to preach to them. We add that he was also 
 invited to hold public examination of the parochial school at 
 the German Reformed church at Philadelphia, and in conse- 
 quence of a special request delivered the funeral address on 
 the occasion of the decease of the German Reformed pastor, 
 Rev. Steiner. The great fame of Whitefield as a most em- 
 inently-gifted Christian preacher placed him, to an extent, in 
 an exceptional position. He had in later years considerably 
 modified his course of action and his manner of preaching, 
 It had formerly been his habit to censure in severe language 
 the clergy of the Episcopal Church, to which he himself be- 
 longed, and to take a position antagonistic to them. When, in 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 391 
 
 1763, he reappeared in Philadelphia, |(hd also at later visits, he 
 made it a point to entertain friendly relations with Rev. Peters, 
 who had become rector of Christ Church, and with his col- 
 leagues, and used in his sermons much more moderate lan- 
 guage. We have to keep in mind that in small towns, as 
 Philadelphia was in those years, the pastors of the various 
 denominations had occasion to come more frequently into 
 personal contact with one another. It also was a view rather 
 common in those days that the doctrinal distinctions between 
 the Episcopal and the Lutheran churches were of no great 
 account, and the Episcopal Church was frequently called by 
 Lutheran theologians Ecclesia Lutlieranizans. Miihlenberg's 
 Pietism also, as he had inherited it from Halle, brought him 
 into a certain affinity with all those in whom he noticed the 
 symptoms of a living, personal spirituality, and he had there- 
 fore warm friends not only among Episcopalians who were 
 to an extent electrified by a man of the power of Whitefield 
 but also among the Presbyterians who were similarly affected, 
 like the two brothers, Rev. Messrs. G. and W. Tennent. In 
 his intercourse with such men Miihlenberg found some spirit- 
 ual refreshment and encouragement, and the doctrines which 
 formed a high and strong barrier between their respective 
 church bodies were left in the background. But Miihlen- 
 berg and his colaborers, all under the control of the same 
 Pietism, never entertained the idea of a union of the various 
 denominations ; and whenever, as was the case especially on 
 the part of the Episcopalians, approaches were made in this di- 
 rection, they were never encouraged. Yet the presumed affin- 
 ity between the Episcopal and the Lutheran churches in later 
 years proved disastrous not only to the Swedish churches in 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, but also to Lutheran 
 congregations in New York. Muhlenberg, while he certainly 
 preferred the fervor of Whitefield to the perfunctory manner 
 in which numbers of the clergy of divers denominations here 
 and there performed the duties of their offices, was far from 
 consenting, without considerable restriction, to all the ways 
 and views of Whitefield. He acknowledged his ardor and his 
 
392 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 wonderful influence over $ large number of souls, who through 
 him were awakened from a condition of indifference and spirit- 
 ual death and brought to Christ. He rejoiced in the results 
 of a powerful preaching of evangelical truth, whoever might 
 be the preacher or the part of Christ's kingdom to which he 
 might belong, just as he rejoiced, and with him his brethren 
 in the sacred office, when members of their flocks would 
 from time to time privately meet in an unostentatious way, 
 unitedly read the word of God, and pray and sing. Such " con- 
 venticles" manifested their interest in sacred truth, and could, 
 if ever an excuse was needed in those times when in many 
 places regular public services were of comparatively rare 
 occurrence, easily be excused. To identify them with the 
 well-known methodistic prayer-meetings would be a great 
 perversion of historical facts, and the old Latin saying, Si duo 
 faciunt idem, non est idem, holds good in this case. There 
 still existed between 1780 and 1790 an association in the Lu- 
 theran congregation at Philadelphia, the members of which 
 met from time to time to discuss the Articles of the Augsburg 
 Confession. When we read in the Halle Reports of " prayer- 
 meetings " which Miihlenberg and his associates themselves 
 held in their respective congregations, we must keep in mind 
 that in those services singing of church-hymns, reading of the 
 Scriptures, a practical exegesis of the portion read, and prayers 
 by the officiating minister took place. No one could be more 
 opposed to a loose, haphazard way of holding public services 
 than was Miihlenberg. Those applicants for the ministerial 
 office to whom congregations were to be entrusted had to prom- 
 ise a strict adherence not only to the doctrines of the Lutheran 
 Church, but also to the liturgical form of worship adopted by 
 synod. The looseness of a subsequent period in these questions 
 of doctrine and forms of worship was totally antagonistic to the 
 principles maintained by Miihlenberg. He could not but 
 admire the talent and the spiritual gifts of Whitefield, but 
 unhesitatingly states that he was shocked by his denial of 
 regenerating grace in baptism. Pietistic liberalism allowed 
 .him to use more freedom in practical interdenominational 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 393 
 
 relations than appears compatible with his strict Lutheran 
 convictions, but the question arises whether, without that 
 Pietistic element in his spiritual framework, he would have 
 been that warm-hearted, self-denying, energetic, and humble 
 servant in the cause of the Master. Pietism was indeed the 
 form under which in those years warm-hearted godliness 
 almost exclusively existed in Germany. Those who were 
 animated by it knew its strong points by experience, and, 
 as may be expected, were rather shortsighted as to its weak 
 ones. It was the living source from which then proceeded 
 most works of Christian charity, missionary enterprises, care of 
 the orphans, the spreading of the Bible among the masses of 
 the people, and instruction of the neglected. To this school, 
 if we may so call it, Miihlenberg belonged. He could not 
 absolutely escape the influence of its weaker points ; its strong 
 ones never found a worthier or a more energetic and success- 
 ful representative. 
 
 The presence of Miihlenberg in the Philadelphia congrega- 
 tion proved more and more a blessing. After the adoption of 
 the new constitution, the church, as to its outward adminis- 
 tration, was on a solid basis. The spirit which in 1753 had 
 produced a rebellion in the neighboring Germantown had to 
 a large extent died out. The rehabilitation of genuine Lu- 
 theranism in that locality in 1763 could not but have a bene- 
 ficial effect upon Philadelphia and upon other places. Miihl- 
 enberg had all right-minded people on his side. His judi- 
 ciousness fully secured to him the respect also of those who, 
 led on by Handschuh, had opposed the framing and adoption 
 of a new congregational constitution. Of personal enmities 
 or of insults offered him by evil-disposed and foolish people 
 he made no account, and comforted one who complained to 
 him about a pasquinade nailed on his house by telling him 
 that he had frequently been the recipient of such honors. His 
 ready judgment and his presence of mind in all contingencies 
 could not but gain him universal respect. It was Sunday, Oct. 
 30, 1763, when, during the afternoon services, a serious shock 
 of earthquake made St. Michael's, which was crowded with 
 
394 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 worshippers, tremble, the rumbling noise connected with it 
 and resembling the quick rolling of heavily-laden wagons, 
 producing great consternation. The people, frightened by the 
 unusual phenomenon, rushed toward the doors. By remind- 
 ing them that out of doors they might fall into God's hands 
 no less than within, Miihlenberg at once restored order, and 
 resumed the Lord's Prayer, in which he had been engaged. 
 His various attainments and accomplishments were acknow- 
 ledged as occasion was given. When, in 1763, a new organ 
 was furnished St. Peter's Episcopal Church, in the south- 
 ern part of Philadelphia, he was requested to give it a trial. 
 When, in 1764, at the Philadelphia Academy, a cursus physico- 
 experimentalis was opened, he was invited to attend the lec- 
 tures. To Germany in the interest of science he sent collec- 
 tions of natural curiosities from America. He took occasion, 
 in a letter written in Latin, to point out to a Danish officer of 
 high standing, who had addressed him in a humoristic manner 
 from the island of St. Croix, the marked distinction between 
 coarse and vulgar wit and humor and the refined Attic. 
 Of his kind-heartedness and charitable inclinations we have 
 already given many and forcible examples. We add that in 
 one of his most private papers we discover that to the son 
 of .a teacher of languages at the University of Jena, who had 
 for a time lived as a captive among the Indians, he presented 
 at once a coat, a " camisole," and a shirt. What Mrs. Miihl- 
 enberg said to these and similar acts we do not know, but we 
 are sure that she could have added numbers of such instances. 
 At her request he began in February, 1764, to write his auto- 
 biography. Whether that description of his life which leads 
 us up to the beginning of his activity in Pennsylvania, and is 
 given to the public by Rev. Dr. William Germann, now super- 
 intendent of the diocese of Wasungen, Sachsen-Meiningen, 
 through Messrs. Brobst, Diehl & Co. at Allentown, Pa. (1881), 
 is a part of that autobiography, or all that he ever finished of 
 it, we are unable to say. As a pastor who did not neglect 
 the cum specialis he took, in the year 1764, much interest 
 in a criminal who, as a murderer, was condemned to capital 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 395 
 
 punishment, and whom he carefully prepared for his terrible 
 end. We also find that the question of the rite of confirma- 
 tion seriously engaged the mind of Miihlenberg. Elaborately 
 he takes up in his diary of June 24, 1764, all those objections 
 which then already from various quarters were raised against 
 confirmation, and which he had discussed in an address before 
 the congregation, taking as his text Rom. ix. 4. He refers to 
 the fact that what is given to children in holy baptism by 
 divine grace is in most cases, under various co-operating 
 causes, not developed into personal appropriation, but rather 
 lost. " Some object/' he says, " to our Lutheran way of try- 
 ing to influence the mind in early years, and think we had 
 better wait until an impulse from within makes itself felt." 
 Miihlenberg energetically rejects this view, and says that 
 while waiting for a spontaneous movement souls might grow 
 cold, and even die. Young persons in the second septen- 
 ary of their life he finds already exposed to many evil influ- 
 ences and great dangers, yet in a condition to receive good 
 impressions and to be approached and placed under the influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit. To the objection that persons of 
 that age are superficial and giddy and wanting in proper judg- 
 ment, he answers that at no time and in no condition the nat- 
 ural man " receiveth the things of the Spirit of God," but that 
 God has given us the means of grace to operate through them 
 upon the natural man, and that the sooner this is done the bet- 
 ter, since young trees may be bent much easier than old ones. 
 He appeals to the testimony of the adult and the aged to 
 prove that those words and truths of the Scriptures which in 
 youngest years have been properly implanted are most firmly 
 fixed in the mind and form a basis for the instruction of 
 catechumens. It was true, as some objected, that very fre- 
 quently the good impressions received in earlier years are 
 soon effaced and the good promises forgotten, and that sin and 
 guilt thereby are increased. Admitting the fact, he says that 
 the cause of this deplorable condition is very often persons 
 who, indifferent about their own souls, wantonly destroy what 
 others have planted; but this certainly does not prove that 
 
396 LIFE AND TIMES OF ^ 
 
 no spiritual care should be taken of the souls of the young, 
 neither that all the good received by them is lost. 
 
 Throughout all the voluminous diaries and the extensive 
 correspondence which Miihlenberg left to posterity it cannot 
 escape our observation that he was exceedingly careful as to 
 remarks referring to the politics of the times and the land and 
 the province in which he lived. The period from 1763 to 1766, 
 and much more that from 1770 to the end of the War of Inde- 
 pendence, was one of great political excitement in all the 
 North American provinces, and especially in Pennsylvania. 
 The outrages committed in 1763 by the Indians in the inte- 
 rior of the province had provoked a very excusable hatred. 
 The Quakers, still exercising, with their sympathizers in peace 
 principles, a considerable influence in provincial politics, con- 
 tinued to oppose military measures. Of the want of ener- 
 getic action caused by that influence the Indians made ter- 
 rible use. In giving vent to revengeful feelings a number of 
 men from Lancaster known as the " Paxtang Rangers " 
 murdered (Dec. 13, 1763) some Indians at Conestoga, and 
 others (Dec. 27th) in the workhouse at Lancaster. These 
 acts were undeniably riotous. The government was help- 
 less against the bloodthirsty Rangers. They, knowing that 
 already in November, 1763, a number of Indians coming 
 from Moravian mission-stations in Pennsylvania had been 
 sheltered in Philadelphia, and suspecting that many of 
 them were such as had committed murder and outrages 
 of all sorts, in the beginning of February, 1764, moved 
 toward Philadelphia and menaced the city, to the utmost 
 terror of the inhabitants. In those dark days, even, some 
 few Quakers, under the pressure of circumstances, were, to 
 the great delight of the juveniles in Philadelphia, seen 
 marching about with sword and gun. The worst was hap- 
 pily avoided, and peace was restored. The object of the 
 march to Philadelphia was, however, of much wider scope 
 than to take revenge on the Indians. A material change in 
 the government, which had been in the hands of a com- 
 paratively few influential men, chiefly Quakers, was desired, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 397 
 
 and a larger representation of the people in the Assembly was 
 demanded. This desire was supported by the injudicious 
 manner of dealing with the Indians pursued by the govern- 
 ment. All the questions involved in this difficulty were acri- 
 moniously discussed on both sides in a flood of pamphlets. 
 Military measures taken in 1764 at last struck terror into the 
 Indians in Pennsylvania. When, in the autumn of this year, 
 efforts were made to reduce the Quaker element in the As- 
 sembly, and to elect men who in questions of war or of peace 
 would not neglect the first duty of every government to de- 
 fend its subjects against hostile attacks the members of the 
 German Lutheran Church at Philadelphia also took a lively 
 interest in this movement, the more so as Henry Keppele, one 
 of their number and treasurer of the congregation, was pro- 
 posed as a member of the Assembly, with a fellow-delegate, 
 to represent the city of Philadelphia in that body. It seems 
 that in this election Miihlenberg was not permitted to exercise 
 a " masterly inactivity " or to remain neutral. He writes under 
 Oct. 2d : " They invited me to the city-hall that I might depos- 
 it my vote, since the other clergymen had handed in theirs. 
 I went there, but returned." He probably found too great a 
 throng of people and no chance to vote. He continues : " In 
 the evening I was again called from home to give my vote as 
 a citizen in favor of two nominees of the city for the Assem- 
 bly. There was, however, such a crowd that only as late as 
 after ten o'clock could I deposit my vote." Under date of Oct. 
 3d he says : " There was this day both great rejoicing and 
 great exasperation in this city in*the political sphere, since it 
 was reported that the German church people had gained a 
 victory, having elected our trustee, Mr. Henry Keppele, to the 
 Assembly a thing which very much pleased the friends of 
 the gentlemen Proprietors, but greatly exasperated the Qua- 
 kers and German Moravians. It is reported that, as old as 
 Pennsylvania is, there was never such a mass of people assem- 
 bled at an election. The English and German Quakers, with 
 the Moravians, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, formed one party, 
 and the English of the High Church [Episcopalians], the Pres- 
 
398 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 byterians, the German Lutherans, and Reformed joined the 
 other party, and prevailed in the election a thing hereto- 
 fore unheard of." This is one of the few passages found in 
 Miihlenberg's diaries alluding to political life and struggles. 
 About the dissatisfaction arising in Pennsylvania on account 
 of the unwillingness of the Proprietaries to share in the bur- 
 den of taxes laid upon all real estate, and about the much 
 more consequential dissatisfaction directed against the Stamp 
 Act passed by the home government in 1764, and calling forth 
 throughout the American provinces the cry, " No representa- 
 tion, no taxation !" a principle on which, finally, the Decla- 
 ration of Independence rested Miihlenberg apparently enter- 
 tains an intentional silence. When, after the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act (1766), a day of thanksgiving was celebrated in 
 many localities, especially in Philadelphia, Miihlenberg had 
 the sermon preached by him on the occasion published with 
 the title, A testimony of the goodness and the zeal of God toward 
 his covenant people in the old and new times, and of the ingrat- 
 itude of his people toward him, given at the occasion of the 
 thanksgiving in consequence of the repeal of the Stamp Act, 
 Aug. 1, 1766, by the Rev. H. Miihlenberg. Philadelphia: 
 H. Miller. Unfortunately, no copy of this pamphlet could 
 be discovered by us. Here and there the political events 
 give Miihlenberg occasion to make remarks of a religious 
 character and to acknowledge the hand of a guiding or a 
 chastising Providence, but he is careful not to identify him- 
 self with political party views. May we in the decided posi- 
 tion taken by his sons see*a clue to the feelings and the con- 
 victions of the father ? These sons were, however, destined 
 at least, for a time to be his colaborers in the work of the 
 Church. One of them followed that calling throughout his 
 life ; the two others, under the influence of the stirring times 
 in which they lived, were irresistibly drawn into the political 
 arena, and both of them served their country with much 
 honor to themselves and to the family one in the military, 
 the other in the administrative department. 
 
 In the private documents left by Miihlenberg we often meet 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 399 
 
 with expressions of sorrow and pain that under the never-end- 
 ing pressure of official duties and in consequence of his fre- 
 quent absences from home it was impossible for him to pay 
 to his family and children that attention which under other 
 conditions he most willingly would have given them. This 
 he felt as a most serious matter, especially concerning his 
 sons. When, in 1761, he had moved to Philadelphia, better 
 facilities of higher instruction were offered. On the other 
 hand, the moral and social dangers were increased, and with 
 the increase of the demands now made upon the father's time 
 and strength his ability properly to attend to the education 
 of his sons proportionally decreased. He himself had received 
 his education in Germany, the land of his birth. He was con- 
 vinced that the opportunities offered there he could in his time 
 neither find nor expect here. He entertained a very exalted 
 view of the institutions at Halle, the directors of which, the 
 " Fathers," he held in the highest esteem, while he was con- 
 vinced that the organization of those institutions of learn- 
 ing, the discipline firmly executed in them, the religious spirit 
 permeating them, the educational and scientific opportunities 
 afforded there, could not but prove in the highest degree advan- 
 tageous. When teaching there in his younger years he had 
 derived great and lasting benefits, and it was most natural 
 that he desired his children to share in the same blessings. 
 
 To his inquiries in Halle, where he was kept in loving re- 
 membrance, and his career and successful activity in the -dis- 
 tant land found a well-deserved acknowledgment, the most 
 encouraging answer was given, and to his children the most 
 favorable conditions were granted. That the resolution to 
 send away three sons, all of them being in tender years, at 
 the same time from the parental home to a distant land be- 
 yond the ocean could not be taken without the severest strug- 
 gle with natural feelings and inclinations, needs not to be told. 
 It was based upon the consideration that to promote the best 
 interests of the children no sacrifice could be too great for the 
 parents. 
 
 Wednesday, Apr. 27, 1763, was the day appointed for their 
 
400 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 departure. The oldest, John Peter Gabriel, was then in his 
 fifteenth year ; the youngest, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernest, in his 
 tenth year ; the middle one, Frederick August Conrad, in his 
 thirteenth year. In a special visit on Apr. 2 1st the father had 
 commended those three brothers, who were to embark on a 
 voyage of nearly four thousand miles to a country strange to 
 them, to one of the foremost men of the province of Pennsyl- 
 vania, Hon. William Allen, son of a Philadelphia merchant 
 in 1741 recorder of his native city, and later chief-justice of 
 the province who, being decidedly adverse to the revolution- 
 ary movement, left for England before the outbreak of the 
 war, and died at London in 1780. He received Miihlenberg 
 most kindly, and cheered the father's heart by promising to 
 keep a watchful eye on the three boys. Miihlenberg also 
 visited the ship in which they were to cross the Atlantic, and 
 spoke to Captain Budden in their behalf. He also furnished 
 his sons with letters of introduction to friends at London and 
 at Eimbeck, and to the Rev. Dr. Francke and other acquaint- 
 ances in Halle. Provost Wrangel also furnished letters of 
 recommendation to his correspondents at London, Messrs. 
 Andrew and Charles Lindegren, merchants. From London 
 the young brothers were to be forwarded to Hamburg, and 
 were thence to proceed, by the way of Eimbeck, to Halle ; all 
 of which programme was successfully carried out under the 
 guidance and the protection of a kind Providence. On the 
 appointed day Miihlenberg and his wife and children solemnly 
 took farewell of the sons and the brothers. He sent up a fer- 
 vent prayer in their behalf to the throne of grace. Wrangel, 
 who, as an intimate friend of the family, was present on the 
 occasion, also addressed them and pronounced a benediction 
 upon them. The mother accompanied the children to the 
 ship, which left port at four P. M., and arrived safely at London 
 June 1 5th. Among the passengers were two near friends of 
 the family a son of Mr. Keppele, Henry Keppele, Jr., and 
 Mr. Justus Frederick Meyer. We can easily present to our 
 minds the anxiety of the parents until news came of the safe 
 arrival of the boys at their destination. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 40 1 
 
 We remember that just about the time of the departure of 
 his sons Muhlenberg's mind was greatly troubled by the 
 agitation going on in the Philadelphia congregation. We 
 also know that through the personal influence and the judi- 
 cious steps of Mlihlenberg the question of the constitution of 
 the same was happily solved. Tuesday, Oct. 9, 1764, Hand- 
 schuh, Muhlenberg's colleague in the service in the Philadel- 
 phia church, departed this life, after a protracted sickness, in 
 his fifty-first year. He had been a man of many good qual- 
 ities, and had had his heart in the sacred work entrusted to 
 his care ; but he was too much under the sway of morbid 
 feelings, was easily irritated, was controlled by the narrowest 
 Pietistic conceits, was lacking in the knowledge of human 
 nature and in judgment, and compared with the whole 
 intellectual and spiritual frame of Miihlenberg in all direc- 
 tions was of infinitely smaller proportions. Miihlenberg 
 treated him with becoming fraternal respect and kindness, 
 attended him during his sickness, and was with him at mid- 
 night when the brother seemed to be near his end. Amid 
 Muhlenberg's prayers he fell asleep at six in the morning of 
 Oct nth. His mortal remains were taken to their last rest- 
 ing-place, in front of the chancel of St. Michael's Church, 
 where also those of Heintzelmann and Brunnholtz were de- 
 posited. At a later time tablets of marble were erected in the 
 church in memory of these three pastors and of Miihlenberg. 
 At the funeral services of Handschuh much respect was 
 shown to the deceased and to the congregation he had served. 
 The English academy was represented by two doctors of divin- 
 ity and two professors ; the Episcopal Church, by three pas- 
 tors ; the Presbyterian by two. The minister of the Baptist 
 congregation was present with one missionary of the Swedish 
 Church and two of the German Reformed. Even Whitefield, 
 though seriously ailing, accompanied the funeral in a carriage. 
 Of Lutheran ministers there were present, in addition to Miihl- 
 enberg, Hartwig and Voigt. The German address in St. 
 Michael's was delivered by Voigt, Miihlenberg following in 
 English. On the following Sunday, Muhlenberg took occa- 
 
 26 
 
402 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sion in his sermon on I Cor. iv. 1,2 to refer to his departed 
 colleague, whose mortal remains rested in front of the pulpit 
 on which he stood. He also alluded to the two others rest- 
 ing there side by side with Handschuh, and urged the con- 
 gregation, each for himself, to ask what use he had made of 
 the services of these servants of the Lord. We should re- 
 'member that a short time before the death of Handschuh the 
 plan of a new constitution had greatly agitated the congrega- 
 tion. Miihlenberg, starting with the admonition of St. Paul 
 to the Corinthians to lay aside party strife and to preserve the 
 union of the Spirit, at that solemn moment took occasion to 
 impress upon his hearers the necessity of mutual forbearance 
 and good understanding. He also read before the congrega- 
 tion an elaborate biographical sketch of the deceased brother, 
 which is preserved to us in the twelfth continuation of the 
 Halle Reports. 
 
 Upon the death of Handschuh the whole pastoral care of 
 the congregation devolved exclusively upon Miihlenberg. 
 That he should carry this. burden alone was not to be ex- 
 pected. The congregation had of late been rapidly increas- 
 ing. This was due, among other causes, to the swelling tide 
 of immigration from Germany, which during the political 
 struggle between England and France before 1760 in which 
 year (Sept. 8th) Montreal, Detroit, and all Canada were sur- 
 rendered to England by France had been very much re- 
 duced, but was now resumed with renewed vigor. The ques- 
 tion how to provide for more extended accommodations for 
 church-goers could no longer be avoided. Sept. 13, 1763, 
 the vestry had resolved that as soon as all. the debts resting 
 on St. Michael's Church were paid a new church-building 
 should be erected, both churches to belong to one and the 
 same congregation. To the graveyard surrounding St. Mi- 
 chael's a contiguous piece of ground was also added. At the 
 meeting of the vestry on Jan. 12, 1764, it was stated that St. 
 Michael's gave hardly sufficient room to two-thirds of the 
 members of the congregation, and that it was* like "an over- 
 stocked beehive." No less than three or four hundred chil- 
 
HENRY MELCHIO.R MUHLENBERG. 403 
 
 dren had been baptized in one year. The disposition of the 
 seats in the pews of St. Michael's had become a very trouble- 
 some thing. On the same day it was resolved that every 
 Sunday morning public services should be held in the church 
 and in the school-house. In 1766 there were no less than one 
 hundred and twenty-seven catechumens to prepare for con- 
 firmation, and sometimes four hundred communicants ap- 
 peared at the Lord's Table. It was plain that one minister 
 could not satisfy the necessities and demands of the congre- 
 gation, and on Oct. 22, 1764, two weeks after the death of 
 Handschuh, it was resolved by the vestry to petition the 
 Fathers in Europe to send another missionary, who might 
 serve the congregation as a colleague of Miihlenberg. One 
 of the results of the unparalleled increase of immigration from 
 Germany at that time was the formation, in 1764, of the 
 " German Benevolent Society of Pennsylvania," which held 
 its first meeting and for years following many others in 
 the school-house of the Lutheran congregation, on the day 
 after Christmas, 1764, Henry Keppele being elected presi- 
 dent: it received its charter Sept. 20, 1781. Its most import- 
 ant object was to counteract the frauds and barbarities in those 
 times habitually practised by shippers upon helpless emigrants, 
 and to assist them at the time of their arrival in Pennsylvania. 
 The history of this society from 1764 until 1876 is given in a 
 very interesting and exhaustive manner in a work by Prof. Dr. 
 O. Seidensticker of the University of Pennsylvania (published 
 by I. Kohler, Philadelphia, 1876). 
 
 During the year 1764 the plan of enlarging St. Michael's 
 Church was frequently discussed inside and outside of the vestry 
 of the Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia. If it had ever 
 been carried out, it would have been very unsatisfactory. We 
 might think that the organization of a second Lutheran con- 
 gregation and the erection of another church-building intended 
 for its use would have obviated the difficulty and have been 
 the most feasible thing, but there was no inclination in this 
 direction. During the summer of 1763, Hartwig had a num- 
 ber of times preached to Lutherans in the German Reformed 
 
404 LIFE AND. TIMES OF 
 
 church, saying that he wanted to serve only those who found 
 no room in St. Michael's ; but his proceeding in this matter, 
 acting without consultation with the pastors and the vestry 
 of St. Michael's, appeared very offensive, and the permission 
 to use the German Reformed church for his separatistic agi- 
 tation was soon withdrawn. B, M. Hausihl, who for a time, 
 in the autumn of 1763, had served the congregation at Read- 
 ing, entered upon his duties as pastor of the church at Easton, 
 Pa v and at Greenwich, in its neighborhood, in New Jersey. 
 With both these congregations he had involved himself in 
 difficulties, and at the beginning of July, 1765, came to Phil- 
 adelphia as having received a call from the anti-Pietistic por- 
 tion of the Lutheran congregation there. A resolution passed 
 by the vestry on July i$th prohibited him from preaching in 
 St. Michael's and serving at funerals in the graveyard of the 
 congregation. He nevertheless in August brought his family 
 and his furniture to Philadelphia, where soon afterward his 
 mother-in-law died, and on Sept. 1st he preached his inaugural 
 sermon. His intention to organize a separate congregation 
 met with no success.* May 4, 1766, Miihlenberg preached 
 the dedication sermon of Trinity Church at Lancaster. The 
 synod, convened at Philadelphia June 9th to I2th, struck 
 Hausihl's name from the ministerial roll an act done in the 
 absence of Miihlenberg. No plan to organize a second Ger- 
 man Lutheran congregation at Philadelphia could in those 
 times succeed. 
 
 * It appears from a declaration signed by two members of the German Reformed 
 church, and published in the Philadelphia Staatsbote of Aug. 5, 1765, that that 
 party of the Reformed Church which erected St. George's Church, in Fourth street, 
 south of New, being unable to carry through the enterprise, now gave " the half 
 of the church" to a certain number of Lutherans; that they had accepted Mr 
 Hausihl for three years as their pastor and had given him a regular call, but that 
 it was untrue that during this period no Reformed pastor should have a right to 
 preach in the church ; that after three years each of the two congregations might 
 elect a pastor for themselves. It is also stated that the Reformed had before for- 
 mally offered to the Lutheran congregation to build a union church, but the offer 
 was refused. ( Vide also A History of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia, by 
 Rev. David van Home. Philadelphia, Reformed Church Publication Board, 907 
 Arch street, 1876. pp. 40 sqq.) 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 405 
 
 Feb. 19, 1766, the vestry of St. Michael's Church resolved 
 to buy a piece of ground on the south-east corner of Cherry 
 and Fourth streets, opposite the school-house, and there to 
 erect a large church. The very fact that this lot was only 
 one square distant from St. Michael's proves how much stress 
 was laid upon retaining one congregation. To the resolution of 
 the vestry the congregation gave its unanimous consent. The 
 lot, 1 08 by 70, was bought for fifteen hundred and forty pounds 
 nine shillings, currency, or four thousand one hundred and six 
 dollars and sixty-six cents. The liberal contributions coming 
 from the members of the congregation during the months of 
 January and February of 1766 amounted to eighteen hundred 
 Pennsylvania pounds considering the condition of the people 
 from a financial point of view, an exceedingly large sum. 
 April 25th the vestry resolved " solemnly to lay the corner- 
 stone of the second Lutheran church, to be called Zion 
 Church." Subsequently the vestry added that during the 
 synodical meeting they " would take care of the pastors and 
 of their horses," and "that a steeple should be attached to 
 the church and be built up while her walls were erected." 
 Twenty-two years later the steeple was carried -somewhat 
 higher than the lofty roof of the church, but never finished. 
 When synod, in June, 1766, met at Philadelphia, the corner- 
 stone was solemnly laid in its presence on June nth. In the 
 corner-stone were deposited a copy of Luther's Small Cate- 
 chism printed at Philadelphia, a copy of the Confessio Augiis- 
 tana Invariata, and a document containing the essentials of 
 the history of the congregation and an address to posterity.* 
 When, in 1869, Zion Church was demolished, the box placed 
 in the corner-stone was found, but of its contents nothing but 
 insignificant remnants were left. This may be attributed to 
 the fire which, on the night of Dec. 26, 1794, devastated all 
 the interior and destroyed the roof of the church. During 
 1766 the walls of the building had been put under roof, and 
 during the following year the arch-work forming the ceiling 
 
 * This address is preserved to us in Section II. of the thirteenth continuation of 
 the Halle Reports. 
 
406 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was put in place and the plastering of the inside of the build- 
 ing was completed. Originally, two rows of high columns 
 from south to north divided the church into three parts a 
 plan which, after the conflagration of 1794, was totally 
 changed. This church was for a considerable number of 
 years considered to be the largest and finest house of wor- 
 ship in all North America. Though there were still wanting 
 the organ and a regular .set of pews and other appliances, it 
 was dedicated June 25, 1769, before an immense concourse 
 of people and amid the rejoicings of the congregation, which 
 in this great undertaking had shown much fervor and an 
 admirable willingness to serve the cause of religion. In the 
 festivities of that occasion participated the members of the 
 German Lutheran Ministerium, the pastors of the Swedish 
 and German Reformed congregations, the commissary of the 
 Episcopal Church, the provost and faculty of the academy, 
 the mayor of Philadelphia, and other dignitaries. Whitefield 
 accepted the invitation to preach in Zion on Sunday, May 27, 
 1770, in the evening; his text was 2 Cqr. vii. i. He requested 
 that the services conclude with the singing of a German hymn. 
 The last two verses of Nun ruhen alle Waelder were sung. 
 The large building was overcrowded. Whitefield died Sept. 
 3Oth of the same year. 
 
 That a debt of more than eight thousand Pennsylvania 
 pounds proved a heavy burden we can easily understand. 
 The flourishing condition of the congregation in those days 
 is attested by the fact that already in 1772 the debts were 
 reduced to fifty-two hundred Pennsylvania pounds. The 
 assistance coming from Europe was in this respect of no 
 great account. The proposition to raise a considerable sum 
 of money by opening a lottery was rejected by the vestry as 
 not being in accordance with Christian principles, though in 
 those times lotteries helped to pay the debts of many a church. 
 In the manner in which the St. Michael and Zion vestry dis- 
 posed of the proposition we may properly trace the influence 
 of Miihlenberg. He was in those years under the pressure of 
 the responsibilities incurred in behalf of St. Peter's at Barren 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 407 
 
 Hill, but there also he had not advocated a measure of such 
 a profane character to extricate the house of God and to free 
 himself from a very embarrassing difficulty. 
 
 When Zion Church was solemnly dedicated seven years had 
 passed since Miihlenberg's return to Philadelphia. Certainly, 
 the building, which easily accommodated between two and 
 three thousand people, and which in a period of one hundred 
 years offered a place for hundreds of thousands of souls to 
 worship the living God, was a monument also to the happy 
 and blessed influence which during those seven years he had 
 exercised upon the congregation. That building formed a 
 parallel to that other work wherein within the same period 
 he showed his master-hand the new constitution adopted in 
 1762, without which Zion Church probably would never have 
 been built. To this must be added the great unanimity which 
 years before the end of that period, and during years follow- 
 ing it, permeated the congregation, and amply testified to the 
 influence which Miihlenberg exercised by his superior prac- 
 tical intelligence and by the exalted purity of his character. 
 
 In answer to the petition after the death of Handschuh sent 
 to Halle, Rev. Christopher Emanuel Schulze arrived Oct. 24, 
 1765, at Philadelphia. After having delivered (Oct. 27th) his 
 inaugural sermon in St. Michael's, he was on the following 
 day unanimously elected by the vestry second pastor of the 
 congregation. Miihlenberg found in him a colleague whom 
 he could respect and love. His marriage with Miihlenberg's 
 eldest daughter, Eve Elizabeth, born Jan. 9, 1748, brought 
 him still nearer to his heart. The marriage ceremony was 
 performed by Wrangel, Sept. 23, 1766. Schulze was born 
 Jan. 25, 1740, at Probstzell, near Saalfeld, Saxony; he had 
 received his theological education at the University of Halle, 
 and had for a few years been one of the instructors in the 
 Orphan-House and scholastic institutions of that city. Hav- 
 ing received the call from Pennsylvania through Dr. G. A. 
 Francke and Dr. Ziegenhagen, he was ordained at Wernige- 
 rode before departing, by the way of Hamburg and London, 
 for America. He was the only son of his mother, a widow, 
 
408 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and had an only sister, who died before the mother, who 
 until her end was the object of his filial care and attention. 
 Schulze was a man of very commanding appearance and of 
 a tall, robust frame; as a preacher he was most acceptable, 
 and as a catechiser was without a superior. When, in 1769, 
 J. N. Kurtz was called to York, Schulze was elected his suc- 
 cessor at Tulpehoken. To this change, perfected January, 
 1771, the Philadelphia congregation consented only on the 
 condition that in case of pressing necessity he would re-enter 
 upon the pastoral office at Philadelphia. It seems that he 
 preferred living and serving in the country to sojourning in 
 the city. Already, in 1768, Miihlenberg takes occasion to tes- 
 tify to Schulze's excellent horsemanship, and relates that at a 
 later time, in 1782 (Oct. 4th), Schulze made in one day fifty 
 miles on horseback. When, in 1784, Dr. Kunze moved from 
 Philadelphia to New York, the Philadelphia congregation, 
 reminding Schulze of his former promise, sent him such a 
 pressing call that he could not well avoid accepting it. A 
 most critical and protracted sickness interfered, and, Schulze's 
 vitality being for some time greatly reduced, the Philadelphia 
 congregation could not insist upon his removing to the city. 
 He continued in his service at Tulpehoken and other neigh- 
 boring congregations until his death, March 9, 1 809. One of 
 his sons, John Andrew Melchior, entered the ministerial office 
 in 1796, and for some time assisted his father; was ordained 
 in 1800, settled at Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pa., retired in 
 consequence of bodily sufferings from the ministerial service ; 
 was in 1806 made a member of the legislature of his native 
 State ; and this grandson of H. M. Miihlenberg was twice (1823- 
 29) elected governor of Pennsylvania. His father had served 
 as president of synod 178185 and 1793-94. As a pastor he 
 was indefatigable in his labors. Miihlenberg here and there 
 takes occasion to testify to his most arduous life, and to the 
 conscientious manner in which, though overwhelmed with 
 work beyond his strength, he attended to his duties. Miihl- 
 enberg preserves to us a letter which Schulze, as president 
 of synod, sent out April 20, 1784, to invite the brethren to 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 409 
 
 the annual convention. We give its substance to our readers : 
 " The time of our yearly meeting is near. I, for one, already 
 rejoice in the thought of this prospect of coming together. 
 In this joy you, my highly-respected brethren, will share. 
 The office entrusted to us by our Lord being full of impedi- 
 ments and difficulties, let us at our meeting again encourage 
 one another manfully to do our duty and in spite of all oppo- 
 sition to the truth never to become weary. Since on that great 
 day to come we shall have to give before our Chief Shepherd 
 an account how we attended to the important duties laid upon 
 us, let us incite one another to renewed faithfulness and seri- 
 ousness, that in the end we may be found faithful stewards. 
 May the Lord, who has all in his hands, bestow upon our con- 
 vention a lasting blessing !" Schulze stood very high in the 
 estimation of his brethren in the sacred office, who honored 
 him by the title of " Senior," and at all times showed him 
 the highest respect, as did the whole community in which 
 he lived. 
 
 It may be proper here to mention a few more of the cola- 
 borers of Miihlenberg, in whose welfare he took much con- 
 cern, and who in various ways were brought into nearer con- 
 tact with him. 
 
 One of the pastors of whose sincerity and devotion to the 
 cause of Christ and his Church Miihlenberg entertained a 
 very good opinion, and to whom he often proved a judicious 
 counsellor and a true friend, was John Andrew Krug, born in 
 Saxony, educated in Halle, and before his departure for Amer- 
 ica with his companion, J. L. Voigt, ordained at Wernigerode. 
 In Germany he had already done some pastoral service. 
 After a tedious voyage from London, which he and Voigt 
 had left Jan. 24, 1764, he arrived at Philadelphia on Sunday 
 afternoon, April 1st, and was welcomed by Miihlenberg and 
 Handschuh. After the removal of Hausihl to Easton the 
 congregation at Reading was left vacant. We find that Krug 
 had begun his pastoral labors there before April 3Oth, on 
 Easter Day, and continued therein, though a regular call as 
 pastor of' the congregation was not given him before the 
 
4IO LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 autumn of the same year. It appears that he also served the 
 congregation in the vicinity, for already in May of that year 
 Miihlenberg states that Krug began to acquire some skill in 
 riding on horseback. He was, however, not of a robust phys- 
 ical constitution, had a weak voice, and was short-sighted to 
 such an extent that in reading he had to bring his eyes almost 
 down upon the book. But his unaffected humility, his sincere 
 piety, and his zeal for the welfare of those who were entrusted 
 to his care could not fail to gain for him the esteem and the 
 affection of those who were spiritually benefited by his pas- 
 toral services. As a true " Hallensis " he held private devo- 
 tions with such in addition to the usual public service. There 
 were, however, among the membership at Reading in those 
 days some rough and disturbing elements, and they embit- 
 tered his life. In 1769 seventeen members lodged unreason- 
 able complaints against him before synod and demanded his 
 removal ; their demand, however, was outweighed by a counter- 
 petition signed by one hundred and six members. It appears 
 that in 1770 some elders of the Lutheran church at Baltimore, 
 afterward served by Gerock, were favorably inclined toward 
 Krug, and had on this account addressed Miihlenberg. In 
 his answer of Sept. 24, 1770, to one of them, Dr. Chas. Fr. 
 Wiesenthal, he says : " Provided Rev. Krug should, accord- 
 ing to the divine will, be the instrument to build up the con- 
 gregation, as the gentlemen elders seem to think, I agree with 
 you in this that you selected a man of excellent charac- 
 ter, who already served in the sacred office in Germany, in 
 consequence of our urgent petitions was given to this Amer- 
 ican vineyard, free of all expenses, to assist us, presided for 
 some years in the Reading church, teaching pure doctrine 
 and walking without blemish, though he experienced there 
 much rude treatment from some puffed-up persons. In addi- 
 tion ' to this, I testify from my personal knowledge that he is 
 not only very well versed in the Oriental languages wherein 
 God's word is written, but in all the branches of theology, 
 and adorns his preaching with a Christian walk and conversa- 
 tion. I count it one of his peculiar gifts that he is eminently 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. 41! 
 
 able, in catechising and in instructing, to deal in a friendly 
 and edifying manner with young people a quality most 
 necessary in a teacher. I also say that he is neither a hypo- 
 crite nor a flatterer, but speaks to every one the truth without 
 prevarication, and is no respecter of persons, high or low. But 
 the difficulty rests in this that for some time past the elders 
 and deacons of the congregation at Fredericktown have re- 
 quested Rev. Krug to become their pastor, and sent me a call 
 to be laid at the next synodical meeting before the ministe- 
 rium to be deliberated upon, and to be approved of or dis- 
 approved." This is ample proof of Miihlenberg's good opin- 
 ion of Krug. 
 
 The action of synod resulted in 1771 in a regular call from 
 the Fredericktown congregation, and in Krug's removal to 
 that field in the same year. Here J. S. Schwerdfeger, who 
 has already been mentioned, had 1 been pastor since October, 
 1763, after his admission into synod in 1762. After returning 
 from a voyage to Europe, where he had expected to receive 
 Episcopal ordination in England, he found the Fredericktown 
 congregation, which Hartwig had served in the interim, un- 
 willing to re-enter into a connection with him ; moved, after 
 some delay in Pennsylvania, to Albany, N. Y. ; then, about 
 1784, to the neighboring Feilestown, where he died about 
 1788, after having in 1786 participated in the formation of the 
 New York Ministerium. 
 
 In obeying a request of the church-officers at Strassburg, 
 Va., June 15-30, 1772 consequently, a short time before 
 Peter Miihlenberg entered there upon his remarkable career 
 Krug undertook a tour to that province, visited Winchester 
 (where he found an unfinished stone church begun by the Lu- 
 therans years before), Neustadt, Strassburg, and Woodstock ; 
 preached at those places, instructed children, celebrated the 
 Lord's Supper, visited the sick, and baptized forty-five chil- 
 dren. In the same year (Oct. 6th) he was married by Miihl- 
 enberg to Henrietta, only daughter of Handschuh, whose 
 widow died some years later in Krug's house. About the 
 year 1783, in addition to Fredericktown, he served congrega- 
 
412 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tions in its neighborhood, but was hardly strong enough for 
 all this work, and incurred here also, in 1785 and the follow- 
 ing years, the ill-will of some persons, who may have felt 
 themselves aggrieved by his testifying against their unchris- 
 tian manner of living, but was amply sustained against their 
 complaints by the voice of an overwhelming majority of his 
 membership. .In spite of serious attacks of sickness and of 
 his general physical debility, he continued in his pastoral 
 activity until the day of his death, May 30, 1796. Synod 
 resolved that Rev. Dr. G. H. E. Miihlenberg, pastor of the 
 Lancaster congregation, son of H. M. Miihlenberg, should, 
 with Goering and Melsheimer, two other members of the 
 ministerium, proceed to Fredericktown and there deliver a 
 funeral sermon. 
 
 With John L. Voigt, who had come to this country with 
 Krug, and had with him been ordained at Wernigerode, 
 Muhlenberg had in later years much personal intercourse. 
 His preaching in St. Michael's (Apr. 8, 1764) the first time 
 . after his arrival made a favorable impression upon a num- 
 ber of the Philadelphia congregation, but he himself made 
 a less favorable one upon Miihlenberg's oldest daughter, who 
 not long afterward refused his proposals. J. N. Kurtz having 
 returned to Tulpehoken, Voigt was stationed at Germantown 
 from July 7, 1764, serving also at Barren Hill, but followed in 
 1765 a call to Providence, was elected in 1768 at New Han- 
 over, where a certain clique had attempted to palm either 
 the miserable man Rapp of Germantown memory, or the 
 equally despicable individual Engelland, upon the congrega- 
 tion. Voigt served also at Pikestown, on the west side of the 
 Schuylkill. He quitted the service at New Hanover about 
 1776 and moved to Pikestown (called also St. Vincent), where 
 until 1762 Lutherans and Reformed had used the same log 
 church, which then fell exclusively into the hands of the 
 Lutherans. This church was called Zion. In 1772 a num- 
 ber of its members erected, some miles to the south-west of 
 Zion, St. Peter's Church. Zion was rebuilt of stone before the 
 outbreak of the Revolutionary War. When Muhlenberg, in 
 
HENRY MELCH2OR MUHLENBERG. 413 
 
 1776, returned to Providence (Trappe), Voigt moved to a par- 
 sonage erected by the people of Zion and St. Peter's west of 
 the Schuylkill, served also the Lutherans at Pottstown, and 
 alternately with Miihlenberg, about 1778 and 1779, at Prov- 
 idence. This latter congregation he attended yet for some 
 time after 1790, retaining the others until his death, Dec. 28, 
 1800. He had reached the age of seventy years. His mor- 
 tal remains rest near. Zion Church. The inscription on his 
 tombstone informs us that he was born in Mansfeld, well 
 known through Luther's biography. After having finished 
 his theological education, he was for a time engaged as a 
 teacher in the Halle institutions, when the call to Pennsyl- 
 vania came to him. In his ministerial services Voigt proved 
 himself a true son of Halle. When at New Hanover he 
 introduced hours of private devotion among those of his 
 membership who felt a deeper spiritual interest, and in doing 
 this incurred the opposition of such as viewed that practice 
 as a sign of heterodoxy,, or at least used it as a pretext. He 
 was a man of marked individuality, but was occasionally lack- 
 ing in judiciousness. Already in Germantown he involved him- 
 self in some financial difficulties, as he did not fully under- 
 stand how to " make both ends meet." He fell into a worse 
 difficulty at New Hanover, where, on account of suspicions 
 aroused by his want of circumspection, the people for a time 
 became very averse to him, and Muhlenberg, while not doubt- 
 ing his innocence, found it necessary to address him a letter 
 which was anything but flattering. He advised Voigt to 
 marry, and united him in 1779 (Nov. 1 6th), in his own house, 
 in marriage with Anna Mary, widow of Conrad Soellner. 
 During the War of Independence, Voigt was time and again 
 exposed to the rudeness of the soldiers of the American army 
 encamped not very far from his parsonage. He was consid- 
 ered a Tory, as he refused publicly to pray for the American 
 Congress. At one time he absented himself for three years 
 from the meetings of synod. Later, on account of his ad- 
 vanced age, he was permitted to remain away. His library, 
 which he bequeathed to his congregation, testified to his lit- 
 
4H LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 erary tastes. He was well educated in music, and especially 
 in organ-playing. Living in the vicinity of Providence, he 
 was brought into frequent personal intercourse with Muhlen- 
 berg, who here and there in his diary indicates that he appre- 
 ciated the social qualities of his friend and colaborer Voigt. 
 And it was Voigt who during Miihlenberg's last sickness and 
 the days of his approaching end had free access to him, and 
 who spoke to him words of consolation and encouragement. 
 
 We have already had occasion to speak of those two excel- 
 lent men, John Fred. Schmidt and Justus H. Chr. Helmuth, 
 both of whom arrived April 2, 1769, at Philadelphia. From 
 their school-years they were united by the tenderest ties of 
 friendship, and from 1786 until 1812 in which year Schmidt 
 preceded his friend into eternity also by the pastoral care of 
 the Philadelphia congregation. Their most important activity 
 and influence in the Church fall into the period subsequent to 
 Miihlenberg's life, and we have to content ourselves with a 
 few additional notices throwing some light upon their career 
 and character. 
 
 After his arrival Schmidt assisted Muhlenberg for a short 
 time at Philadelphia, and then followed the call to German- 
 town, serving, also, Barren Hill and some other outposts, 
 which in subsequent years caused him very arduous labor. 
 When, in 1772, Muhlenberg visited the congregations Bed- 
 minster, etc. in New Jersey, which by the removal of his son 
 Peter to Virginia had 'become vacant, the name of Schmidt 
 was mentioned, among others; as a possible successor. There 
 were objections raised against a number of older and younger 
 brethren whom Muhlenberg proposed. Of Schmidt the mem- 
 bers of the vestry said that " in the pulpit he proved himself 
 a good preacher, but had not salt enough " in his intercourse 
 with the people. He had no desire to move to New Jersey., 
 He was in 1772 married to the daughter of a former elder of 
 the Germantown congregation who resided at Philadelphia, 
 and there died in 1778. Schmidt enjoyed the high esteem of 
 the congregations under his care. The former dissensions in 
 the Germantown congregation had been succeeded by a bliss- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 415 
 
 ful peace. When, in 1784, Kunze accepted the call to Christ 
 Church at New York, and Schulze could not enter upon an 
 official engagement at Philadelphia on account of the precari- 
 ous condition of his health, Schmidt was appointed (June 29, 
 1785), by the vestry of the Philadelphia congregation, Hel- 
 muth's assistant, and Sept. iSth of the following year, by five 
 hundred affirmative votes, was elected second pastor. Thus 
 the friends were made colleagues ; and it seems that this pecu- 
 liar relation did not in any way interfere with their friendship, 
 though it is said that when both pastors preached, as usual, 
 at the same time one in St. Michael's, the other in Zion 
 the people were seen standing on the pavement watching to 
 which church the one or the other would turn, Helmuth 
 invariably attracting the much larger audience. When, in 
 1770, after the removal of J. N. Kurtz to York, the Tulpeho- 
 ken charge was vacant, and Schmidt paid a visit there during 
 the latter part of August, and then turned his course toward 
 Lancaster, his friend Helmuth came twenty-three miles to meet 
 him. With all his solid learning, his eminent knowledge of 
 Oriental languages, and all his other attainments, Schmidt 
 was not a man much inclined to bring himself forward. It 
 appears that he was of a retiring disposition and not desirous 
 of much public notice, but there were those who knew how 
 to appreciate his substantial erudition and his excellent cha- 
 racter, and to this the title of doctor of divinity, given him 
 by the University of Pennsylvania, testifies. During the fear- 
 ful ravages of yellow fever at Philadelphia in 1793, when 
 through the pestilence the congregation lost no less than 
 six hundred and twenty-five of its members, he was himself 
 attacked by the terrible disease, besides losing by it seven 
 children, and shortly afterward the partner of his life. In 
 those days of terror and affliction the vestry prohibited the 
 pastors from following funerals to the graves. Thousands of 
 citizens had fled from the city. The two friends and pastors 
 remained at their post, faithfully doing their duty. After 
 much bodily suffering, Schmidt died May 1 6, 1812, in the 
 sixty-seventh year of his age. At the funeral Dr. Helmuth 
 
41 6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 spoke most affectingly on the words, " I am distressed for 
 thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been 
 unto me ; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of 
 women " (2 Sam. ii. 26). The second Sunday after burying 
 his friend in front of the chancel in St. Michael's he held a 
 solemn service in Zion, speaking on the words Rom. i. 16. 
 
 Helmuth, who was born in 1745 at Helmstedt in the duke- 
 dom of Brunswick, lost his father in very early life, was 
 received in his fourteenth year into the Orphan-House at 
 Halle, some years later attended the university there, and 
 was afterward engaged as a teacher in the Francke institu- 
 tions, where his eminent talent for teaching and preaching 
 could not escape observation. When the call to Pennsylvania 
 came, all his hesitation to accept of it was removed by the 
 readiness of his intimate friend, Schmidt, to accompany him. 
 When both had arrived at Philadelphia, and each of them had 
 delivered a sermon, Miihlenberg in a letter to his friend Rev. 
 Pasche at London alludes to the usual curiosity of the people 
 to hear new preachers, and sub rosa communicates to him the 
 popular opinion about both of them: " Concerning Mr. Hel- 
 muth they say, ' This youth suits America. He will, when 
 riper in years, prove an excellent impressive preacher ; in the 
 pulpit he will excel even Mr. Schulze. He must be retained 
 in Philadelphia : three men have enough work here ; the old 
 man [Miihlenberg] must be placed in an easier position.' Of 
 Mr. Schmidt they say, ' He is also a promising young man, but 
 does not come up to Helmuth. He stands in the pulpit like 
 a stock, without moving a hand, as a schoolboy who has to 
 recite a lesson, and, not having memorized it well, is afraid of 
 punishment ; he does not touch the heart, is rather dry, and 
 falls in preaching into a singing manner, like Handschuh or 
 Krug.' " In this quotation of popular opinion there is a lesson 
 deserving to be remembered. 
 
 The good reports about Helmuth's preaching had already 
 reached Lancaster, then vacant on account of Gerock's re- 
 moval to New York. Miihlenberg accompanied Helmuth 
 (Apr. 22, 1769) to Lancaster, visited a number of smaller con- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 417 
 
 gregations of the neighborhood, and proceeded to York (where 
 he had not visited for a considerable number of years), for the 
 first time saw the recently-erected church ; met Bager, and 
 received from Raus, residing there, a letter full of hostile sen- 
 timents and charges of having caused persecution to the author 
 of the letter. The vestry at Lancaster had meanwhile elected 
 Helmuth their pastor. This Muhlenberg four days later (Sun- 
 day, May 2 ist) announced to the congregation, with the un- 
 derstanding that for a time he and Schulze should share with 
 Helmuth the care of the congregation. Helmuth, however, 
 was eminently successful in this new field. It was with the 
 greatest reluctance that this congregation saw him leave 
 and in 1779 accept a call to Philadelphia, where he had been 
 elected (May 25th) by three hundred and fifty-six votes, some 
 of the ballots also having on them the words " No Rector." 
 There was no need of this allusion to a subject which for a 
 time had unpleasantly agitated the congregation. In the 
 charter of 1765, Muhlenberg had received that title, but it 
 met with no sympathy in a German congregation, had even 
 become offensive, and at the time of Helmuth's election was 
 going out of use. In 1784 the latter was elected a member 
 of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, in the following 
 year president of synod, and by the trustees of the University 
 of Pennsylvania was made doctor of divinity. In that scholas- 
 tic institution he held for eighteen years the chair of German 
 and Oriental languages. July 4, 1770, he was married to 
 Barbara, daughter of Henry Keppele, with whom he lodged 
 for some time after moving to Philadelphia. In 1785 the con- 
 gregation had paid all its debts, and erected, in 1786, a new 
 parsonage, at the north-east corner of Fourth and Cherry 
 streets. In 1785, assisted by his friend and colleague 
 Schmidt, Helmuth began the preparation of young men for 
 the sacred office, and succeeded in furnishing to the Church 
 a number of pastors who are kept in well-deserved remem- 
 brance among them, Rev. Messrs. J. G. Lochman, Endress, 
 J. G. Schmucker, Miller, Baker, Goering, Batis. Helmuth was 
 also a prolific author. In 1793 he published a work on bap- 
 
 27 
 
41 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tism and on the Holy Scriptures, an historical and interesting 
 book in connection with the yellow-fever visitation, various 
 tracts and some hymns, and also articles for the Evangelical 
 Magazine, which appeared at Philadelphia under his editor- 
 ship. In all his publications his talent can be clearly seen. 
 But, while he retains substantially the creed and the forms of 
 the older Pietism, and is not conscious of departing from Lu- 
 theran principles, and forcibly defends the orthodox faith 
 against Rationalism, becoming, at times, rampant, his lan- 
 guage is no longer that of a Spener or a H. A. Francke or a 
 Muhlenberg, but is sentimental and declamatory, and shows 
 the influence of a later neological period of German literature 
 and theology. There is a truth in the old saying, Qui nintat 
 verba, mutat sensum. As a preacher Helmuth was considered 
 a man of most eminent endowment. It is reported that he 
 had the habit of beginning with a low voice and in a very 
 quiet manner. This produced close attention and complete 
 quiet in his audience. When he had once excited the interest 
 of his hearers, he kept them riveted to himself by the fluency 
 of his speech, the beauty of his language, and the enthusias- 
 tic ardor which magnetically carried his hearers along. He 
 was exceedingly felicitous in catechising children, and by his 
 vivacity and natural kindness excited their interest in the sub- 
 jects presented to them. 
 
 During the period in which Schmidt and Helmuth presided 
 over the Philadelphia congregation attempts were made to 
 introduce the English language into the public services: This 
 led to very severe struggles, to much animosity, and even to 
 lawsuits. The pastors were convinced that the introduction 
 of the English into the old German congregation would in a 
 short time end in the total expulsion of the German language 
 and the Germans from the old spiritual homestead, and put 
 succeeding immigrant generations where, at the arrival of 
 Muhlenberg in 1742, the German Lutherans having no 
 church, no school, no graveyard had been under immensely 
 greater obstacles. But this is no reason why, with all good- 
 will and all their influence, they should not have assisted in 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 419 
 
 the formation of an English Lutheran church as a receptacle 
 for those of their membership who could no longer be bene- 
 fited by services held in the German language. The move- 
 ment begun by such about the year 1806 under the auspices 
 of Rev. Ph. Fr. Mayer, D. D., was, however, successful, and re- 
 sulted in the organization of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran 
 congregation and the erection of a large church-building. 
 Helmuth resigned his charge in 1820, and five years later 
 (Feb. 5, 1825) departed this life. 
 
42O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1766 et seq. 
 
 Provost Wrangel returns to Sweden. His relation to the Episcopal Church. 
 Miihlenberg's eldest son, J. Peter Gabriel, returns from Europe and devotes 
 himself to the study of theology. His further career. H. M. Miihlenberg 
 again visits the Raritan congregations, also Easton, Allentown, Macungie, 
 Salisbury, Allemaengel, and White Hall His sons Fred. Aug. Conrad and G. 
 Henry Ernest return from Halle prepared for pastoral work. They enter 
 upon it. Their further career. Rev. J. Chr. Kunze. His labors in Phila- 
 delphia, and later in New York. 
 
 A DMITTING, as we must, that the men who arrived 
 ^j- here while Miihlenberg was yet in full vigor and ener- 
 getic activity added, each of " them according to the ability 
 which God giveth," strength to the cause of the Church and 
 filled important stations, the Church, especially the Swedish 
 branch of it, suffered a great loss in this part of the world by 
 the return of Provost Wrangel to his native country in 1768. 
 That the departure of this devoted friend and colaborer was 
 most severely felt by Muhlenberg needs no remark. Wran- 
 gel may have erred in some of his views and intentions, 
 but the sincerity of his heart cannot be doubted. He was 
 undeniably inclined to unionistic principles and favored an 
 amalgamation of the Lutheran and the Episcopal churches. 
 His strongly-developed Pietism, his warm sympathy with 
 Whitefield and his views and methods, caused some dis- 
 trust among the Swedish pastors over whom he was placed 
 as overseer. Wrangel may have been convinced that in con- 
 sequence of the cessation of Swedish immigration the Swe- 
 dish churches would before long have exclusively to use 
 the English language in their worship. As these congrega- 
 tions would no longer make use of the services of pastors 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 421 
 
 directly sent from Sweden, and as there was here no school 
 of divinity in which young men were educated to serve 
 Lutheran congregations in the English language, he may 
 have been convinced that it would be better for the Swedish 
 Lutherans to be united with the Episcopal rather than with 
 any other ecclesiastical body, since they could not well retain 
 their individuality as Lutheran congregations. This explains 
 why Rev. Rich. Peters, rector of Christ Church, and already 
 known to us, says in the letter introducing Wrangel, under 
 date Aug. 36, 1768, to the bishop of London, after alluding 
 to the Presbyterians and to their harsh manners and prin- 
 ciples : " Dr. WrangeJ wants to take a just advantage of this 
 general antipathy to the Presbyterians, and to unite the great 
 body of Lutherans and Swedes with the Church of England, 
 who, you know, are but few and in mean circumstances in 
 this province ; but were they united with the German Luther- 
 ans we should both become respectable." Already in 1765 it 
 was rumored that Wrangel, in consequence of the complaints 
 lodged against him by the Swedish pastors Borell, Wicksell, 
 and Hegeblad, had received orders to return to Sweden; 
 which orders, however, as Muhlenberg states, met with the op- 
 position of the Swedish churches here and made no impression 
 in Sweden. After nine years of labor in the foreign land he 
 obeyed the call from Sweden, and Sept. I, 1768, left Philadel- 
 phia, his field of arduous services on this side of the Atlantic, 
 together with a host of friends, among whom none felt his 
 loss more severely than did Muhlenberg, who also was anx- 
 ious about his successor as provost, and about the position 
 he would here take in relation to his own diocese and to the 
 German Lutheran Church. This successor as provost and as 
 pastor of Wicaco church was Andrew Goeranson, who had 
 arrived here in 1766, continued to maintain the pleasant rela- 
 tion between Swedish and German Lutheran churches, was 
 present at the synodical convention at Lancaster in 1772, 
 accompanied Muhlenberg on his tour to dedicate St. Peter's 
 Church, near Pikestown, Nov. 8th, continued in his offices 
 here until 1779, left for his native country in 1785, and after 
 
422 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 much suffering died in 1800. Wrangel, returning to Sweden 
 by way of England, proved his friendship by making efforts 
 to create among the Anglican Church people and in German 
 Lutheran congregations of London an active sympathy for 
 the German Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania, in which 
 benevolent enterprise he was only partially successful. After 
 his arrival in Sweden he was, as Clay asserts in his Swe- 
 dish Annals, etc., created a bishop. He continued to corre- 
 spond with his friend Miihlenberg, and in a letter of June 
 15, 1784, informs him that he would never forget either his 
 friend or America, that his lot was now cast in pleasant 
 places, and that he was rector of two congregations and 
 provost of the district. The letter is dated from Sahla, in 
 Sweden. He died in 1786, which fact Miihlenberg states 
 April 22, 1787. 
 
 Two years before Wrangel returned to Sweden, Miihlen- 
 berg's first-born son, Peter, returned to his native country. It 
 appears that after, for a time, receiving instruction in the Halle 
 institutions the practical turn of his mind had very strongly 
 shown itself, and, as he was inclined to the natural sciences, it 
 was deemed proper to apprentice him for the term of six years 
 to Niemeyer, a druggist at Liibeck, a relative of whom was 
 in close connection with the Halle institutions. In his. mas- 
 ter's house young Peter did not enjoy the attention which his 
 health needed, but proved faithful to his master for some time. 
 Soon he found that here he could make no progress in the 
 pursuit of natural sciences, as Niemeyer's business was of a 
 very circumscribed character and essentially connected with 
 articles which to the young aspirant afforded, indeed, no 
 particular interest. He may also have felt that he was kept 
 under undue restraint, and that so long an apprenticeship 
 would bring to his employer advantages out of all propor- 
 tion to the gains on his own side. But " one fine morning " 
 he was found missing without having given any notice. Fol- 
 lowing his natural instinct, he had joined, as in those times 
 many young men were wont to do, a military troop marching 
 through the place in quest of recruits, and the captain had 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 423 
 
 appointed him secretary of the regiment* Of course the 
 step was an inconsiderate one, and it produced anxiety at 
 Halle and grief to his parents beyond the Atlantic. Through 
 the exertions of sympathizing friends he was, however, libe- 
 rated from his engagement, received an honorable dismission 
 from the colonel of his regiment, and found his way back to his 
 native country. No doubt joy on account of the return of 
 their first-born after three years of separation, and anxiety 
 about his future, were mixed in the hearts of the parents. To 
 the son himself all the hopes of gain by a thorough educa- 
 tion in Germany may have appeared to be blasted. Yet he 
 had passed through an experience which could not but leave 
 a lasting impression for good and better prepare him for the 
 hardsh-ips waiting for him. And now Wrangel, the true friend 
 of the family, stepped in. He took Peter into his house and 
 under his care, instructed him, directed his studies, stimulated 
 the promising elements in his pupil, led him to a more spirit- 
 ual life, and caused in him a desire to serve the interests of 
 the kingdom of God on earth. As another instance of the in- 
 fluence which Wrangel exerted upon young candidates for the 
 sacred office, we mention that Daniel' Kuhn, son of a physi- 
 cian of Lancaster who also for a time held the office of mayor 
 of the city, was furnished by Miihlenberg, in June, 1771, with 
 letters of introduction, composed in Latin, to Wrangel, under 
 whom, in Sweden, he intended to continue his theological 
 studies. A brother of his had studied botany in Upsala under 
 the famous Linnaeus, and was afterward elected professor of 
 botany and medicine in the Philadelphia college. 
 
 When Wrangel, in the winter and spring of 1768, was sev- 
 eral times absent, Peter Miihlenberg, at the request of the 
 vestry, preached to the Wicaco congregation, and by his 
 efforts gave much satisfaction. His father had before on 
 various occasions sent him to vacant congregations, which 
 
 * This whole episode in the life of General Peter MUhlenberg is fully elucidated 
 from the material in the archives of the Halle Orphan-House by Rev. W. Ger- 
 mann, D. D.. superintendent and church-counsellor at Wasungen, Sachsen-Meinin- 
 gen (Deutsck-Amerikanisches Magazin, edited by H. A. Rattermann, vol. i., 
 1886, 1887, Cincinnati, Ohio: S. Rosenthal & Co.). 
 
424 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 were well pleased with his conduct and his preaching. When 
 Peter preached in the Wicaco church, the concourse of the 
 members of the German Lutheran Church drawn by natural 
 curiosity was so great that the ordinary Sunday collections 
 in St. Michael's were sensibly diminished, and, the people 
 requesting that Peter should also preach in St. Michael's, his 
 father finally consented, and on Good Friday evening of that 
 year allowed him to preach there on "The Burial of Christ." 
 And here we cannot refrain from giving the father's ovyn 
 words as he wrote them in a letter of June 8th to Francke 
 and Ziegenhagen : " When my permission was made public, 
 there was such a concourse and throng in St. Michael's as 
 never before had taken place, as they told me, since the 
 church was erected. I did not go there, but stayed at home 
 in my small chamber, feeling like a condemned publican and 
 a worm, with tears praying the Chief Shepherd and Bishop 
 of souls to defend this act against Satan's cunning and to 
 grant that the good cause might not suffer through me or 
 mine. After service the elders came to my house and con- 
 gratulated me with much feeling on the sermon delivered by 
 my son. I thanked them, but no one knoweth what is the 
 state of my mind in anything of this sort, since I am slow to 
 believe or trust in any good, either in myself or in my own, 
 save what God's grace and mercy give. I could not take 
 it ill in my brethren in Christ that they secretly, out of love 
 to the cause, said to each other, ' God be praised ! If the old 
 man should depart, Providence has sent us a young substi- 
 tute who in case of need may assist and comfort us.' Sub- 
 sequently Peter preached several times in Barren Hill and 
 Pikestown. I do not cease to supply him with the needful 
 spiritual medicine serviceable for purification and healing, 
 which I hope he will use. At the end of April I was 'neces- 
 sitated to send him to the above-mentioned vacant charges 
 which Pastor Schertlin had served before his death [Macun- 
 gie and neighborhood], and from there to New Germantown 
 and Bedminster in Jersey. Here he preached in German and 
 English, and was quite acceptable to both parties. I my- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 42$ 
 
 self never heard him preach, but I criticised all his compo- 
 sitions, though I found nothing to censure, as he 4 ploughs 
 with his heifer,' Dr. Wr," [Wrangel]. In the same year a 
 number of Christianized Indians settled on the frontiers be- 
 tween New York and Pennsylvania petitioned the military 
 authorities to establish schools among them, since mission- 
 aries had labored among them with some success. Richard 
 Peters proposed Christian Streit, a native of New Jersey, born 
 1749, whom Muhlenberg after his graduation at the Philadel- 
 phia college had taken to his house, and who with Peter 
 enjoyed his and Wrangel's instruction; was licensed in 1769 
 to preach to the congregations at Greenwich and vicinity in 
 New Jersey and at Easton, Pa., was ordained Oct. 25, 1770, 
 had during the War of Independence a call to a military chap- 
 laincy; served (1778-82) the Lutheran church at Charleston, 
 S. C., then, until 1785, the New Hanover charge in Pennsyl- 
 vania, and then the one at Winchester, Va., where he remained, 
 exercising much wholesome influence upon a large sphere, 
 until his death, March 10, 1812. Peters also proposed Peter 
 Miihlenberg, certainly not without a belief in his ability, yet 
 also keeping in mind the fact that the memory of his grand- 
 father, Conrad Weiser, was cherished by the Indians in that 
 part of the country, that they considered him their friend and 
 counsellor, and that they had adopted him into their nation 
 an honor rarely bestowed. It seems that neither of these 
 young men was unwilling to accept the call to the Indians, 
 but their services were needed in a field nearer to them. 
 
 Peter Miihlenberg was examined at the synodical conven- 
 tion, June 20, 1769, licensed, and continued to labor in the 
 congregations of New Germantown, Bedminster, etc. in New 
 Jersey, which had for some time desired him as an assistant 
 or a substitute for his father, who was still the acknowledged 
 pastor of the charge. He sent regular reports to his father 
 of his labors, and it seems that his pastoral work was indeed 
 a work of love with him and gave him much satisfaction. On 
 the occasion of Helmuth's marriage, in 1770, he composed 
 poetical congratulations in German, and his father, to whom 
 
426 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he sent his verses for criticism, fully acknowledged the good 
 intentions, but says : "As I found that he has the gift of 
 rhyming, but not that of poetry, according to the present 
 elevated taste, I kept them back, triti proverbii hand immcinor: 
 Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses" In the same year (Nov. 
 6th) Peter was married to Anna Barbara Meyer of Philadel- 
 phia. Of his children, only two sons and a daughter survived 
 him. Their descendants are found in most honorable posi- 
 tions. These two sons, both Lutherans, were Major Peter 
 Miihlenberg, U. S. A., father of Francis P. Miihlenberg, major 
 U. S. A., who entered Vicksburg with General Grant's army 
 at the surrender of the city, and Francis L. Miihlenberg, law- 
 yer and member of Congress from Ohio. 
 
 In the spring of the following year Peter Miihlenberg 
 received a letter which in its consequences unexpectedly 
 caused an entire change in his career, and which we give 
 to our readers : 
 
 " REV. SIR : I have been requested by the vestry of a vacant 
 charge in Virginia to use my endeavors to find a person of an 
 unexceptionable character, either ordained or desirous of ob- 
 taining ordination in the clergy of the Church of England, 
 who is capable of preaching both in the English and in the 
 German languages. The Living, as established by the Laws 
 of the Land with Perquisites is of the value of Two hundred 
 and Fifty Pounds Pennsylvania currency, with a Parsonage 
 House and a Farm of at least Two hundred Acres of Ex- 
 tremely Good Land with every other convenient Out House 
 belonging to the same, which will render it very convenient 
 for a Gentleman's Seat. And having just now received a 
 Character and Information of You from Mr. John Vanorden 
 of Brunswick, I am very inclinable to believe, You would 
 fully answer the expectations of the people of that Parish ; 
 the Gentleman of whom I have had information does not 
 know, whether You are ordained by the Bishop of London 
 or not. However, be that as it will, if You can come well 
 recommended to the Vestry, they will recommend You in 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 427 
 
 such a manner as to make Your ordination certain. If You 
 should think those Proposals worth Your acceptance, I shall 
 be glad You would write me an Answer to be left in Phila- 
 delphia at the Sign of the Cross Keys, where I shall stay a 
 few days on my return home, when, if I find You inclined to 
 accept of this Living, You may expect to hear further from 
 me, directed to the care of the Gentleman, of whom I have 
 been favored with the information, which I have received. 
 " I am, tho' unacquainted, Rev. Sir, Y. Ob. Serv., 
 
 "JAMES WOOD. 
 
 "NEW YORK, 4th May, 1771. 
 
 " P. S. If You should determine to go to London, I make 
 no Doubt of the Vestry advancing sufficient Sum to defray 
 the expenses." 
 
 James Wood was a justice of Winchester, Va. His letter 
 had a decisive effect. Soon after receiving the invitation Peter 
 Miihlenberg visited the field of labor in Virginia, furnished 
 with an introduction by the Rev. Rich. Peters, D. D., in the 
 strongest terms recommending him as a " young and promis- 
 ing Divine, who is of amiable disposition and has great Es- 
 teem amongst both the Lutherans and English," and promis- 
 ing similar letters in his behalf from himself, Dr. Smith, and 
 Rev. Duche to bishops and archbishops in England. It ap- 
 pears that the Lutherans who in large numbers had emigrated 
 from Pennsylvania to Virginia and settled in the valley of the 
 Blue Ridge, especially in and about Woodstock, were much 
 pleased with the candidate for their vacant parish, and that he 
 also felt greatly attracted by the surroundings to which he 
 was invited. Bidding farewell to his congregations in New 
 Jersey, he prepared himself to go to England to receive Epis- 
 copal ordination, without which, in Virginia, he would have 
 no legal standing as a clergyman. He did not intend to 
 change any of his convictions, and the Lutheran synod, to 
 which he belonged, did not consider him as separating him- 
 self from its connection, which to us appears rather anom- 
 alous. He sailed for England March 2, 17/2. The document 
 
428 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of ordination given to him, and preserved by his descendants, 
 states that Peter Miihlenberg, " our beloved in Christ, a lit- 
 erate person, of whose virtuous and pious life and conversa- 
 tion and competent learning in Holy Scriptures we were well 
 assured," was on Tuesday, the 2ist of April, 1772, ordained 
 by Edmund of Ely in Mayfair Chapel, Westminster, London, 
 to the holy order of deacon, according to the manner and 
 form prescribed and used by the Church of England, " hav- 
 ing first in our presence taken the oaths appointed by law to 
 be taken for and instead of the oath of supremacy, and also 
 having freely and voluntarily subscribed to the Thirty-Nine 
 Articles of Religion and to the three articles of the Thirty- 
 six Canons." He was ordained as a priest April 23d, at the 
 King's Chapel of St. James, by the bishop of London, in com- 
 pany with Rev. Braidfoot of Virginia and Rev. White, later 
 the highly-honored bishop of Pennsylvania.* In the fall of 
 1772, Peter Miihlenberg settled at Woodstock, and carried 
 on his pastoral labors to the great satisfaction of his parish- 
 ioners. There is no proof that he ever received ordination as 
 a Lutheran pastor and a voting member of the Lutheran min- 
 isterium. That, however, in spite of his abnormal position, 
 he was considered a Lutheran minister may be gathered, not 
 only from the fact that he served a Lutheran charge, but also 
 from this, that in behalf of the Lutheran synod he visited 
 Lutheran congregations east of Woodstock or Staufferstadt, 
 as Krug, who during his tour to Strassburg visited here and 
 comforted many with the prospect that Father Miihlenberg 
 might pay them a visit when his son Peter would move there, 
 calls it and investigated the case of Rev. J. Schwarbach, who 
 as a licensed Lutheran minister officiated in congregations in 
 Augusta county, Va. That Peter Mtihlenberg, when the great 
 political excitement broke out in full force against England, 
 and resulted in establishing the American provinces as an 
 independent country and nation, was led by his patriotism to 
 change the service of the ecclesia militans for that of patria 
 militant, that as an officer of the Continental army he rose to 
 
 * This we maintain, notwithstanding other affirmations. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 429 
 
 high honor and afterward was elected vice-president of the 
 State of Pennsylvania and to other responsible offices of the 
 State and of the United States, these in their detail belong 
 to the history of his native country, and, interesting as the 
 facts are, cannot here receive special attention. We deem it 
 proper, however, to add that the relation between himself and 
 his father was not seriously affected by Peter Muhlenberg's 
 unexpected step from the pastoral to the military office, 
 though it was undoubtedly against the feelings of the father, 
 who in a letter to his friend Sebast. Fabricius, at Halle, says 
 that his writing and warning from the great distance had been 
 in vain. He could fully appreciate the motives influencing 
 his son, and could understand the duties thereby incurred to 
 such an extent that in a letter to him of Nov. 20, 1778, when 
 the son's wife was in a condition which made the presence of 
 her husband exceedingly desirable, he said that, notwithstand- 
 ing this, the duties of his responsible position had now the 
 first claim upon him, and that family affairs could not free 
 him from that claim. At the close of the letter he admon- 
 ishes the son not to cease to be a Christian in his present 
 relation, and adds the remarkable sentiment that a soldier 
 unless he be a Christian will finally prove a coward. Peter 
 Miihlenberg certainly never was found to be a coward in the 
 Revolutionary War in which he fought and suffered from 
 its commencement to its close nor at any other time. He 
 died, as he had lived, in the Lutheran faith, Oct. I, 1807, at 
 Philadelphia. His mortal remains rest with those of his 
 parents on the east side of the venerable Augustus Church 
 at Providence. His tombstone says that " he was brave in 
 the field, faithful in the cabinet, honorable in all his transac- 
 tions a sincere friend and an honest man." 
 
 During the months of June and July, 1770, Father Miihlen- 
 berg had undertaken a tour to the New Jersey congregations 
 of New Germantown, Bedminster, etc. ; tried while there, under 
 considerable difficulties and without any favorable results, a 
 recently-discovered mineral spring, and found his son Peter 
 in full activity as his assistant in the pastoral work ; then he 
 
43O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 visited Easton and neighboring congregations, proceeded to 
 Allentown, where Friderici (sometimes found Frederick), his 
 former fellow-student at Gottingen, then lived in straitened cir- 
 cumstances ; visited a relative of his family six miles distant, 
 and spent some days at Macungie, Salisbury, Allemaengel 
 (Albany), Rosenthal, and White Hall, in some places instruct- 
 ing the young, holding public services, and encouraging his 
 younger brethren whom he met there in their pastoral field 
 of labor Chr. Streit at Easton, Van Buskirk at Macungie, 
 Jung (Young) at White Hall. It appears that after his return 
 to Philadelphia, on July 1 3th, he had intended during the 
 autumn to visit New York, but on Sept. 22d his sons Fred- 
 erick Augustus Conrad and G. Henry Ernest, returning from 
 Halle after an absence of more, than six years, landed, in com- 
 pany with the Rev. John Christopher Kunze, at New York, 
 where they paid their respects to Hausihl and Gerock, and 
 finally arrived (Sept. 26th) at Philadelphia. These two sons 
 had faithfully attended to their classical and theological stud- 
 ies, and enjoyed the good opinion of their superiors at Halle. 
 Rev. Dr. Knapp, after the death of G. A. Francke (died Sept. 
 2, 1769) praeses of the Halle institutions, writes (Apr. 26, 
 1771) to their father that, having learned that the Holy Spirit 
 had begun to influence their hearts, and that now they had 
 already entered upon pastoral work in the Pennsylvania con- 
 gregations, he deems it proper to defray their travelling ex- 
 penses out of charitable contributions collected for the mis- 
 sions in Pennsylvania. Kunze's travelling expenses were 
 defrayed by Ziegenhagen in London. 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the scholastic course at 
 Halle these two sons were trained as having the ministerial 
 office in view. This was apparently also in the mind of the 
 father, who sent directions to Halle that his two sons there, 
 in addition to the studium catecheticum, should especially be 
 made proficient in singing, in the playing of chorals, and in 
 the science of thorough-bass, which he knew would be of 
 great use for the pastoral office : he adds as a special motive 
 that he had in this country earned his first half year's board- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 43 I 
 
 ing by giving instruction in music, had gained friends by his 
 musical attainments, and had so favorably impressed Father 
 Conrad Weiser's mind " that he did not object to my marry- 
 ing his daughter, since I had during my first visit at his house 
 played for him on his cabinet-organ melodies of the Halle 
 hymns and accompanied them by singing." When the sons 
 arrived here they were considered candidates for the sacred 
 office. As such they were invited (Oct. 7th) to hold public 
 services at Zion Church one in the morning, the other in the 
 evening. Of course the whole town knew of them and had 
 heard of their return to their native country, and curiosity on 
 that occasion reached its acme. The church was crowded. 
 Father Miihlenberg's request that Hon. Schoemaker, the 
 mayor of the city, would station two constables at the 
 church on that day a request willingly granted was not 
 unreasonable, since many different elements of the popula- 
 tion were represented. The sons acquitted themselves quite 
 creditably. Both of them were ordained at the meeting of 
 synod Oct. 25, 1770, as collaborators ministerii, or assistant 
 ministers an act which (especially in the case of the younger 
 one, G. Henry Ernest, at that time not yet fully seventeen years 
 of age, while the elder one was not yet quite twenty-one years), 
 even considering the pressure of circumstances, can hardly be 
 defended. We are informed about the tentamen which Gotth. 
 Henry Ernest first had to undergo. Voigt was appointed ex- 
 animator. The candidate had to translate the first Psalm from 
 Hebrew into Latin, and in the same language to answer exe- 
 getical and analytical questions. His knowledge of the He- 
 brew gave uncommon satisfaction to the ministerium. After- 
 ward the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John was treated 
 in the same manner. The result of the examination was of 
 such a character that doubts arising from the youth of the 
 candidate no longer had any influence. His older brother's 
 examination seems to have given no less satisfaction. He, 
 Fred. Aug. Conrad, had at an academic festivity at Halle 
 delivered an oration in English. During their protracted 
 absence from America they had both, however, become so 
 
432 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 thoroughly Germanized that in December, 1772, in a letter 
 to his father, the older complains that he could not yet with 
 proper facility use the English. We know, however, that in 
 the course of time this defect was completely removed. 
 
 Before the end of 1770, Frederick Aug. Con. Muhlenberg 
 moved, with his brother-in-law, Rev. Chr. Em. Schulze, to 
 Tulpehoken as his assistant, and had the SchaefTertown con- 
 gregation under his special pastoral care, at the same time 
 serving a considerable number of the Lebanon congregation, 
 who were dissatisfied with the services of J. C. Stoever, who 
 died suddenly in 1779. He was married to a daughter of 
 Fred. Schaefer, a member of the vestry of the Philadelphia 
 congregation. During the year 1773 he paid a visit to New 
 York, and received a call from Christ Church, then vacant on 
 account of Gerock's removal to Baltimore. It seems that in 
 the same year he settled in New York, where he was quite 
 successful as a pastor and was held in good esteem. In a 
 letter of Jan. IO, 1774, he informs his father, then in Georgia, 
 that the Lutheran ministers in the province of New York 
 intended to hold a conference in the month of April. This 
 we may consider the beginning of the formation of the min- 
 isterium of New York as a separate organization, which was, 
 however, not formally established before 1786. When the 
 war broke out in 1776, and English troops were concentrated 
 at New York and English war-ships were expected there, F. 
 A. C. Muhlenberg first sent his family to Philadelphia, and, 
 following himself, was there on the world-renowned Fourth 
 of July. He then joined his father (who, without having 
 resigned the Philadelphia congregation, had retired to Prov- 
 idence), assisted him for a time in the care of that charge, and 
 in 1777 moved to New Hanover to take pastoral care of that 
 part of the field, and soon afterward of Oley and New Go- 
 shenhoppen. The position of a pastor was in those turbulent 
 times anything but an enviable one. Financial relations were 
 altogether disturbed ; the people had to bear burdens before 
 unknown. In addition to this, views on political questions 
 diverged greatly, and, no matter to what party a man be- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 433 
 
 longed, he could not avoid having opponents. Pastors 
 especially had greatly to suffer under such circumstances. 
 F. A. C. Muhlenberg was hardly able in his position to eke 
 out an existence, and had to look out for a change to sup- 
 port his family. To the English he was well known as a sup- 
 porter of the American cause. His friends exerted themselves 
 in his behalf. It was then said that the Germans ought to 
 have a representative of their particular interests in Congress ; 
 for this position he seemed to be peculiarly well qualified. 
 March 2, 1779, he was elected a member of the same, and in 
 August quitted the pastoral office and entered into the polit- 
 ical arena, in which he remained, serving the United States 
 and his own native State, enjoying the highest regard on 
 account of his intellectual and moral qualities, and on vari- 
 ous occasions being called to the highest posts of responsi- 
 bility and honor. He died, fifty-one years old, June 4, 1801. 
 His father, not insensible of the honor done to his son by his 
 election as a member of the Continental Congress and afterward 
 as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Legislature and head of the 
 council of censors, nevertheless had misgivings about his enter- 
 ing into the political field, and (Nov. 21, 1780) wrote to him, in 
 his usual somewhat quaint and humorous style, that he had 
 learned, not without some fright, that vox populi ex parte had 
 now " made him a driver in these critical times to guide the 
 car of state through narrow defiles, with precipices on the 
 right and on the left, amid storms from above." Vox populi\ 
 he says, is very variable (Acts xiv. II, 12, 13, 19; xix. 28). 
 He admonishes his son to pray with penitent and fervent 
 supplications for more than ordinary wisdom from on high, 
 and by fasting to strive to retain it, like David and others ; 
 otherwise, a terrible fall might ensue, to the injury of chil- 
 dren and of children's children. To be a fellow-passenger 
 on the car he considered dangerous enough in these times ; 
 much more so the position of the driver under circumstances 
 " when the most experienced do not know how to get through 
 without upsetting.'' We have little doubt that in the ups 
 and downs of his political career the son sometimes recalled 
 
434 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the words of his father. When he was wanted in Ebenezer, 
 Georgia, it for a while seemed as if the gates of the sanc- 
 tuary would reopen to regain the son for its services. The 
 people there already began to hope that they would have him 
 as their pastor, and to repair their church-building ; circum- 
 stances, however, interfered to prevent it. But his parents 
 rejoiced when he came at intervals, with his wife and seven 
 children, to pay his respects, and, gathered together, they all 
 as one chorus sang the well-known old church-hymns and 
 soul- stirring melodies. And the aged father and grandfather 
 never failed to note such incidents in his diary. 
 
 Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, the youngest of the 
 three brothers who grew up to manhood, was for a time 
 after his ordination the assistant of his father in the Phil- 
 adelphia charge. Throughout his career he remained true 
 to his ordination vow. It is strange that for some time 
 his education at Halle gave more trouble than that of his 
 elder brother, Frederick A. Conrad. Even (July 12, 1766) 
 after the two brothers had spent three years in the Halle 
 institutions, Dr. G. A. Francke says in one of his letters 
 that the older of the two was of a much more manageable 
 disposition than the younger, who sometimes occasioned con- 
 siderable difficulty in matters of submission to authority. We 
 cannot forget that G. Henry E. was a child of ten years when 
 he was sent to Halle, that he was without the guiding and ad- 
 vising influence of a. mother, and that to the young American 
 boy, accustomed in his childhood to a much larger range of 
 personal liberty, the strict rules and the rigorous discipline of 
 the Halle schools naturally appeared very irksome. But the 
 same letter states that Henry had a stronger intellectual en- 
 dowment than his brother, and that there was no complaint as 
 to his progress in study. Sept. 5, 1767, Francke again testi- 
 fies to the good behavior of the older brother, and says that 
 the younger also gives less cause for dissatisfaction, and, hav- 
 ing good mental faculties and much application, makes good 
 progress in his studies, and in this respect surpasses the other 
 shows, however, an inclination to be headstrong and ambi- 
 
435 
 
 tious. Both, he adds, are at the head of their respective 
 classes. May 20, 1769, Helmuth, whom after his arrival in 
 the New World Father Miihlenberg had conducted to Lan- 
 caster, received there a letter from Henry from Halle, wherein, 
 among other things, the writer states that he began to feej the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit on his soul information than 
 which no news could have been more welcome to the friend 
 and to the father. 
 
 The son's services to the congregation at Philadelphia were 
 quite acceptable when, toward the end of 1770, he entered 
 upon his duties as an assistant of his father and of Kunze, his 
 brother-in-law. From January to April, 1772, Henry labored 
 in the churches in New Jersey, which his brother Peter had 
 vacated, and then returned to Philadelphia. When, in 1772, 
 the father, with Kunze, visited the synodical conference at 
 Lancaster, and when both of them were absent from Sept. 
 25th to Oct. 8th, all the pastoral care of the large congrega- 
 tion devolved on G. Henry E. Miihlenberg, then nineteen 
 years old. After returning the father, was glad to state in 
 his diary : " From all sides I hear that my son Henry per- 
 formed during our absence the duties of his office to the sat- 
 isfaction of the people, though much was laid upon him, and, 
 in addition to all other official acts, he had to attend to twelve 
 burials of children." In the following year he received a call 
 from the New Jersey congregations, New Germantown, etc. 
 After Peter Miihlenberg's departure to Virginia in the preceding 
 year, Father Muhlenberg had made efforts to fill the vacancy, 
 but had not succeeded. Being still the regular pastor or rec- 
 tor of the charge, he felt his responsibility, and in April and 
 May, 1773, paid a protracted visit there; and the result was 
 that, with their consent, the united vestries of those congrega- 
 tions gave to G. Henry E. Muhlenberg a call to labor among 
 them as the substitute, or adjunctus, of his father. He held, 
 however, from December, 1772, in Philadelphia a position of 
 an official character, as the vestry there, with the consent of 
 the congregation, had formally elected him assistant pastor in 
 the Philadelphia congregation and at St. Peter's, Barren Hill. 
 
436 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 But now he accepted the call to New Jersey, where the field 
 of labor was all his own, and where he could prove of what 
 mettle he was. He acquitted himself here to the great satis- 
 faction of the people, but had, meanwhile, not been forgotten 
 at Philadelphia. The hope that Schulze would return to 
 Philadelphia, where he stood in the highest esteem, had to be 
 given up, though it arose again a few years later, and with no 
 better result. A regular third pastor was needed ; Father 
 Miihlenberg's strength was naturally decreasing with his 
 advancing years, while the demands of the congregation 
 were increasing, and Kunze devoted a part of his time to 
 other duties. It was therefore (March 23, 1774) resolved 
 that G. Henry E. Miihlenberg should be proposed to the con- 
 gregation by the vestry as the third regular pastor, and that 
 on Easter Monday, Apr. 4th, a regular election should be held. 
 On Apr. 5th the rector, Father Miihlenberg, was informed that 
 his son Henry was elected third pastor by two hundred votes 
 out of two hundred and fifty-three. This election was a pos- 
 itive and strong proof that G. Henry E. Miihlenberg, who 
 was then almost twenty-one years of age, could with much 
 encouragement re-enter upon the Philadelphia field of labor. 
 Having accepted the call, and carrying with him most satis- 
 factory testimonials from the New Jersey congregations, he 
 moved to Philadelphia and entered upon his pastoral duties, 
 which were interrupted by his temporary withdrawal to Prov- 
 idence when, during the war, the English occupied Phila- 
 delphia from Sept. 26, 1777, until June 18, 1778. The young 
 Miihlenbergs were in those days as a thorn in the flesh to the 
 English and to the traitors to the cause of freedom. Having 
 returned to the city, he continued his labors until April, 1779, 
 when, under circumstances* to which at a future period allu- 
 sion will be made, he abruptly resigned, and on the I5th of 
 that month delivered his farewell sermon. He had already a 
 call from the New Hanover congregation. When Helmuth 
 was called to Philadelphia from Lancaster, and Schulze of 
 Tulpehoken declined the call to Lancaster, G. Henry E. Miihl- 
 enberg received at the meeting of synod at Tulpehoken the 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 437 
 
 call to the latter place, and in 1780 moved to that locality, 
 where, at the head of a large congregation and with his labors 
 attended by many blessings, he enjoyed the highest esteem, 
 continuing until his death, May 23, 1815. While he was very 
 conscientious in the performance of his pastoral duties of 
 which his many manuscripts give ample proof he devoted 
 his leisure hours to the study of the natural sciences, and 
 especially to the science of botany. In this latter branch he 
 excelled to a high degree. It has been stated by Prof. Dr. J. 
 M. Maisch of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, in an 
 address delivered May I, 1886, that G. H. E. Miihlenberg's 
 interest in botany dated from the time of his retirement from 
 Philadelphia to the country. To his father such studies may 
 have appeared to be no more than dilettanteism, and he gives 
 vent to his feelings in a letter of Apr. 3, 1780, saying that he 
 had learned that his son Henry had already no less than sixty 
 catechumens under his care at Lancaster, and adding, " this is 
 more fruitful and blessed than to collect varianten and herbs." 
 Whether, with theologians, he understands under varianten 
 diverse readings of the old manuscripts of the Bible we leave 
 undecided. But the collecting of plants by his son was in- 
 deed connected with solid study. He was acknowledged as 
 maintaining in his time the highest rank in that science ; 
 various plants discovered and classified by him were named in 
 honor of him ; he was in correspondence with the first author- 
 ities in that field of knowledge in Europe and in America, 
 and in its interests was visited by men of the highest renown 
 among them, Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bon- 
 pland on their return from South America and Mexico. 
 Deputies from the emperor of Austria sent to this country 
 paid him their respects and with attention viewed his botan- 
 ical and mineralogical collections. Many literary, philosoph- 
 ical, and scientific associations were proud to count him among 
 their members. The University of Pennsylvania honored him 
 with the degree of master of arts ; the College of New Jer- 
 sey, at Princeton, with that of doctor of divinity. But his 
 interest in his pastoral office and his love for the spiritual work 
 
438 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 are most apparent when we read his letters from Lancaster 
 addressed to his aged father, informing him of his pastoral 
 experiences, his studies, and his efforts to prove himself a 
 faithful steward. Of his descendants we mention his sons, 
 F. A. Miihlenberg, M. D., who as a physician and citizen stood 
 in the highest esteem at Lancaster, and the Hon. H. A. Miihl- 
 enberg, ambassador of the United States to Austria; and his 
 grandsons, H. H. Miihlenberg, M. D., for many years entrusted 
 with a highly-responsible position at Reading, Pa., the Hon. 
 H. A. Miihlenberg, State Senator of Pennsylvania and mem- 
 ber of Congress, and Rev. F. A. Miihlenberg, D. D., formerly 
 president of Miihlenberg College, at Allentown, Pa., now in- 
 cumbent of the chair of Greek Literature in the University of 
 Pennsylvania. We add that Rev. W. A. Miihlenberg, D. D., 
 well known as the author of the hymn "'I would not live 
 alway " and as a Christian philanthropist, was a grandson of 
 Hon. Fred. Aug. Con. Miihlenberg. 
 
 John Christopher Kunze, the companion of the two younger 
 sons of H. M. Miihlenberg on their return to their native land, 
 was, of all the missionaries sent from Halle to Pennsylvania, 
 one of the most gifted and the most scholarly. In church 
 affairs his eye encompassed a large range, and with a wide 
 intellect he combined an energetic will. He was born at 
 Artern, not far from Mansfeld, but, his parents moving to 
 Rosleben, about nine miles from Artern, he here received the 
 rudiments of his education. His father had kept an inn in 
 connection with a country store and was in comfortable cir- 
 cumstances. All this changed at Rosleben, and the change 
 was for the better. Of his mother, whom death soon took 
 away, he speaks, in a fragment of an autobiography still in 
 possession of his descendants, in the highest terms and with 
 much filial affection as of a godly woman whose love of God 
 and man, sincerity, and other excellences of a truly Christian 
 character left a deep impression upon the mind of her chil- 
 dren. It seems that the death of the mother served to im- 
 prove the spiritual character of the father. A wagoner who 
 once for a night lodged in the house gave a very impressive 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 439 
 
 description of the order, beauty, and godly condition which 
 he found in the Orphan-House at Halle. Kunze's brother 
 then a child five years old, later pastor at Nautschau in the 
 Reuss principality attentively listened to the narrative, and 
 when the narrator had gone most pitifully entreated his 
 parents to send him to Halle. And, indeed, after some time 
 he was sent there, and three other sons among them the 
 author of the autobiographical fragment and even three 
 daughters. When John Christopher had gone through the 
 preparatory course at Halle and at the high schools at Ros- 
 leben and Merseburg, he devoted three years to the study 
 of theology at Leipsic, three others he spent as teacher in the 
 then celebrated classical school at Klosterbergen near Magde- 
 burg, and one year at Greitz as inspector of the orphan-house 
 in this town. Here the call to America came to him through 
 Rev. J. G. Knapp, D. D., chairman of the board of directors 
 of the Halle institutes. With the two young Miihlenbergs 
 he left Halle May 5, 1770. After his arrival at New York 
 (Sept. 22d) efforts were made to keep him as a colleague of 
 Gerock at Christ Church. He declined on that occasion to 
 settle at New York, as to him, when ordained at Wernigerode, 
 a call signed by Knapp and Ziegenhagen was given, appoint- 
 ing him third pastor of the Philadelphia congregation. Schulze 
 was still considered second pastor, but moved to Tulpehoken. 
 And now Kunze at once zealously entered upon his pastoral 
 labors, and added to them as much as circumstances demanded 
 and as his strength permitted. In the summer of 1771 he es- 
 tablished a household of his own by marrying Miihlenberg's 
 daughter Margaretta Henrietta, then not quite twenty years 
 old. After his arrival he had been for a quarter of a year 
 an inmate of Miihlenberg's house. Already in the synodical 
 meeting of 1769 the desirableness and necessity of a theolog- 
 ical seminary was acknowledged ; Kunze soon sought to sup- 
 ply the want. At his instigation a society was formed to this 
 end, contributions were received, and on Feb. 16, 1773, the 
 Philadelphia Staatsanzcigcr informed the public of the open- 
 ing of the school. The pastors of the Lutheran congregation 
 
440 LIFE AND TIMES OF , 
 
 assisted by John Chr. Leps, a Dane, who himself received from 
 Kunze theological instruction, and who a few years later 
 officiated as a pastor at Loonenburg on the Hudson, but in 
 1782 retired upon a small piece of ground near Macungie, Pa. 
 were to give instruction in the preparatory branches, Latin, 
 Greek, Hebrew, geography, history, mathematics, elocution, 
 composition, and in the German and the English language. 
 The design at that time was to prepare young men for the 
 higher study of theology. In the following year a lottery 
 was contemplated to enable the society to discharge its finan- 
 cial obligations. But the times were too turbulent to favor an 
 institution of this kind, though at the synodical meeting at 
 Philadelphia on June 14, 1773, a public examination with 
 thirteen scholars was solemnly held. The whole enterprise 
 came to an end in 1776. The following years afforded Kunze 
 little pleasure. Father Miihlenberg moved in 1776 to Prov- 
 idence; his son Henry followed him in 1777, to remain until 
 the English had retired from Philadelphia. Between him, 
 his brother Frederick Aug. Con., and Kunze, their brother- 
 in-law, a serious rupture soon afterward took place. Kunze 
 made formal charges against Henry before Praeses J. N. Kurtz. 
 Henry resigned in 1779; Kunze was left alone in Philadelphia, 
 as Father Miihlenberg was unable to give much assistance and 
 Schulze refused to return. When Helmuth of Lancaster was 
 elected at Philadelphia (Aug. 25, 1779) the prospects seemed 
 fair for pastors and for congregation. The two pastors were 
 uncommonly able men ; both held positions, also, in the uni- 
 versity as professors. Kunze was also made in 1783 a doctor 
 of divinity an honor given to Helmuth two years later. 
 But on various points there was a difference of views. Kunze, 
 though his talent and his zeal were acknowledged and though 
 he had many admirers, had opponents in the congregation, 
 and in 1 784 he accepted a call to Christ Church at New York, 
 succeeded in uniting with it the remnants of the old Dutch 
 congregation, and instilled new vitality into the Lutheran 
 cause in New York. He was farsighted enough to see that 
 unless Lutheranism were represented in the pulpit and by 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 441 
 
 congregations in the English language it could have no future 
 in this country. That his efforts in this direction were not 
 crowned with desirable results was not his fault. He en- 
 deavored to organize an independent ministerium of New 
 York, and it was effected in 1786 with three clergymen and 
 two laymen. His fertile mind gave the public of his days, 
 and especially the Lutherans, a number of publications calcu- 
 lated more to counteract rationalism and infidelity which in 
 the last quarter of the eighteenth century began to permeate 
 the masses of the people than to elucidate the peculiarities 
 of the Lutheran system of doctrine. His interest in the apol- 
 ogetical department of theology moved him to desire from 
 Germany all the publications produced in connection with the 
 controversy aroused by Semler, after 1751 professor at Halle 
 and colleague of Francke, Knapp, and other men of the same 
 type, and not without cause called the father of Rationalism 
 in Germany, Kunze never ceased gathering knowledge. 
 He read pen in hand. Books in which he entered items 
 taken from a great variety of publications, and referring to 
 geography, natural science, history, biography, commerce, 
 etc., are still preserved. Soon after settling in New York he 
 was appointed professor of Oriental languages in Columbia 
 College. In vain he waited for some years for students and 
 for a salary. Neither of them appeared, and he found that 
 empty titles are a cheap commodity. He resigned as profes- 
 sor in 1787, resumed the office again in 1792, and held the 
 title for three years more. He remained in the board of 
 trustees until his death. In 1784 he was among the origina- 
 tors of the " Society for Useful Knowledge," and was a mem- 
 ber of the " German Benevolent Society of Pennsylvania " 
 and of the " New York German Society." When the Ameri- 
 can Congress met at New York in 1785, Kunze was sworn 
 in as German interpreter. At the time of the eclipse of the 
 moon on June 16, 1806, he published A Table of a new con- 
 struction for calculating the great eclipse, expected to happen on 
 the \6th of June, 1806, by J. C. Kunze, Dr. and Prof . of Divinity, 
 Senior, etc., 1 806, and thereby proved his eminent attainments 
 
442 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in the higher branches of mathematics. We may say that he 
 first moved to give the Lutherans in America a religious liter- 
 ature of their own in the English language. Wrangel alone 
 preceded him herein by publishing Luther's Small Catechism 
 in English. He and H. M. Miihlenberg frequently used the 
 English language in preaching the gospel. Kunze published, 
 in 1785, " Rudiments of the Shorter Catechism of Luther, 
 chiefly for the use of Lutheran congregations in America, to 
 which is annexed an Abridgment of the Principles of the 
 Evangelical Religion." We here refer our readers to the 
 most instructive monographs on " Editions and Translations 
 of Luther's Small Catechism, published or used in America," 
 and " Explanations of Luther's Small Catechism prepared 
 for use in America," by Rev. B. M. Schmucker, D. D., in the 
 Lutheran Church Review (April and July, 1886), where, on p. 
 171, Dr. Kunze's publication is specially noticed. When he 
 introduced English into the Lutheran services for those who 
 no longer understood the German language, he published for 
 such services, and in connection with a young pastor, George 
 Strebech, A Hymn and Prayer book. For the use of suck Lu- 
 theran churches as use the English language. Collected by Jolm 
 C. Kunze, Senior of the Lutheran Clergy of the State of New 
 York. New York, printed and sold by Hurtin & Commartin- 
 gcr, 1795. Small I2mo, p. viii. 305, 163. The title of the 
 book is rather too narrow, and does not indicate all the variety 
 of the contents. No less than one hundred and forty-four of 
 the two hundred and thirty-nine hymns in the book are trans- 
 lations from the German. Many of the hymns are good ; the 
 translations, in the judgment of competent critics, are unsatis- 
 factory. We cannot enter here upon an enumeration of all 
 the publications, sermons, orations, essays, etc. edited by 
 Kunze. We add that a number of pastors of the Lutheran 
 Church owed their theological education to his ability and to 
 his love of the work. 
 
 Dr. Kunze die.d at the age of sixty-three years, at New 
 York, July 24, 1807. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 443 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 1773-1775. 
 
 Miihlenberg is requested to pay Another visit to Ebenezer, Ga. Difficulties in this 
 congregation, and between Rev. Chr. Rabenhorst and Rev. Chr. Fr. Triebner. 
 Miihlenberg's manifold cares before the voyage. Another visit to the Raritan 
 churches. Synodical meeting of 1773. Members of synod. Plans for a 
 theological seminary and an orphan-house. Hartwig^s restlessness. Dif- 
 ficulties at Reading. Rev. Ph. J. Grotz. Muhlenberg again visits New 
 York. His son Frederick Aug. pastor of the German Lutheran congregation 
 there. Hausihl pastor of the Dutch Lutheran congregation. The Swedish 
 pastors J. Wicksell and Nic. Collin. Barren Hill and Germantown. Rev. 
 J. F. Riess. Rev. J. Chr. Leps of Loonenburg.- Miihlenberg's letters to Grotz 
 and to a member of the Lutheran congregation at Charleston. S. C. Corner- 
 stone of a church laid at Pikestown. 
 
 IN a previous chapter we stated that H. M. Muhlenberg had 
 landed at Charleston, S. C., Sept. 22, 1742, and then, trav- 
 elling by the way of Savannah, from Oct. 4th to Oct. I ith paid 
 a visit to the Salzburg Lutheran congregation at Ebenezer. No 
 less than thirty-two years had now passed, and it could hardly 
 be expected that, in his advancing years and in the decline of 
 health and strength, after a very laborious life and enduring 
 many severe hardships, he would once more visit that congre- 
 gation and exercise a beneficial influence in the endeavor to 
 restore order and peace, which, with distressing circumstances, 
 had been seriously disturbed. But it appears that already in 
 1773 letters from Europe informed Muhlenberg of the condi- 
 tion of things in Ebenezer, and impressed him with the neces- 
 sity of undertaking a voyage to that distant place. 
 
 At an earlier stage of our narrative we had occasion to men- 
 tion the Rev. Sam. Urlsperger, D. D., senior of the Lutheran 
 clergy at Augsburg and the tried friend of the Halle Fathers. 
 
444 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 From the beginning of the persecution which the Salzburg 
 Evangelicals had suffered in their native land he had proved 
 a warm and influential sympathizer and benefactor to them, 
 had favored the plan to transport them to Georgia, had co- 
 operated in its execution, and was during his life considered 
 their patron. He held to them the same relation as the Halle 
 Fathers held to the united congregations in Pennsylvania. He 
 also published reports in reference to their condition and prog- 
 ress, and interested many charitable people in Germany in their 
 behalf. After his death, in 1772, his son, John August, who 
 succeeded him in his pastoral office, kept up the interest mani- 
 fested by his father for the Salzburgers at Ebenezer. When 
 the news of the unfortunate and distracted disturbances at 
 Ebenezer reached him, and after his letters and his admoni- 
 tions had proved of no avail, as a last measure he proposed, 
 with the consent of Ziegenhagen at London and other friends, 
 that Miihlenberg should visit Ebenezer and exert himself to 
 unite the disunited, restore good understanding and peace, 
 and adjust certain financial difficulties which had exercised a 
 disturbing influence in the congregation. 
 
 The letter of Rev. Dr. J. A. Urlsperger which officially em- 
 powered Miihlenberg to act as an arbitrator at Ebenezer is 
 dated Feb. 2, 1773. To this letter Ziegenhagen at London 
 gave his full consent and his signature July 15, 1773. 
 
 The instructions which Dr. J. A. Urlsperger gave to Miihl- 
 enberg in a special document as a guide for his action suf- 
 ficiently indicate the state of affairs at Ebenezer. The two 
 pastors then serving the congregation were Christian Raben- 
 horst and Christopher Frederick Triebner. Between these two 
 men of whom Rabenhorst had served prior to the arrival of 
 Triebner very serious discord had broken out. Rabenhorst 
 was charged by his colleague with being stubborn, despotic, 
 and negligent of church discipline with a view to his personal 
 advantage. The same charges were also brought against 
 Triebner, with the addition that he was of an uncompromis- 
 ing disposition and inclined to be arbitrary in matters of church 
 discipline. Each of these two pastors had his adherents, and 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 44$ 
 
 in this way the whole life of the congregation was disturbed 
 and the work of the Holy Spirit impeded. Miihlenberg was 
 expected impartially to investigate the charges, to advise as 
 best he could, and to endeavor to re-establish peace. We find 
 that there had been dissensions in the Ebenezer congregation 
 before the arrival of Rev. Triebner. The Ebenezer people had 
 erected mills, which, though very much needed and very use- 
 ful, had, on account of their management, occasioned much 
 altercation and dissatisfaction. As these mills had been 
 erected from the charitable donations coming from Augsburg 
 and London, Urlsperger maintained that their revenues were 
 under the absolute control of the representatives of the 
 donors, and should, according to their decision, be employed 
 for the benefit of the Ebenezer congregation. In this matter 
 Miihlenberg was expected to listen also to the opinions pre- 
 sented to him, and to give a decision. 
 
 Rev. Rabenhorst had bought a plantation belonging to the 
 congregation and entered into a contract for the payment of 
 the money ; Muhlenberg was to investigate whether he had 
 properly carried out the conditions of his contract. In other 
 respects, also, Muhlenberg was minutely to inform himself 
 about the whole state of the congregation, and to make there 
 a regular and authoritative visitation. He was also advised to 
 render to Rabenhorst the honors due to his seniority in the 
 office, while Rev. Triebner was not on this account to be 
 treated as a subordinate. They should live and labor together 
 in unity, according to Ps. cxxxiii. Muhlenberg was also re- 
 quested so to define the sphere of action for each of the two 
 pastors as to avoid collisions as much as possible, to insist 
 upon the cheerful assistance each of the other in cases of 
 necessity, and to inquire whether it was indispensably neces- 
 sary that two pastors should be stationed in the congregation. 
 He should also introduce a proper order for public services at 
 Ebenezer, to inquire how much the members contributed to the 
 support of the pastors, to abolish whatever he found to be 
 injurious to the pastoral office or to the membership, and to 
 adopt and encourage what might further their interests. 
 
446 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 When the document investing Miihlenberg with this author- 
 ity came into his hands (Sept. 18, 17/3), it caused him serious 
 consideration. Willingly admitting that his body and his soul, 
 with all the service they were able to perform, belonged to God, 
 that he owed a debt of gratitude to his aged fatherly friend Dr. 
 Ziegenhagen at London, and that all help should be given to 
 Dr. Urlsperger, whose father had been such a warm friend to 
 the Ebenezer Lutherans, while he himself took such an inter- 
 est in their welfare, he entertained serious doubts whether he 
 would be able to accomplish the task laid upon him. He says 
 all who have any experience in such matters will agree that 
 it is one of the most difficult undertakings to restore peace 
 between disunited parties belonging to the same church, and 
 especially between pastors of the same congregation, because 
 each one has his adherents, who eagerly act without good 
 sense and are "inclined to argue with hands, feet, and tongue," 
 especially in an absolutely free country, which knoweth naught 
 of subordination, and in which an arbitrator is left without 
 power to carry out the most impartial decisions. Miihlenberg 
 also felt that protracted absence might not result beneficial- 
 ly for the Philadelphia congregation. To avoid sea-sickness, 
 which he had reason to fear, he entertained the idea of travel- 
 ling by land; but in 1773 and 1774 the Indians were engaged 
 in a warfare with the settlers on the frontiers of the Carolinas 
 and of Georgia, which made travelling through those provinces 
 rather unsafe. Miihlenberg was now in his sixty-third year, 
 and had suffered severe attacks of sickness toward the end of 
 1773 and in the beginning of 1774. 
 
 On the other hand, letters coming from London continued 
 to urge upon Miihlenberg the necessity of undertaking the 
 journey to Ebenezer. In Philadelphia his youngest son, G. 
 Henry Ernest, had in June, 1774, been elected third pastor 
 and colleague of his father and J. Chr. Kunze, his brother-in- 
 law ; which circumstance gave Miihlenberg more freedom in 
 his movements. To Mrs. Miihlenberg, whose health for a 
 number of years had been very precarious, a change of air 
 appeared to give hope of improvement, and her youngest 
 
PIENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 447 
 
 daughter, Mary Salome, then in her fifteenth year, could 
 accompany her parents and be of much service to the suf- 
 fering mother. It was finally resolved to proceed to Eben- 
 ezer by sea. Of course, perils of various kinds were con- 
 nected with so doing. Miihlenberg presents them to his 
 mind, but in his own peculiar way says that since, on his 
 arrival in America, he had said " Good-morning " to the New 
 World at Ebenezer, it would not matter much if at the same 
 locality he should say "Good-night" to it. Through his 
 friend the Rev. Dr. R. Peters a passport and strong recom- 
 mendations in due form were procured for him from the Hon. 
 John Penn, governor and commander-in-chief of Pennsylva- 
 nia. Aug. 1 8, 1774, Miihlenberg entered into an agreement 
 with a sea-captain to take him and his companions to Charles- 
 ton for the sum of sixteen pounds and six shillings, the trav- 
 ellers themselves finding the provisions. 
 
 The period of time preceding the voyage proved a very 
 laborious one to Miihlenberg. In April and May, 1774, he 
 had paid another visit to the New Jersey congregations, where 
 at that time his son G. Henry E. served as his substitute. On 
 his return thence he met at the hospitable house of the family 
 Jameson, thirty-six miles from New Germantown, a venerable 
 old man of eighty-four, who, though so deaf that conversation 
 with him was almost impossible, narrated various incidents 
 of his life in connection with Rev. George Whitefield, through 
 whose preaching in 1740 he was awakened to a spiritual life. 
 Among other things, he said that at a certain time Whitefield 
 had appointed public services at a locality where the narrator 
 lived, but failed to appear at the specified time. Some thou- 
 sands of people were anxiously waiting, and the minister of 
 the neighborhood, a highly-gifted man of much spirituality, 
 began to speak in a very impressive way on a Bible text, but 
 produced not the least impression upon his many hearers. 
 The moment, however, Whitefield arrived the clergyman made 
 way for him, giving him the text on which he was speaking. 
 Whitefield had spoken hardly a minute when the whole audi- 
 tory showed intense excitement by wringing of hands, sighs, 
 
448 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sobs, ejaculations, etc. Muhlenberg sensibly asks whether the 
 name of the man or his fame or his prejudices and fancies had 
 not much to do with this " synergism," as he calls it. 
 
 When, in 1775, Rev. W. Graaf was called to the Raritan 
 congregations, Miihlenberg's responsibility there came to a 
 legitimate end. Returning to Philadelphia, he found such a 
 voluminous correspondence claiming his attention that he 
 compares himself to the delinquents in a certain locality in 
 Europe, who, imprisoned in a cage, have to pump unceas- 
 ingly to save their lives, as without this they would be 
 drowned by the rising waters. He adds that the members 
 of his household never cease to find fault with his writing 
 so many letters ; but, says he, "they are the very ones who, 
 when I think I am done, beg me to introduce this or that fur- 
 ther particular." 
 
 Synod met in Philadelphia June 12 to 15, 1773, according 
 to the arrangement made by Rev. J. N. Kurtz, elected presi- 
 dent in 1772. Muhlenberg, who enjoyed the honorary title of 
 senior of ministerium, gives the list of pastors present besides 
 himself: J. Nic. Kurtz of York ; Schulze of Tulpehoken ; 
 Helmuth of Lancaster; W. Kurtz of Earltown (New Holland); 
 Fred. Aug. Muhlenberg of Heidelberg township ; Magister 
 Goeranson, Swedish pastor at Wicaco ; St r (Stoever) of the 
 district of Lebanon ; Wd n (Wildbahn) of McAllistertown 
 (Hanover), on the other side of the Susquehanna; Van Bus- 
 kirk of Macungie ; Jung of White Hall ; Streit of Easton ; 
 Roeller (John George, who had received his education for the 
 pastoral office in Germany) of Goshenhoppen ; Schmidt of Ger- 
 mantown; Schw f r (Schwerdfeger) of Linntown; Kunze 
 of Philadelphia; H. Muhlenberg, Jr.; and Hartwig extraor- 
 din. Voigt of Pikestown, Krug of Frederick, Md., Schaum 
 of Oley and Mosellem were absent, as also was Gerock, 
 who in a letter addressed to the German Lutheran vestry at 
 New York, and now indorsed by a delegate of the same, who 
 accompanied it with explanatory remarks, states that he had 
 accepted an honorable call from the Lutheran church at Balti- 
 more. Among other subjects, Kunze's plan for a theological 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 449 
 
 seminary, and Miihlenberg's suggestion to found an " econom- 
 ical institute" in behalf of orphans, superannuated pastors, 
 and teachers, their widows and children, claimed the atten- 
 tion of synod. The request of the European friends of Eben- 
 ezer that Muhlenberg should visit that distant congregation 
 was also laid before the ministerium and met with approval. 
 We find that in the summer of 1773 Muhlenberg could not 
 avoid answering charges which the Rev. J. G. Hartwig had 
 lodged against him not formally, but in an underhanded 
 way accusing Muhlenberg of having prevented him from 
 receiving calls from various congregations. Hartwig, by 
 writing for himself a call to Frederick, Md., and purposely 
 omitting in it every reference to synod, in 1768 had virtually 
 cut himself loose from regular connection with the united 
 congregations. Afterward, however, he found it advanta- 
 geous occasionally to profess holding amicable relations with 
 the brethren ; thus he appeared as an extraordinarius at the 
 synodical meeting at Philadelphia in 1773. But we have 
 enough proof that at divers places he complained that Muhl- 
 enberg prevented congregations from giving him calls. It 
 seems that for a considerable time Muhlenberg had held his 
 peace, but finally, having received letters informing him of 
 Hartwig's proceedings, he answered all these charges in a 
 lengthy document, convincingly proving that several times 
 he had recommended Hartwig of whose Christian princi- 
 ples and moral character in other respects he had no doubt 
 to a number of congregations, but without success. In- 
 stead of taking to heart Miihlenberg's well-intended and most 
 useful advice, Hartwig continued his irregular measures, and 
 was never quietly and steadily active for any length of time 
 in any congregation, but in consequence of lawsuits about a 
 tract of land which he had acquired from the Indians in the 
 province of New York was engaged in business much better 
 suited to a lawyer than to a clergyman, was habitually travelling 
 from one point to another, and had thus in all localities where 
 for a time he had served as a minister of the gospel lost the 
 confidence of the people as a useful pastor. Finding himself 
 
4$0 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in an undesirable situation, he gave vent to his embittered 
 feelings by accusing and calumniating Muhlenberg, for whom 
 it was certainly a most unpleasant, though not at all a difficult, 
 task to refute the unjust charges of a brother whose undeni- 
 able good qualities he always willingly acknowledged, and 
 in whose welfare he had always taken the deepest interest, 
 although, through the stubbornness with which he continued 
 in his unwise course of conduct, he stood in his own light. 
 
 The congregation at Reading, Pa., claimed Miihlenberg's 
 particular attention during the summer of 1773. Since the 
 removal of Rev. J. A. Krug to Frederick in the spring of 
 1771 the position there was very unsatisfactory. A party 
 consisting of men of loose principles and rough manners 
 had embittered the life of Krug, who, as was his duty, used 
 the word of God against their carnal-mindedness. After his 
 departure the brethren of the ministry were unable to supply 
 the vacancy in a suitable manner. The better portion of the 
 membership addressed Miihlenberg on their precarious situ- 
 ation. He advises them not to enter into contention with the 
 members of the other party, but rather for the present to meet 
 on Sundays in a private house and there hold religious ser- 
 vices ; also, if possible, to buy a lot of ground as a cemetery 
 of their own, on which, perhaps, at a later period, a church 
 might be erected. Things remained, however, pretty much 
 in the same condition also during the brief tenure of Rev. 
 Ph. J. Grotz, who after his arrival from Europe served the 
 congregation during the year 1774 and a short time after- 
 ward. A change for the better took place under the ser- 
 vices of Rev. H. Moeller (1775-77) an< ^ his successors. On 
 account of private affairs Muhlenberg paid a visit there in 
 September, 1773. 
 
 There can be no doubt that in August, 1773, Muhlenberg 
 paid a visit also to New York, where afterward his son Fred- 
 erick Augustus C. was engaged in the service of the German 
 Lutheran congregation. In his diary Muhlenberg says that 
 the journal of that tour was completed and sent to the Rev. 
 J. G. Chr. Helmuth, then pastor of the Lancaster congrega- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 451 
 
 tion. Unfortunately, up to this time we have been unable to 
 discover any traces of that journal or to obtain any other 
 information of that tour. Hausihl was then serving the old 
 Dutch Lutheran church. In consequence of Gerock's re- 
 moval to Baltimore the German congregation was vacant. 
 Miihlenberg, hoping that Chr. Em. Schulze would return to 
 Philadelphia, expected to spend some months at New York 
 to benefit the vacant congregation. Being disappointed in 
 this hope, he had to return to Philadelphia, and sent as a 
 substitute his son Frederick A. C, whom afterward the con- 
 gregation elected In. a confidential communication of Nov. 
 22, 1773, to the Rev. J. F. Schmidt, then pastor of the Ger- 
 mantown congregation, Miihlenberg says that if ever Schmidt 
 should leave Germantown, he would, if the congregation there 
 was willing, like to settle there and with the assistance of 
 one of his sons to serve Germantown and Barren Hill, also 
 on given occasions to offer a helping hand to the Philadelphia 
 church ; but, says he, " Man proposes, God disposes. I am 
 aged and feel debilitated : no man can reasonably think hard 
 of it that I desire to have one or the other of my sons with 
 me to assist me in pastoral work." Speaking of his advanced 
 years and of his infirmities, he reminds us of a statement of 
 1769 viz. "that his last molar was gone." 
 
 In a letter addressed (Oct. 27, 1773) to the archbishop of 
 Sweden, Miihlenberg speaks in feeling terms of Rev. J. Wick- 
 sell, who, after having served as successor of Wrangel in the 
 office of provost, was in 1773 recalled to Sweden, arrived there 
 in 1774, and died in 1800; and of Rev. A. Goeranson, who 
 had arrived in America in, 1766, became rector of Wicaco 
 church in 1768, was Wicksell's successor as provost, returned 
 to his native land in 1785, and also died in 1800. The last 
 Swedish missionary sent over from Sweden was Nic. Collin 
 of Upsala, who arrived in this country in 1770, was appointed 
 pastor of Wicaco in 1786, and died here in 1831. It appears 
 that he maintained friendly relations with Miihlenberg ; while 
 pastor at Raccoon, N. J., he borrowed books from Miihlen- 
 berg's library. Up to the year 1813 he from time to time 
 
452 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 preached in the Swedish language in the Wicaco church. 
 Muhlenberg in his letter expresses the desire that in the 
 future, as heretofore, the Swedish and the German Lutheran 
 brethren might unitedly stand shoulder to shoulder in the 
 bonds of faith and love to carry on the work of the Lord. We 
 know that in the course of a few decades of years the Swedish 
 congregations, which received no new strength through immi- 
 gration from Sweden and no English Lutheran congregations 
 with which to unite, were merged with the Episcopal Church, 
 wherein the fact that the Church of Sweden had the episcopal 
 form of government was made of the greatest weight, though 
 Lutherans think very differently of it. 
 
 In the beginning of 1774 the interests of St. Peter's congre- 
 gation at Barren Hill again claimed Miihlenberg's special 
 attention. The ministers at Philadelphia had considered it 
 their duty to serve that congregation as much as their respon- 
 sibilities at Philadelphia permitted. The rapid growth and 
 the necessities of the Philadelphia congregation prevented the 
 pastors from giving the Barren Hill Lutherans the care which 
 they needed. St. Peter's congregation very naturally desired 
 to be formally united with the Germantown congregation and 
 regularly served by its pastor. In a letter dated Feb. 10, 1774, 
 Muhlenberg addresses the vestry of St. Michael's at German- 
 town in behalf of St. Peter's, and gives strong reasons why 
 this request should be granted, and the assurance that by 
 acceding to this plan the Germantown congregation could 
 in no way be involved in any financial responsibility, since 
 the lot and the church at Barren Hill legally belonged to St. 
 Michael's corporation at Philadelphia a fact which we for- 
 merly had occasion to mention. Muhlenberg incidentally says 
 that in those days Rev. M. Schlatter, minister of the Reformed 
 Church, was permitted by the Lutherans to preach in St. 
 Peter's on the Sundays not used by them for services. 
 
 In the early spring of 1774, Muhlenberg received a visit 
 from the Rev. J. Fr. Riess, whom we formerly met at New 
 York. He now served congregations on the Upper Hudson 
 and proved quite useful. He handed Muhlenberg, who was 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 453 
 
 pleased with his visitor, an application for a pastor from the 
 elders and the deacons of the Loonenburg (Athens) congrega- 
 tion. Miihlenberg had thought of .undertaking a journey to 
 that distant place, and had hoped by spending some weeks in 
 the midst of the congregation to encourage it until a suitable 
 pastor could be found ; but other duties prevented him from 
 carrying out his benevolent intention. In a letter of Apr. 16, 
 1774, he offers to the vestry his services in procuring a pastor 
 from 'Europe, since the Loonenburg Lutherans needed one 
 who had command of the Dutch language, and Miihlenberg 
 knew only two pastors Riess and Graaf besides himself in 
 the Lutheran clergy of America who could preach in this 
 language, and they serving in other localities. In July of 
 that year Rev. J. Chr. Leps was called to Loonenburg. He 
 had arrived the same year at Philadelphia, for a time served 
 as teacher in Kunze's seminary, and July 2Oth was ordained 
 and dismissed to his new field of labor. He had some know- 
 ledge of the Dutch language, and was expected to master it 
 sufficiently within a short time. 
 
 We have' already presented some instances which clearly 
 prove that Miihlenberg, while often willing to forbear and to 
 forgive, knew how to uphold his personal dignity : we are 
 moved here to introduce an example unmistakably testifying 
 to his Christian manliness. We stated that Rev. Ph. J. Grotz 
 was elected pastor in Reading in 1774. He had the title of 
 magister artium, and was a man with a large amount of self- 
 conceit and of an unusually irritable temper. He at once 
 began to find fault with Miihlenberg, although in a letter he 
 had congratulated him for having so soon poured the oil of 
 peace upon the turbulent waters at Reading. He vexed 
 Miihlenberg with letters in which he criticised his official 
 conduct, and in a haughty manner undertook to correct him. 
 It seems that Miihlenberg did not trouble himself to answer 
 the man's insulting missives, but finally wrote him the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " RIGHT REVEREND SIR, MOST LEARNED MAGISTER GROTZ : 
 
454 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Your Reverence is herewith briefly informed that all your 
 letters came duly to hand. In case you have, and can show, 
 a legal commission or authority granted by God or by Amer- 
 ican or European Christendom, or by any right rev. consistory 
 or ministry, or by private individuals, I shall allow you strict- 
 ly to investigate my official conduct, to arrive at an impartial 
 judgment, and proceed in a proper manner. Since you, how- 
 ever, up to this time in your letters have produced nothing 
 of this kind, but simply brought up harsh criminations, men- 
 aces, and reflections concerning my official conduct, my family 
 and friends, I for one cannot find such procedures becoming 
 the character of a divine, a Christian, a civil citizen, much less 
 a magister of the liberal arts, and least of all one who is a 
 stranger here. This was the reason and a quite sufficient 
 one for me why I did not answer your letters and shall not 
 do so, but rather, if more of this kind should arrive, return 
 them sealed and unread. Such infamous sentiments I need 
 not expect from Reading ; I can have them abundantly here 
 in the public market. If you, sir and magister, have any just 
 claim against me or my children or my relatives, or any just 
 cause of complaint, any legal forum is open to you, and I shall 
 not be afraid to answer. Only do not dream that you can be 
 both accuser and judge, for in this country the golden A-B-C 
 is still in use, that the accused has a right to be heard before 
 judgment is passed. This much from Your Reverence's (in all 
 reasonable things) obedient servant, 
 
 " MUHLENBERG. 
 " PHILAD., Apr. 20, 1774." 
 
 Grotz probably had lent his ear to some slanderous ene- 
 mies of Miihlenberg. After a short time he was obliged to 
 leave Reading on account of his very improper conduct. 
 Afterward he showed himself useful on the Upper Hudson 
 and in the Mohawk Valley, where he died in 1809 in Stone 
 Arabia. 
 
 During the summer of 1774, Miihlenberg carried on a cor- 
 respondence with the vestry and with individual members of 
 the Lutheran congregation at Charleston, S. C, where a young 
 
HENRY MELCPIIOR MUHLENBERG. 455 
 
 minister, Fr. Baser of Wiirtemberg, had created much dissatis- 
 faction. Miihlenberg gives most useful pastoral advice in his 
 letters, takes occasion to speak of paying, on his way to Eben- 
 ezer, a visit to Charleston, and promises his services in behalf 
 of the congregation. What Miihlenberg wrote (June 14, 1774), 
 in connection with the troubles in the Charleston church, to a 
 member of that congregation deserves to be stated : " I do not 
 think that you, honorable sir, seriously entertain the idea of 
 separating from the German congregation. I view our Ger- 
 man Evangelical Lutheran Church in this American wilder- 
 ness as the rnan (Luke x. 30-37) who fell among thieves and 
 murderers. The priests and Levites of the Established Church 
 passed it without compassion, but publicans and sinners may 
 yet become children of mercy (Luke xv.), and the great Lord, 
 to whom all belong, will go even after the one hundredth 
 sheep which is lost. We must never allow our courage to 
 fail, but be merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful to- 
 ward us poor worms, and for the sake of Christ's merits is 
 not so soon tired of us. During the thirty-two years of my 
 sojourning in America time and again calls and occasions 
 were given me to join the Episcopal Church and to receive 
 four or five times more salary than my poor German fellow- 
 members of the Lutheran faith gave me ; but I preferred re- 
 proach in and with my people to the treasures of Egypt 
 [Comp. Heb. xi. 2426.] I remember that many years ago 
 a proud German tailor left our Church and joined the Epis- 
 copalians, giving as a reason that among the Germans he had 
 few customers many among the English. On the other hand, 
 a captain of high standing who had studied the German joined 
 our Church, telling me that he sat with more pleasure on the 
 rough benches with the poor God-fearing German Lutherans 
 than on those high seats where all glittered with gold, silver, 
 and the like. What you, honorable sir, can in Christian char- 
 ity contribute to the peace and reconciliation of congregation 
 and pastor you will certainly offer with a good will in be- 
 half of our faith." We shall hereafter meet Miihlenberg in 
 Charleston. 
 
456 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Aug. 15, 1774, with Rev. Voigt and Catechist H. Moeller, 
 who then was colaborer of Kunze in the seminary at Phila- 
 delphia, he was present at the corner-stone laying of the 
 church to be erected at Pikestown, where he preached in Eng- 
 lish and laid the first stone. He says that the heat of the sun 
 was oppressive, and that the trees on the lot where the church 
 was to be built were full of children and young people, who 
 had climbed up into them as Zacchaeus had done not with 
 the same motives, but to see something new and unusual. 
 He adds that he had also to urge the people to give large 
 contributions a thing which' to the elders and deacons in 
 penuria appears to be the most animating and important, pro- 
 vided it is done very impressively and is accompanied by the 
 orator's ample contribution as a proof that his practice follows 
 his theory. He also bade farewell to many friends who knew 
 of his intended voyage to Ebenezer, and, returning through 
 Providence, Aug. 1 6th, preached in the Augustus Church, on 
 which occasion Pastor Voigt presided at the organ and a fare- 
 well dinner was given to Muhlenberg, in which a number of 
 church-officers and other friends participated. 
 
 Sunday, Aug. 2 1st, Muhlenberg once more preached in 
 Zion, and took leave of the congregation. At a meeting of 
 the vestry on the following day it was resolved that during 
 his absence Kunze should in all needful cases act as deputy 
 rector. Muhlenberg, having in 1773 again been elected pres- 
 ident of synod, sent to Rev. J. Nic. Kurtz all the material 
 necessary for the meeting of synod to be held at Lancaster 
 in the fall of the year, and requested him to take his place at 
 this synodical meeting; he also transferred to him, for the 
 time being, the care of the Raritan congregations, took leave 
 of Schulze, Helmuth, and other friends by letters, and also 
 wrote his last will. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 1773-1775 (continued}. 
 
 Voyage to Charleston, Savannah, and Ebenezer. Muhlenberg at Charleston. 
 His interest in the Lutherans there and in other localities io South Carolina. 
 Rev. Messrs. Baser, Martin, Hochheimer, Hahnbaum, Chr. Streit. Miihl- 
 enberg's idea of a practical theological seminary. Arrival at Savannah. 
 Rev. Joach. Zttbly, D. D. Rabenhorst and Triebner visit Muhlenberg and 
 acknowledge his authority. He arrives at Ebenezer. The two parties in the 
 congregation. Mutual charges. Divided services. Attempts at reconcilia- 
 tion. Rabenhorst's accounts found correct. Preparation of a new constitu- 
 tion for the congregation. Its adoption. Rabenhorst's Christian character 
 vindicated. Muhlenberg's return to Philadelphia. 
 
 O ATURDAY, Aug. 27th, Muhlenberg, with his wife and 
 O daughter, embarked for Charleston. Some friends had 
 sent additional provisions on board ; many others, of both 
 sexes, were assembled on shore to say farewell. A number 
 of others among them, Kunze, Peter and Henry Muhlen- 
 berg, and Frederick Keppele in their boats accompanied the 
 ship five or six miles down the Delaware. 
 
 Of hardly any other part of his eventful life has Muhlen- 
 berg left us a more minute record than of this voyage to 
 Ebenezer. A German manuscript was translated into Eng- 
 lish by his grandson, the late Rev. J. W. Richards, D. D.* 
 Before us lies a manuscript in Muhlenberg's own hand, differ- 
 ing in many minor points from the translation given by Dr. 
 Richards. We shall restrict ourselves to a summary of the 
 most important events of the voyage and of the labors of 
 Muhlenberg more directly connected with the mission en- 
 trusted to him. In the Halle Reports very little is said about 
 
 * The translation is embodied in a number of continuations in the Gettysburg 
 Evangelical Review from 1850 to 1852. 
 
458 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Miihlenberg's voyage to Ebenezer. The subject is only inci- 
 dentally introduced there in the fifteenth continuation in a 
 letter of Kunze. Nothing is said of the causes which made 
 necessary that visit to Ebenezer. It appeared advisable not 
 to speak of the unfortunate disturbances in that congrega- 
 tion, but rather to avoid the unpleasant impressions they 
 might make in Germany upon the friends of the missions 
 in America. 
 
 That Miihlenberg was the same man in travelling and at 
 home, that he upheld the same principles on shipboard which 
 he preached in the church and practised on land, we learned 
 in accompanying him from Europe to America; now, also, 
 after the lapse of so many years, we find him true to himself. 
 On Saturday he left with a mixed company of which he gives 
 a detailed description, and humorously includes himself as 
 " an old-fashioned, unattractive German parson." The follow- 
 ing Sunday evening, when the vessel was at anchor before New 
 Castle, he sought to direct the mind of his ten fellow-cabin- 
 passengers to the irrationality and sinfulness of " the national 
 vice of the English " the use of profane language. It was 
 unanimously resolved that this bad habit should not, and 
 would not, be tolerated in that company. He also found 
 occasion, as he had when crossing the ocean in 1742, to 
 testify against the practice of duelling, which in those times 
 was much more common in America than now, and which 
 some of the passengers considered under some circumstances 
 unavoidable for a man of honor. On Monday, Aug. 29th, a 
 ship coming from Jamaica took letters of Miihlenberg to his 
 children in Philadelphia. During the night of that day the 
 high sea was reached, and, contrary winds tossing the ves- 
 sel, Miihlenberg, his daughter, and other passengers suffered 
 greatly from sea-sickness up to Sept. 5th, while Mrs. Miihlen- 
 berg remained unaffected by it. On Sunday, Sept. 4th, by 
 request of all the people on board, Miihlenberg held services 
 in the English language, concluding with singing a verse of a 
 German hymn. He was much pleased with the attention paid 
 by his hearers. The sailors of the ship tried to show their 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 459 
 
 gratitude and their esteem in a popular way. They hit upon 
 the idea that Miihlenberg's sea-sickness was the result of the 
 cook's mistakes in his art, and, having a sailor's ration pre- 
 pared, sent it to the sufferer by a delegate, who presented it 
 with laconic eloquence. Miihlenberg partook of it because 
 " it was sweetened with good-will, salted with serious thought, 
 and seasoned with faith." 
 
 Landing at Charleston on Thursday, Sept. 8th, at ten A. M., 
 Miihlenberg with a thankful heart contemplated the wonderful 
 ways of God, who after thirty- two eventful years again had 
 brought him thither. Soon some members of the vestry of 
 the German Lutheran congregation conducted him, his wife, 
 and his daughter to the hospitable house of Mr. Timrod, a 
 highly-respected member of the church. All possible kind- 
 ness was offered to the strangers. They felt the change of 
 climate ; the heat was oppressive, and to Miihlenberg the peo- 
 ple " looked pale and yellowish, as though they had come out 
 of graves or lazarettos." After some time he and his were 
 taken to the house of Mr. Joseph Kimbel, a man in good cir- 
 cumstances and well known for his great hospitality toward 
 ministers of the gospel. In his large house the Miihlenbergs 
 were treated with the utmost kindness. Sept. pth and loth, 
 Miihlenberg received many visits from English and German 
 people, wrote letters to his son Frederick (then at New York), 
 and prepared himself for Sunday services, as he was expected 
 to preach. Among his hearers were two pastors one, Fred. 
 Daser, whom, on account of his offensive conduct, the vestry 
 had deposed from the office; the other, J. N. Martin. The 
 latter preached in the afternoon on the text, " My house shall 
 be called a house of prayer" (Matt. xxi. 13). Miihlenberg 
 says of him that he was an autodidact from the country whom 
 the vestry had ordered to preach for a few Sundays : " he 
 showed how we ought to go to the house of God, how behave 
 in it and outside of it. In the first part he proposed six steps 
 to lead us into it; the second part was intended for the other 
 subject. All was ingeniously illustrated with sentences and 
 quotations. But, as from the shortness of the time and the 
 
460 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 great heat he did not show us any other outlet, we were 
 obliged to return again by those six steps, and finished where 
 we had begun." In this criticism there is an irony which 
 cannot escape our readers. 
 
 Miihlenberg felt ' unwell on the following Monday, and 
 learned that the month of September was the most danger- 
 ous month in the Carolinas and in Georgia, and that much 
 sickness usually prevailed. He, however, paid a visit to Mr. 
 Kalteisen, an experienced elder of the church, who was fond 
 of reading, acquainted with Gellert's writings, well established 
 .in the knowledge of Christ, and on account of his judicious- 
 ness entrusted with a number of offices. Muhlenberg says 
 that among the church-officers and members here there were 
 found men of firm convictions, much good sense, and love for 
 the Lutheran Church, desirous to work for the increase of the 
 Evangelical confession, and willing to give time, labor, and 
 money, but that there was needed a leader powerful in pro- 
 claiming gospel truth and exemplary in his conduct. During 
 the week he suffered a severe attack of fever, but with much 
 effort managed to preach on Sunday morning, Sept. iSth, 
 on I Cor. xv. 26. In the afternoon he listened to another 
 preacher, from a country congregation, Rev. E. Hochheimer, 
 who recited a sermon of one of the eminent German divines. 
 On the following Monday, Muhlenberg was deeply affected 
 by the report of the death of Rev. Dr. Ziegenhagen, brought 
 from London by a member of the vestry. The report was 
 erroneous. On Wednesday, Sept 2ist, Muhlenberg was 
 taken in a carriage to the country-seat of one of the elders of 
 the church, who had lived there for thirty-five years and re- 
 membered Miihlenberg's first arrival and visit at Charleston. 
 
 With his wife and daughter, Muhlenberg remained here from 
 Sept. 8th until Oct. 26th. During this period he served the 
 Lutheran congregation in spiritual matters and exercised a 
 wholesome influence for its administration ; he also gathered 
 considerable information as to the condition of the Lutheran 
 Church and congregations in the province of South Carolina.* 
 
 * On this subject solid and ample instruction is given in the History of the-Ger- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 461 
 
 At the time of Miihlenberg's visit the Charleston congre- 
 gation was in a critical situation. Rev. J. T. Hahnbaum, a 
 worthy man, who had been called from Germany and served 
 the congregation from 1761 until his death in 1772, was 
 succeeded by Fred. Daser, already mentioned, who, a young 
 and inexperienced man, had come to this country not as a 
 theologian, but as a magister artium, was accepted as an 
 assistant by Rev. Hahnbaum who was in a sickly and de- 
 bilitated condition received from him the necessary instruc- 
 tion and various aids for preaching, manuscripts, books, etc., 
 married one of his daughters, and after the father's death was 
 appointed by the vestry as his successor for one year, and 
 after the lapse of that time for three more years. Unfortu- 
 nately, the conduct of Daser who with his wife visited balls 
 and other similar entertainments and participated in nightly 
 brawls and other excesses was not of such a character as to 
 recommend him to the better class of the membership. The 
 vestry, therefore, would no longer engage his services, and, 
 having made fruitless attempts to obtain a pastor from the 
 ecclesiastical authorities of Hanover, petitioned Miihlenberg 
 to send them a suitable man. Daser's adherents, of whom 
 he had a considerable number among a certain class, could 
 not raise a salary to sustain him and his family ; the other 
 members, who had a more spiritual view of the pastoral office, 
 were not willing to do it. Under these circumstances Daser 
 resolved, with recommendations of the lieutenant-governor 
 and some Episcopal ministers, to go to England, in the hope 
 of receiving holy orders there. Learning that Miihlenberg's 
 arrival was expected, he had delayed his departure to await 
 Miihlenberg's decision for or against him. He listened to 
 Miihlenberg's sermons and also personally visited him. The 
 vestry had positively decided that under no circumstances 
 would they again engage Daser's services or pay the debts 
 
 man Settlements and of the Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina, etc. 
 etc., by G. D. Bernheim, D. D. (formerly pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, Wilmington, S. C. ; now pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Grace Church, 
 Phillipsburg, N. J.). Philadelphia: Lutheran Bookstore, 117 N. Sixth st. 1872. 
 
462 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he had contracted. Muhlenberg, who was present at the 
 meetings of the congregation and the vestry, and who at 
 once felt the want of a proper constitution for the congre- 
 gation, could not and would not defend a man who during 
 four years had demonstrated that he had no proper concep- 
 tion of the dignity and the duties of the clerical office. Da- 
 ser, seeing that his opportunities were gone, at the advice of 
 Muhlenberg wrote a short petition in behalf of himself, his 
 wife, and his two little children : some of the vestry, who 
 personally cherished no ill-will against him, canvassed the 
 congregation in his behalf, and in this way collected between 
 seventy and eighty pounds Carolina currency, of which sum 
 ten pounds came from Muhlenberg, the very least portion 
 from Daser's adherents. Daser departed for England, but 
 in consequence of terrible storms the vessel was necessitated 
 to return to Charleston. It appears that *the school of sad 
 experiences was not without some wholesome effects upon 
 Daser's spiritual condition. 
 
 In behalf of the congregation Muhlenberg drew up a peti- 
 tion for a suitable pastor to the " Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge in London ;" this petition was signed by nearly 
 all the members of the congregation, and sent by Rev. Pasche 
 of London lalso to the t{ Fathers " in Halle, having been for- 
 warded to Europe by Mr. Mey of Charleston. Meanwhile 
 the vestry re-engaged the services of Rev. J. N. Martin, who 
 consented to take charge of the congregation until the arrival 
 of the pastor expected from Europe. In consequence of the 
 outbreak of the political troubles between England and the 
 American colonies this pastor never arrived. Rev. Martin 
 proved a strenuous advocate of American rights, wherein he 
 was supported by his membership, out of which the German 
 fusilier company of Charleston was formed. He was for a 
 time imprisoned by the English, since he refused to pray for 
 King George III., and then driven from the city. During 
 this time two ministers Rev. Christian Streit, whose mem- 
 ory is cherished by the Lutheran Church in America, and 
 Fred. Daser partially supplied the congregation. When 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 463 
 
 Streit, who entered upon his pastoral duties in 1778, was 
 made a prisoner of war by the British, Daser appears to have 
 been sole pastor of the Lutherans at Charleston until July, 
 1786, when he took a pastoral charge in Orangeburg Dis- 
 trict, S. C. 
 
 During his visit to Charleston, Miihlenberg took a lively 
 interest in all that appertained to the Lutheran congrega- 
 tion ; he also participated in a consultation of the vestry con- 
 cerning the establishment of a parochial German and English 
 school. There is no doubt that his sojourn at Charleston 
 resulted in much good to the congregation. He and his 
 companions received many marks of esteem and good-will 
 from the brethren and from others. Rev. W. Tennent, a 
 member of a family of preachers with which he already had 
 become acquainted in Pennsylvania, pastor of the large con- 
 gregation of the Independents, invited him to preach. The 
 German Benevolent Society of Charleston (established Jan. 
 15, 1766, and still active), at that time counting about eighty 
 members, and called by Miihlenberg the flower of the Ger- 
 man nation in those parts, invited him to be present at one 
 of their meetings and to participate in a dinner given in his 
 honor. He also became acquainted with an English gentle- 
 man who, coming from Savannah, gave him valuable infor- 
 mation concerning the state of affairs at Ebenezer, telling 
 him that the congregation was divided into two parties, one 
 adhering to Rev. Rabenhorst, an excellent man and an exem- 
 plary pastor, under the leadership of Mr. Treutlen, a justice of 
 the peace and a merchant in easy circumstances ; the other 
 the friends of Rev. Triebner, under the leadership of Mr. 
 Wertsch, a merchant of means at Ebenezer. Miihlenberg 
 found at Charleston other persons of English and German 
 descent who spoke in high terms of Rabenhorst's Christian 
 character and conduct. 
 
 During his visit to Charleston, Miihlenberg had opportu- 
 nity, through letters and personal intercourse, to learn much 
 about the spiritually destitute condition of many German Lu- 
 theran settlers in the interior of the province of South Carolina. 
 
464 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 9 
 
 A family living about fifty miles from Charleston visited his 
 host, and from them he learned that in their district church 
 and school were in a bad way ; that they had provided their 
 own barn as a place of worship for the people of the neighbor- 
 hood ; that their pastor was a man who had come from Ger- 
 many some time previous, and that, though he had some 
 ability as a teacher, he had none as a preacher ; that the whole 
 week he was busy in gathering his Sunday sermon from vari- 
 ous books and laboriously writing it. This composition, and 
 even the Lord's Prayer, he read on Sunday without any ges- 
 ture or pathos, excusing himself by saying that God had 
 totally refused him the gift of memory. Miihlenberg adds 
 that God is always unjustly blamed whenever lazy fellows 
 remain uncircumcised in heart and in ears. He also learned 
 that in that region very few were able to read or to write, 
 which moved him to exclaim, " Oh what an advantage and 
 consolation an institute would be where catechists could be 
 prepared and made willing, during week-days, to keep school, 
 and on Sundays and church-festivals to deliver suitable ser- 
 mons ! There would be no need to trouble these young men 
 for years with studying foreign languages ; it would be quite 
 sufficient if they were gifted with an average amount of good 
 common sense, had a compendious knowledge of the essen- 
 tials of theology, in addition to personal experience of saving 
 truth if they could make a decent use of the pen, had com- 
 mand of their mother-tongue and the English ; were also to 
 some extent masters of the rudiments of Latin ; of robust 
 bodily frame, able to endure all sorts of victuals and weather; 
 and, above all, if they were endowed with hearts sincerely 
 loving the Saviour, his lambs and sheep." But he finally 
 adds, " This matter is among the pia desideria, easier con- 
 ceived in theory than executed in practice." 
 
 Among the letters Miihlenberg received while sojourning at 
 Charleston was one from the Rev. J. G. Friederichs, who for- 
 merly served congregations in Pennsylvania, between 1755 
 and 1759 had presided over the Charleston congregation, 
 and after laying, in 1759, the corner-stone of a frame church, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 46$ 
 
 had moved to the Lutherans in Amelia township, about one 
 hundred miles distant from Charleston. His letter was an- 
 swered in words of sympathy and encouragement. Letters 
 also arrived from relatives in Pennsylvania and cheered the 
 hearts of father, mother, and daughter. Here Miihlenberg 
 also received the distressing news that Israel Heintzelmann, 
 the only surviving son of the late Rev. J. D. M. Heintzelmann 
 of Philadelphia, had died (Sept. 12) at Ebenezer in conse- 
 quence of being thrown by a spirited horse; to which sad 
 event we formerly alluded. 
 
 At last, on Wednesday, Oct. 26th, after many futile at- 
 tempts to depart, Muhlenberg, with wife and daughter, accom- 
 panied to the wharf by the family of his kind host and by a 
 number of other friends, went on board of the old and very 
 incommodious vessel which was to take them to Savannah. 
 They experienced much hardship, but reached Savannah at 
 two o'clock on the following afternoon. 
 
 Here the Rev. Joachim Zubly, D. D., pastor of the Re- 
 formed church, whose benevolence toward Rev. Handschuh 
 at Germantown has previously been mentioned, and who at 
 that time had lived at Charleston, had paid a visit to Phil- 
 adelphia in 1752 and become personally acquainted with 
 Muhlenberg, most cordially invited the strangers to his 
 house. Although appreciating Dr. Ziibly's kindness, import- 
 ant considerations moved Muhlenberg to accept the hospitality 
 of Mr. Stephan Millen, German merchant and a member of 
 the Lutheran congregation there and of the Assembly, who 
 in 1773 had brought his oldest son to Philadelphia to the 
 Rev. Kunze for instruction and confirmation, and whose ac- 
 quaintance Muhlenberg had made on that occasion. When, 
 by invitation, Muhlenberg, with his wife and daughter, dined 
 at Ziibly's, he found there the largest collection of books he 
 had ever seen in any pastor's study in America ; but, as in 
 many such libraries, " the books are like the trees that lose 
 their fruit and foliage in autumn, for printed leaves without 
 number, whole and half tracts, manuscripts, etc. lie scattered 
 on the floor." On Jan. 9, 1775, Ziibly, then at Ebenezer, laid 
 
466 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 before Miihlenberg the manuscript of a dissertation in Latin 
 which he intended to have printed, having been created doc- 
 tor of divinity. He was a learned and well-meaning man, but 
 of a sanguine temper. When sent to the American Congress 
 as the representative from Georgia, he unfortunately proved 
 a decided Tory, secretly corresponded with the Tory governor 
 of Georgia, was publicly denounced as a traitor, and in conse- 
 quence suffered confiscation of property and other severe hard- 
 ships. In his diary Miihlenberg states that in a letter from Sa- 
 vannah at the close of 1783^6 was mentioned as having died. 
 His death had taken place in July, 1781. (Vide Lor. Sabine's 
 Loyalists (1847), P- 73 2 f -) 
 
 Friday evening, the day after his arrival at Savannah, Miihl- 
 enberg by two letters of similar import informed the pastors 
 Rabenhorst and Triebner at Ebenezer of his presence in 
 compliance with the request of Rev. Drs. Ziegenhagen and 
 Urlsperger and of members of the Societas de Propaganda 
 Cognitione Christi, of his readiness to do his share for the 
 restoration of harmony between pastors and congregation at 
 Ebenezer, of the motives which had influenced him in this 
 matter to undertake such a lengthy journey at his advanced 
 age, of the authority given him in this affair, and of his obliga- 
 tion to report the results to those who had empowered and 
 sent him. He desired to have a preliminary private interview 
 with both the pastors. Of these letters Miihlenberg retained 
 a copy. He knew that in this unfortunate complication he 
 was obliged to use the greatest circumspection,, and he acted 
 throughout in accordance with this conviction. 
 
 On Saturday, Oct. 29th, a man of seventy years, a Lutheran, 
 who thirty years before had rowed Miihlenberg and Rev. J. 
 Chr. Gronau up to Ebenezer, came to see him. He remem- 
 bered the hymns which the two clerical gentlemen had 
 sung while going up the Savannah. At Savannah, on Sun- 
 day, Miihlenberg preached twice in the Lutheran church, a 
 frame structure (formerly used as the court-house) which the 
 Lutherans had bought and moved to another locality. They 
 had now owned it about two years, and had adorned it with 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 467 
 
 a small belfry with a bell. He was pleased with the attention 
 and behavior of his hearers, who every sixth Sunday enjoyed 
 the services of Rev. Rabenhorst. 
 
 Monday, Oct. 3 1st, at four p. M., Muhlenberg was visited 
 by both the pastors of Ebenezer ; he had never before seen 
 them. After some general conversation he laid before 
 them the document authorizing him to investigate the dif- 
 ficulties existing between them and the Ebenezer member- 
 ship, with the instructions he had received from Rev. Dr. 
 Urlsperger at Augsburg. He inquired whether they ac- 
 knowledged both documents and were willing to proceed 
 accordingly. Rabenhorst at once gave his consent ; Triebner 
 also gave his after some hesitation. Finally, both reduced 
 their consent to writing. Muhlenberg requested them to 
 confine their complaints to a few main points, and to hand 
 them, to him in writing; in case important charges bearing 
 upon their office and their character or upon the congrega- 
 tion were to be laid before him, to have ready credible wit- 
 nesses who could be put under oath. This also both promised 
 to do. When Rabenhorst left, Triebner continued for an 
 hour to represent the difficulties at Ebenezer as he viewed 
 them, but elicited no response from Muhlenberg, who, how- 
 ever, was unpleasantly surprised to learn that by a grant from 
 the governor and the council of the province the Jerusalem 
 Church at Ebenezer, with the ground on which this main 
 church of the congregation was erected, and with the glebe 
 and the graveyard, was placed under the jurisdiction of the 
 Church of England. If this was so, Ebenezer and all its 
 appurtenances might finally go into the hands of strangers, 
 and all the charities in its behalf and all the labors devoted to 
 it would prove abortive. 
 
 Before going to Ebenezer, Muhlenberg also addressed him- 
 self to both the " political heads " of the two existing parties 
 Mr. Treutlen, who lived about ten miles west of Ebenezer, 
 arid Mr. Wertsch. He considered them as representative men, 
 and requested each to present his principal charges in writing, 
 begging them both to facilitate the work of peace to the best 
 
468 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of their ability. He also stated that during his stay in Eben- 
 ezer he would like to have lodgings in a house free from the 
 suspicion of party influence. On the following day Raben- 
 horst, with Mrs. Muhlenberg and her daughter, left for Eben- 
 ezer. Triebner remained and took occasion to read to Muhl- 
 enberg many communications exchanged between him and 
 Rabenhorst. He also stated that the larger party, the friends 
 of Rabenhorst, through the officers of the congregation, had 
 locked the Jerusalem Church against him ; that he now, with 
 his adherents, held services in Mr. J. C. Wertsch's house; and 
 that he had in vain petitioned the governor for redress. Muhl- 
 enberg felt that in this condition of affairs there was apparent 
 danger that the governor might step in, take the property of 
 the congregation under his protection in behalf of the Church 
 of England, and place-there a pastor who had had Episcopal 
 ordination. The grant concerning the Jerusalem Church and 
 other property Muhlenberg was unable to discover in Savan- 
 nah, but he received a copy of a grant of five hundred acres 
 belonging to the mills erected at Ebenezer. This instrument 
 was dated Aug. 7, 1759, and the property was given to Raben- 
 horst, John Fieri, Lewis Meyer, and their heirs and assigns, as 
 their possession for ever, with the addition " in trust, neverthe- 
 less ;" which term, as Muhlenberg says, was entirely too indef- 
 inite, since those gentlemen never gave a declaration of trust 
 binding themselves to apply the income to congregational 
 purposes. Rabenhorst was not of a robust constitution : he 
 died a few years after Muhlenberg's visit, leaving a widow, but 
 no children. Fieri was dead, and his legal rights had devolved 
 upon his son. Meyer also was dead, and his four children 
 were minors. The more heirs the more claims upon the land 
 and the income. No wonder, says Muhlenberg, that the mills 
 occasioned much strife ; the fault had been committed in the 
 beginning. The original grant concerning Jerusalem Church 
 was in the hands of Mr. Wertsch, and was sent to Muhlenberg 
 by Triebner Nov. 5th. It states plainly, under date April 2, 
 1771, "that the said two lots of land first above mentioned 
 shall be to and for the only proper use, benefit, and behoof 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 469 
 
 of two ministers of the gospel, residents within the parish 
 aforesaid (St. Matthew's), using and exercising divine service 
 according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of Eng- 
 land within the said parish, and their successors for ever," etc. 
 Here was the mistake. The document, Miihlenberg said, 
 ought to have read "for the only proper use, benefit, and 
 behoof of the ministers and congregation, being Protestants 
 according to the Augsburg Confession and Liturgy, and their 
 successors for ever." Who had introduced that unfortunate 
 phraseology? Miihlenberg does not answer the question, 
 but alludes to the fact that there was a certain lawyer at Sa- 
 vannah Joseph Ottolenghe, at one time, according to report, 
 a Portuguese Jew, now a member of the Anglican Church, a 
 justice of the peace, and "a great friend of the Germans, pro- 
 vided they would act as he wished them " whom Triebner 
 had visited soon after having acknowledged Miihlenberg's 
 authority; which act Muhlenberg suspects he regretted. 
 
 When Muhlenberg, on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. ^th, 
 arrived at Rabenhorst's, twenty miles from Savannah, he 
 found, quite contrary to the impressions made upon him by 
 descriptions, a small frame house on four posts, on the first 
 floor a room of moderate dimensions and an alcove, which 
 was given to the guest, Rabenhorst and his wife moving to 
 the attic. 
 
 The week now before him Muhlenberg calls a week of mar- 
 tyrium. He saw before him a most unpleasant task. He had 
 hardly arrived when Triebner and his adherents sent him a 
 document containing fifteen accusations against Rabenhorst, 
 most of them of an irrelevant character others charging him 
 with arbitrary conduct in church affairs, remissness in the 
 exercise of discipline, neglecting to give account of the trusts 
 in his hands, and unwillingness to come to an amicable under- 
 standing with Triebner and his friends. On the other hand, 
 Rabenhorst complained that from the time of his arrival 
 Triebner had made it impossible to hold fraternal relations 
 with him, and had continually found fault with him and with 
 the customs of the congregation, the manner in wjjich the 
 
470 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 parochial school was kept and the children were treated ; had 
 proposed changes in the matter of the salary of the pastors, 
 which Rabenhorst did not think beneficial ; had acted in a 
 very offensive manner, and misrepresented before the people 
 and in letters to Europe the doings of his colleague in ref- 
 erence to financial transactions ; had calumniated him before 
 the congregation and Mr. Whitefield ; and had seriously 
 affected his good reputation among the membership by 
 representing him as a false teacher and a disturber of the 
 churches. 
 
 The church-officers handed Miihlenberg a separate docu- 
 ment, wherein they charged Triebner with most unbecoming 
 behavior toward Rabenhorst, who at all times had treated him 
 kindly ; with avarice and covetousness in claiming the right 
 of administering the trusts in Rabenhorst's hands, for which 
 he had no official authority ; with an impetuous and irascible 
 temper ; with unbridled ambition, leading him to think him- 
 self superior to all others and always to claim the first honors; 
 and with an envious and implacable disposition. 
 
 Wednesday, Nov. Qth, Triebner took Miihlenberg to his 
 house in Ebenezer, where he met with the widow of Rev. 
 Lembke, whom thirty-two years before he had known as the 
 wife of Rev. Gronau. Herm. H. Lembke was sent in 1746 as 
 the successor of Gronau, who had died July 1 1, 1745. Lemb- 
 ke died about five years before Miihlenberg's second visit to 
 Ebenezer. The church records of the town having been 
 almost wholly destroyed or lost during the Revolutionary 
 War, we are unable to find the exact dates of a number of 
 events bearing upon the history of the congregation and its 
 pastors. Miihlenberg did not observe much improvement in 
 the town since his first visit, but the whole settlement had in- 
 creased greatly, so that now there were four churches Jeru- 
 salem, a stone structure, erected in 1767 in the place of the 
 former frame building; Zion Church, four miles from Eben- 
 ezer, nearer to the Savannah River, and still standing; Goshen, 
 ten miles below Ebenezer, on the Savannah road, and served 
 then by Rabenhorst; and Bethany, in the settlement north of 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 471 
 
 Ebenezer, but abandoned during the Revolutionary War, which 
 proved very disastrous to the whole colony. 
 
 In the evening of that same day the lay leaders of the two 
 parties, Wertsch and Treutlen, came to see Muhlenberg. 
 Triebner, who was present, took occasion to upbraid Treut- 
 len, who, however, maintained a dignified coolness under 
 these attacks. On the following day it grieved Muhlenberg 
 to see that the one party held services in Mr. Wertsch's pri- 
 vate dwelling, while Rabenhorst and his friends were assem- 
 bled in the Jerusalem Church. On Friday, Nov. nth, Muhl- 
 enberg held a special meeting with the two pastors ; after 
 opening with prayer, he requested Rabenhorst to state his 
 charges, to which Triebner responded in an arrogant man- 
 ner, denying every charge and claiming in every respect to 
 have acted as before God in agreement with the instructions 
 given him by the " Fathers " and according to his best know- 
 ledge. Muhlenberg finally (the meeting lasted six hours) tried 
 to persuade them to forgive each other, as was the duty of 
 brethren. Triebner admitted, on his part, no more than that 
 he may occasionally have erred in manner, never in matter, 
 and that he had only carried out his instructions. Muhlen- 
 berg states that he had reasons for not believing in those in- 
 structions. Triebner only went so far as to say that he was 
 willing to forgive the affronts offered him by Rabenhorst, 
 who, seeing Muhlenberg's embarrassment and grief, broke 
 out in tears, freely offered his hand to Triebner, and after- 
 ward accompanied him to his house. On the following Sun- 
 day, Rabenhorst and his wife went with Muhlenberg to the 
 house of Triebner; the three pastors proceeded to the Jeru- 
 salem Church, and were followed by a crowd composed of 
 both parties. Muhlenberg preached on Luke vi. 36, 37 (" Be 
 ye merciful," etc.), and he and Rabenhorst took dinner at 
 Triebner's house. In the afternoon, however, Rabenhorst had 
 catechization with his adherents in the Jerusalem Church ; 
 Triebner, services with his flock at Wertsch's. 
 
 It was expected of Muhlenberg that he would examine all 
 the papers referring to the administration of the trusts in the 
 
4/2 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 hands of Rabenhorst, and find out whether the charges made 
 by Triebner and his adherents had any solid foundation. The 
 question was whether Rabenhorst (who, with a colony of Wiir- 
 tembergers, had arrived at Ebenezer in 1752) was lawfully 
 managing the grist-, saw- and rice-stamping-mills and the 
 lands appertaining thereto, and whether he had employed 
 the income thereof in the interest of the congregation, its 
 churches, schools, parsonages, teachers, widows, orphans, 
 etc. The trust had first been in the hands of Boltzius. 
 He had (April 15, 1757) formally transferred it to Lembke, 
 who again (April 30, 1759) transferred it to Rabenhorst; 
 which ( transfers were made in good legal form. Funds 
 borrowed for the mill had been repaid. Rabenhorst never 
 intended to divert the income arising from the mills from its 
 original objects or to use it for his personal interest. He 
 derived his support from a capital of ,649 1 6s. 5d. raised 
 in Germany and invested in farm-lands at Ebenezer, and for 
 which he gave a bond certifying that this fund could be used 
 for no other purpose than for the support of his successors. 
 We may add that during the Revolutionary War the mills fell 
 into decay, and that the lands once amounting to nine hun- 
 dred and twenty-five acres became wholly depreciated in 
 value. When Triebner arrived here he soon spread the 
 report that Rabenhorst had improperly got the lands into his 
 possession, and had no authority to manage the mills ; that 
 the principal in his hands was not secure ; and that Triebner, 
 Wertsch, and others offered seven per cent, on the capital, 
 provided it were given into their hands. No wonder that 
 such reports produced considerable suspicion and animosity 
 among the membership of the congregation. Miihlenberg 
 conscientiously undertook the task of sifting the accusations, 
 examining all the legal documents, and hearing all competent 
 witnesses. He arrived at the conclusion that Rabenhorst 
 could not justly be charged with any selfish motive or act 
 in administration of the trust ; that his innocence could easily 
 be demonstrated to all who were not prevented from seeing 
 and appreciating the truth by prejudice or partiality ; that 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 473 
 
 there would be no difficulty in restoring peace and harmony, 
 provided Triebner could be moved to acknowledge the wrong 
 he had done his fellow-laborer and to endeavor to restore the 
 confidence he had sought to destroy. Miihlenberg discovered 
 that it was Mr. Wertsch " who, after the death of Boltzius and 
 Lembke, always pretended to be the factotum" and who had 
 allowed the grant to be prepared in such a manner as to place 
 Jerusalem Church under the jurisdiction of the Anglican epis- 
 copacy. He had also kept that document in his hands, and had 
 never allowed any one but Triebtter and others of his party to 
 peruse it. Muhlenberg properly remarks : " If this great 
 mistake had been committed by Rabenhorst, Treutlen, or 
 any other one of their friends, what an outcry of indigna- 
 tion would have come from Triebner, Wertsch, and their 
 adherents, and been proclaimed to the Right Reverend 
 Fathers !" 
 
 Nov. 22d, Muhlenberg held the first conference with the 
 two pastors and six trustees of Ebenezer. By presenting and 
 reading the respective documents it was here clearly demon- 
 strated that Rabenhorst had not in any undue manner assumed 
 authority, but in his administration of the properties entrusted 
 to him had acted in a perfectly unselfish and legitimate way ; 
 keeping in view the best interests of the congregation ; that, 
 on the other hand, Triebner and his adherents had done great 
 wrong by circulating evil reports and again and again charg- 
 ing Rabenhorst with illegitimate assumption of authority, by 
 irritating the people against him, and by prohibiting him from 
 receiving moneys from those indebted. But on this occasion 
 Muhlenberg refrained from pronouncing upon Triebner that 
 judgment which he deserved. Privately he gave him serious 
 admonition, without, however, being able to bring him to the 
 acknowledgment of his wrong-doing. Rabenhorst was able 
 also to lay before the conference all his accounts concerning 
 the mills, and to show a balance of 229 i6s. 2d. 
 
 On the following day Muhlenberg held another conference 
 with the two pastors, the officers, and a number of the mem- 
 bers of the congregation. Triebner and his party here mani- 
 
4/4 LIFE- AND TIMES OF 
 
 Tested so unconciliatory and turbulent a spirit that Miihlen- 
 berg declared it futile for him longer to stay and labor. This 
 had the effect of, to some extent, changing the attitude taken 
 by Wertsch and other adherents of Triebner not, however, 
 of moving Triebner to anything else than to admonish his 
 opponents to repentance, while Rabenhorst gave the strong- 
 est evidence that he was willing to forgive and forget. Miihl- 
 enberg was now fully convinced that this man Triebner was 
 inaccessible to every principle of truth and charity and could 
 not be moved to enter upon the path of humility and peace. 
 It was, however, agreed that both parties should unitedly hold 
 services in the Jerusalem Church. We take occasion here 
 to state that Miihlenberg frequently speaks of Mrs. Triebner 
 in the highest terms. He speaks in the same manner of Mrs. 
 Rabenhorst, who was a daughter of Mr. Brands, a member of 
 the congregation lately deceased. 
 
 During the month of December, Miihlenberg was busy in 
 preparing for the Ebenezer congregation an improved consti- 
 tution which might in future serve to prevent many of these 
 troublesome complications. Triebner handed him a plan of 
 such a constitution of his own making. It was a very volum- 
 inous document, and for this reason was impractical. Miihl- 
 enberg also found in the Ebenezer or Saltzburger Reports, 
 edited by the late Dr. Urlsperger, Jr., many suggestions con- 
 cerning the administration and the discipline of the congrega- 
 tion which essentially coincided with his own views and pro- 
 posals on this subject. He also prepared an extensive re- 
 port, which he intended to send to Dr. Ziegenhagen and to 
 Dr. Urlsperger, Jr., who had sent Triebner to Ebenezer, and 
 who appeared to entertain of him a much higher opinion than 
 he deserved. Triebner was indeed expected to send reports 
 . on the state of affairs in Ebenezer to Germany, of which op- 
 portunity he made a very extended but most unjust use by 
 calumniating Rabenhorst and by the suppression and misrep- 
 resentation of many facts. In connection with this, Miihlen- 
 berg says that Dr. Ziegenhagen never permitted missionaries, 
 in the earlier years of their labor in foreign countries, to send 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 475 
 
 reports of their internal or external condition, being persuaded 
 that it needed time and experience to reach a reliable conclu- 
 sion. He adds that during the first years of a residence in a 
 foreign country, under wholly new circumstances, a man is 
 blind and judges affairs and conditions by the standard of his 
 own native country : at first, seeing but the surface of things, 
 he makes hasty conclusions and gives definitions and descrip- 
 tions which after some time, from a larger experience, he is 
 obliged to change. 
 
 We hardly need remark that during his stay at Ebenezer 
 Muhlenberg frequently conducted public services in the vari- 
 ous churches of the congregation. He and Mrs. Muhlenberg 
 suffered during that winter, from the very changeable climate, 
 attacks of fever and bther diseases. Jan. 10, 1775, Muhlen- 
 berg received a letter from his son Frederick of New York 
 informing him that the Lutheran pastors in the province in- 
 tended to hold their first conference the next April. This 
 indicates the primal move in the direction of establishing a 
 New York synod; the undertaking was accomplished in 
 1786. 
 
 Muhlenberg was much gratified in seeing that Rabenhorst 
 most willingly gave a legal bond by which all the church 
 property under his sole care and control, but not secured 
 against legal difficulties in case of his death, should in this 
 event revert as a trust to Urlsperger of Augsburg, G. A. 
 Freylinghausen of Halle, and Ziegenhagen of London as the 
 founders of the principal involved in Ebenezer, the interest 
 of which formed the pastor's salary. Muhlenberg took care 
 to state in this bond that the pastor who should subsequently 
 enjoy the benefit of the interest of the principal (amounting 
 to ^649 1 6s. 5d.) was to be "a regular Protestant minister, 
 professing the Protestant Lutheran doctrine according to the 
 AugsbuFg Confession and Liturgy, in and about Ebenezer in 
 Georgia." In the same manner, at the instigation of Muhl- 
 enberg, J. C. Wertsch who held a sum of three hundred 
 pounds, collected in part by Urlsperger, in part by Ziegen- 
 hagen, in behalf of the Ebenezer congregation gave his legal 
 
476 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 
 
 bond to both these originators of this trust in such a manner 
 that the capital should for ever be secured to the benefit of 
 the Lutheran congregation at Ebenezer. Both these bonds 
 were recorded in the office of the provincial secretary at 
 Savannah. Before leaving Georgia, Miihlenberg made all 
 possible efforts to have the wording of the above-mentioned 
 grant changed which placed the Ebenezer congregation and 
 the Jerusalem Church under the jurisdiction of the Anglican 
 Church, but could not consummate his purpose. 
 
 On Thursday, Jan. 12, 1775, a meeting of the vestry was held, 
 at which were present the trustees and the church- officers 
 (Vorsteher) with the two pastors. In addition to other trans- 
 actions, it was resolved to hold a meeting of the congregation 
 on Monday, Jan. i6th, to read the proposed constitution and 
 to request the assent and the subscription of the members. 
 Invitation being given by Miihlenberg after preaching in Jeru- 
 salem Church on Sunday^ the meeting took place at ten o'clock 
 A. M. the following day. After prayer and some preliminary 
 business, Miihlenberg read the proposed constitution as it 
 had already been subscribed (Dec. 28, 1774) by the two pas- 
 tors, the trustees, the officers, and a few church-members. 
 The reading of the document which in many points is simi- 
 lar to the constitution adopted in Philadelphia, and in which 
 Miihlenberg wisely had embodied what could be usefully ap- 
 plied from Triebner's proposed sketch required a full hour. 
 No voice of opposition was heard, and in the presence of Miihl- 
 enberg about one hundred and twenty-five members, inclusive 
 of those who formerly had given their names, signed the docu- 
 ment. It grieves us to report that Triebner, who had seemed 
 to be in full harmony with the new constitution, after a few 
 days fell into a paroxysm of regret, thought that that document 
 could not be carried out in the administration of the congre- 
 gation, and placed his own views above its principles and its 
 stipulations. Perhaps it was a fortunate circumstance that a 
 short time after Miihlenberg departed from Ebenezer the con- 
 gregation, meeting at Jerusalem Church, deposed Triebner 
 from the pastoral office. He was under a dreadful suspicion 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 477 
 
 of immorality, and was not in the condition to prove his inno- 
 cence. He kept a small number of personal adherents under 
 his control and for a time continued to hold services with them 
 in a private house. When, about the year 1777, Rabenhorst 
 died, Triebner regained some of his former influence, and 
 made efforts to disconnect Ebenezer from the authority and 
 supervision of the " Fathers " in Europe. When Rev. Chris- 
 tian Streit, in 1778 called as pastor to the Charleston con- 
 gregation, in the same year paid a visit to Ebenezer, Trieb- 
 ner was still at the head of a party, and in the following year, 
 as a letter of Streit to Miihlenberg informs 'us, was again 
 acknowledged as pastor by the congregation. But his strong 
 Toryism and the fact that he had moved the citizens of Eben- 
 ezer who had been entirely in favor of independence to 
 swear allegiance to the English Crown, made him most ob- 
 noxious to the American government. He was made a pris- 
 oner, in 1782 was excluded from the proclamation of pardon, 
 and spent, as Miihlenberg in 1783 states, his time in the neigh- 
 borhood of St. Augustine in Florida, but soon left there 
 and went to England, where he died in old age and in 
 oblivion. By way of contrast we may state when, in 1764, 
 the governor of the province commanded him to commend 
 the Stamp Act, Rev. Rabenhorst answered that he thought 
 it not his duty to agitate political questions, but to preach re- 
 pentance, faith, and godliness to his people, and hoped thereby 
 to contribute his share to make them good citizens. 
 
 Monday, Feb. 6, 1775, Miihlenberg, with his wife and 
 daughter, left Ebenezer for Savannah, accompanied by 
 Rabenhorst and eight male and two female companions on 
 horseback. 
 
 There is no doubt that much good resulted from this visit 
 to Ebenezer. Miihlenberg was fully persuaded that the 
 unwise and unchristian behavior of Triebner was the main 
 cause of all the troubles in the congregation. Besides Trieb- 
 ner's unwillingness to acknowledge the error of his way, his 
 impetuosity and his vanity prevented the consummation of 
 the great objects Miihlenberg had in view viz. to re-estab- 
 
4/8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 lish harmony and peace among all the people, and to bring 
 the congregation into a condition of lasting peace, regularity, 
 and order. Much, however, was accomplished. Rabenhorst's 
 Christian character was vindicated, and his pastoral authority 
 was greatly increased ; a good practical constitution was intro- 
 duced ; the foundation of a happy progress and increase of 
 the church was laid, and its financial affairs were placed upon 
 a better footing. That the events of the turbulent days and 
 years of war greatly interfered with the quiet development 
 of the congregation, this no human wisdom could foresee, 
 no human power prevent. 
 
 At Savannah, Muhlenberg and the members of his family 
 again enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Millen. Wednesday, 
 Feb. 8th, Rabenhprst bade farewell : by his religious fervor, 
 his sincerity, unaffected humility, and conciliatory spirit he 
 had for ever gained the respect and the fraternal love of Muhl- 
 enberg. The time until Friday, Feb. i/th, was employed by 
 Muhlenberg in visiting the representatives of the government, 
 and in influencing them as well as he could in behalf of Eb- 
 enezer. He was politely received and heard many pleasant 
 words, but beyond this nothing was accomplished. ' Muhl- 
 enberg had no command of those means which even in 
 diplomatic offices often move heads and hands. He. also 
 again enjoyed the intercourse and the hospitality of the 
 enthusiastic Dr. Ziibly. By him and other friends he was 
 strongly advised to delay his departure until spring, and not 
 to risk an ocean-voyage during the stormy season. To this 
 advice he opposed his firm trust in God's providence. Mrs. 
 Muhlenberg also was very desirous of returning to her own 
 house and family at Philadelphia. Feb. I7th, with their daugh- 
 ter, they went on board the small ship which was to carry 
 them to Philadelphia. Days of misery again came for father 
 and for daughter, and to them the vessel was an instrument 
 of torture. March 2d they were about sixty miles from Cape 
 Henlopen when a violent north-west storm drove them one 
 hundred miles out into the open sea. Having finally reached 
 Delaware Bay, they rejoiced in hearing that the river was 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 479 
 
 open all the way up to Philadelphia, but in consequence of 
 the false reckoning of the pilot the ship ran upon a sand- 
 bank, and to get her afloat they were obliged to unload a 
 large quantity of rice. Monday, March 6th, at noon, Phila- 
 delphia was reached. Miihlenberg and his companions hurried 
 to their home and family, richer in experience and grateful to 
 God for their preservation. 
 
480 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXVTII. 
 
 1773-1775 (continued']. 
 
 Sickness of Dr. Kunze. Political aspects. Reports and insinuations against 
 Miihlenberg. He visits Reading, Tulpehoken, Pikestown. The Germans 
 of Philadelphia in the political conflict. Christopher Ludwig. Miihlenberg's 
 opinion of General Washington. The Hebron congregation in Virginia. 
 H. Moeller. J. Frank. Acquisition of a cemetery by the Philadelphia con- 
 gregation. 
 
 THE return of Miihlenberg and his wife was most timely. 
 For six weeks their son-in-law, Rev. J. C. Kunze, had 
 been disabled by sickness from doing any pastoral work. To 
 him and his wife a daughter had been born during the ab- 
 sence of the grandparents, but was after a few days taken 
 from them. Rev. G. Henry E. Muhlenberg was also in a debil- 
 itated condition. The burden of the large congregation just 
 in the winter season, when the numerous class of catechumens 
 required close attention, had to the utmost tasked his physical 
 strength. 
 
 There were other circumstances which required the pres- 
 ence of Muhlenberg on his ordinary field of action. The 
 relations between the American provinces and the mother- 
 country were in a condition of fermentation, and the future 
 was most insecure. Party spirit rose to a height before un- 
 known, and the passions were violently excited. That the 
 measures carried out by the English government were unwise 
 and calculated to irritate the inhabitants of the provinces 
 could not be disputed. In feelings averse to England all 
 shared. As to the measures for defending the American 
 cause and for counteracting the despotic sway of England 
 opinions differed. It was natural that many individuals, es- 
 

 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 481 
 
 pecially those serving the cause of religion and the Church, 
 would not utter their sentiments in so critical a period, what- 
 ever may have been their personal convictions. Those who, 
 under the influence of a peculiar situation, advance ideas op- 
 posite to the popular and prevailing views during turbulent 
 times are exposed to the most senseless, often injurious, re- 
 ports and judgments. In those days the position of many of 
 the clergy was a peculiarly difficult one. The pastors of the 
 Episcopal Church, who were sent as missionaries from Eng- 
 land, had sworn allegiance to the Crown, and were to a large 
 extent dependent on the contributions from England for their 
 subsistence, especially labored under great difficulties, and 
 numbers of them suffered terrible treatment at the hands of 
 the populace. 
 
 Miihlenberg also came in for a share of very foolish and 
 malignant reports and insinuations. At the request of the 
 officers of the Reading, New Hanover, and Pikestown con- 
 gregations, he travelled (May 24, 1775) to New Hanover, 
 where dissensions threatened to do much harm ; preached, 
 and with the assistance of Voigt, the pastor loci, held the 
 Lord's Supper ; he had conference with the officers of the 
 church, and then left for Reading, where a vacancy existed 
 and where his advice was w r anted. There he preached (May 
 28th) to a great concourse of people, whose curiosity was 
 greatly excited. He says in his diary, " My wilful and 
 unfair enemies in their hatred had spread gross calumnies 
 against me throughout the whole province and neighboring 
 provinces, among the ignorant people, concerning my tour to 
 South Carolina and Georgia : the egg was hatched at Read- 
 ing, because I was unwilling to serve the purposes of a num- 
 ber of vain pretenders and did not at once remove from them 
 that right-minded man, Pastor Krug. It was reported that I 
 corresponded with the court-preachers at London, and intend- 
 ed by their influence to introduce tithes here. This arrow 
 was intended for our poor ministry. When, finally, during 
 last year, the acts of Parliament were promulgated here, the 
 axe was laid to the root of the tree, and I, with a part of my 
 
 31 
 
482 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 family, left this part of the country, the mephitic vapors broke 
 loose and spread to their greatest length, width, height, and 
 depth. Among other things it was stated that the king had 
 turned Papist and Miihlenberg was called to read Mass for 
 him ; also that Miihlenberg ran away to escape hanging by 
 the people, but God's vengeance did not allow him to escape, 
 as he suffered shipwreck between South Carolina and Georgia, 
 and was drowned. True friends were grieved by these things ; 
 hesitating men thought it might be possible; the envious took 
 it as true, and their rejoicing was like the crackling of thorns 
 under the pots. The worst elements came to rest at my final 
 return, yet many still believed the rumor that in Philadelphia 
 I had been tarred and feathered, put upon a rail, carried about, 
 and drummed out of the city. Some people coming from dis- 
 tant localities even asked me whether there was truth in the 
 rumor." After service Miihlenberg requested all male mem- 
 bers to remain, and in a meeting took their votes on Rev. H. 
 Moeller, who a short time before had visited and preached 
 there. He was elected by a large majority. 
 
 On this occasion Miihlenberg also paid a visit to his son-in- 
 law, the Rev. Christian Em. Schulze, at Tulpehoken, whom he 
 found very active among his numerous congregations, some 
 of which, according to Miihlenberg's judgment, he ought to 
 vacate ; but, he adds, the danger is that vagabonds may creep 
 in and try to make as much mischief as they can. After three 
 days of rest with his daughter and her husband and of pleas- 
 ure with his two grandchildren, on his way to Reading he was 
 asked by a German coming from Virginia, and whom he had 
 known thirty years before, " How is it that you German Lu- 
 theran ministers cause such misfortune, betray the liberties of 
 this country, and instigate war ?" Among other good things, 
 Muhlenberg told him that the emperor Nero had set fire to 
 the city of Rome and then blamed the Christians for it, 
 in order to have a pretext for their persecution. On the fol- 
 lowing Sunday (Whitsunday, June 4th), Muhlenberg assisted 
 in the dedication of the recently-erected fine stone church at 
 Pikestown, and preached, " in consideration of the present 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 483 
 
 warlike times," on I Kings viii. 3739 and 2 Chron. vii. 12 
 14. On this festival occasion also the Rev. W. Currie, mis- 
 sionary of the Anglican Church, and the pastor of the German 
 Reformed congregation were invited to make addresses. Muhl- 
 enberg says this was done because the Lutherans lived in pleas- 
 ant neighborly relations with both these parties. He had prom- 
 ised to return to Reading to preach there on Trinity Sunday, 
 June nth. At the proper time some prominent members of 
 the vestry delegated by that body came to his lodgings for- 
 mally to conduct him to the church. In the same manner they 
 conducted him on his return to his lodgings, to show him their 
 respect. Viewing this in contrast with the disgraceful rumors 
 before spread, he says, "At one time Haman wants to put Mor- 
 decai and his brethren out of the way ; at another time he car- 
 ries him on a horse through the town and has it proclaimed 
 that thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king de~ 
 lighteth to honor" (Esth. vi. 9). On his return to Philadel- 
 phia, Miihlenberg found that the men were everywhere en- 
 gaged in military exercises, and that even small boys, formed 
 into companies, were marching to the music of drums and 
 held toy guns in their hands. The political excitement was 
 universal and intense. 
 
 We know that in all matters appertaining to this department 
 Miihlenberg was exceedingly careful, and that he kept out of 
 the arena in which even victory was bought at a very high 
 price by servants of the Church. But notwithstanding, as 
 Dr. Kunze states, a Philadelphia publication of 1777 charged 
 him and another clergyman with being the instigators of the 
 whole rebellion against England. This calumny made his 
 living in Providence, twenty-six miles from Philadelphia, inse- 
 cure, since at that time the English had possession of Phila- 
 delphia. He consistently restricts himself in his diaries to 
 taking the religious aspects of the social and political phe- 
 nomena. Believing in a divine government of the world, he 
 sees in national calamities war, pestilence, etq. the chastis- 
 ing hand of God, and applies this, under the circumstances, 
 to the American provinces. Yet here and there, under the 
 
484 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 excitement of those days, he cannot refrain from referring to 
 the threatening aspect of the political horizon, and to the 
 opinions which were pronounced by this and that party. A 
 considerable number of people thought that England, seeing 
 the martial spirit of the Americans aroused through all the 
 provinces, would never risk a destructive war against her own 
 children. But Muhlenberg refers to the mother who during 
 the siege of Jerusalem, when suffering the agonies of hunger, 
 ate her own child, and in a manner certainly not very com- 
 plimentary to England adds that, " as naturalists and farmers 
 know, occasionally a sow will devour some of her own litter ; 
 whence it is difficult to decide whether she acts thus from love 
 or hatred." In many parts of his diary Muhlenberg in this 
 period begins to enter upon political reflections and observa- 
 tions, but the leaves where he probably had given utterance 
 to his views and feelings are carefully cut out, and we have 
 reason to suppose that it was done by no hand but his own. 
 He seriously considers the question of what might become 
 of the properties which in Philadelphia were mortgaged to 
 the legacies sent from Halle, and with reference to it addressed 
 the " Fathers." In his peculiar and quaint style he says that 
 it had to be decided whether under the existing troubles and 
 dangers the Lutheran Church, considering that her property 
 and existence here were involved, should now "conjugate in 
 activo, passivo, or neutro." There is no doubt that during the 
 struggle the Lutherans generally preferred the " activum." 
 
 Very interesting notices concerning the position taken in 
 that decisive political conflict by the Germans in Pennsylvania, 
 and especially by the Lutherans, we owe to the skilful and 
 diligent hand of Dr. O. Seidensticker, professor in the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania. In his History of the German Society of 
 Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1876) he states that in 1775 the 
 vestries of the German Lutheran and Reformed churches at 
 Philadelphia sent a pamphlet of forty pages to the German 
 inhabitants of the provinces of New York and North Carolina, 
 wherein it is stated that in the near and remote parts of Penn- 
 sylvania the Germans have distinguished themselves by form- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 485 
 
 ing not only militia, but a select corps of sharpshooters ready 
 to march wherever they are required, while those who cannot 
 do military service are willing to contribute according to their 
 abilities. The pamphlet continues : " For this reason we are 
 grieved to learn that it was stated before Congress that divers 
 German people in Tryon county and some few in other places 
 in the colony of New York do not give their sympathy to the 
 common cause, and that many Germans in North Carolina are of 
 the same mind." The pamphlet endeavors to demonstrate that 
 all citizens of the colonies ought to carry out the measures taken 
 by Congress, then assembled at Philadelphia, and that every- 
 where throughout the land the people ought to rise in arms 
 against the despotism and the oppression of the English gov- 
 ernment. Can we wonder that a spirited young man like 
 Peter Miihlenberg, a member of the German Lutheran con- 
 gregation at Philadelphia, with his brothers, who moved in 
 the same circle, there imbibed the spirit of freedom and de- 
 voted themselves to the noble cause of making their native 
 country a free, independent nation ? The volunteers in Penn- 
 sylvania were then called " Associators." The Germans among 
 * them at Philadelphia had their headquarters at the Lutheran 
 school-house in Cherry street east of Fourth. In 1776 a Ger- 
 man regiment was formed by order of Congress. It would be 
 injustice not to mention in this connection the German patriot 
 Christopher Ludwig, general baker for the army, who, by giv- 
 ing the American soldiers honest bread, with many other 
 manifestations of his excellent, unselfish character, contrib- 
 uted his share to the triumph of liberty, and to whom, with 
 proper appreciation, Washington used to refer as his " honest 
 friend." Ludwig was a faithful member of the German Lu- 
 theran congregation and vestry. He habitually kept six poor 
 children at school at his own expense, and proved his charity 
 in various other ways. 
 
 It may be proper here to refer to the fact that Muhlenberg 
 ever entertained an exalted reverence for George Washing- 
 ton, and on various occasions expresses himself in this way. 
 As to the Farewell Address delivered by Washington when 
 
486 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 resigning his high military office in 1783 after the conclusion 
 of the Peace of Paris, Miihlenberg embodies in his diary of 
 July 28th his admiration of the wisdom of the advice given, 
 and copies the concluding words : " I now make it my earnest 
 prayer that God would have you and the State over which 
 you preside in his holy protection ; that he would incline the 
 hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and 
 obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection 
 and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United 
 States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have 
 served in the field ; and finally, that he would most graciously 
 be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to have mercy, and 
 to demean ourselves with that charity, humanity, and pacific 
 temper of mind which were characteristics of the divine Au- 
 thor of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation 
 of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a 
 happy nation." Miihlenberg fully appreciates the man in 
 exalted position who openly professes Christ before men a 
 thing, he says, " so rare in the present generation of this so- 
 called great world." He adds a quotation from Luther : " The 
 souls of great men of the world will be in heaven as rare as 
 venison on the poor man's table." 
 
 During the year 1775 the old Hebron congregation at Cul- 
 peper, Va., once served by the elder J. C. Stoever, and after 
 his death by Sam. Klug, again became a care to Miihlenberg. 
 His son Peter, from 1772 active in pastoral work at Wood- 
 stock in the Shenandoah Valley, Va., when paying a visit to 
 Philadelphia in 1774, before his parents started for Georgia, 
 confirmed the reports concerning the destitute condition of 
 that congregation that had reached Pennsylvania. At that 
 time also Henry Moeller, already known to us, had arrived at 
 Philadelphia with good recommendations from Rev. W. Graaf 
 of Hackensack, and for some time enjoyed the instruction of 
 Kunze; he had also well employed his time and opportu- 
 nities, and to some extent had qualified himself for the min- 
 isterial office. The people at Culpeper being very anxious to 
 have a pastor, Miihlenberg gave to his son a license for him, 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 487 
 
 and Moeller soon after received a call from the Culpeper con- 
 gregation. In 1775, on a tour to Philadelphia, where he was 
 engaged to be married to a widow, he visited Rev. J. N. Kurtz 
 at York, then praeses of synod. At his request he went by 
 the way of Reading, and there, after having preached, received 
 a call from that church. His betrothed not being willing to 
 go to Virginia, he relinquished his call to Culpeper, intimat- 
 ing that he acted in agreement with the wishes of H. M. Muhl- 
 enberg a statement which was unauthorized. In consequence 
 of this the, people at Culpeper were considerably incensed 
 against Muhlenberg, as his son Peter informed him. At the 
 request of his father, Peter Muhlenberg again visited the He- 
 bron congregation, and then came to Philadelphia to report. 
 There was no parochial school open at Hebron; there were 
 no regular services, no singing, no praying, no preaching, no 
 administration of the sacraments ; the church and parsonage 
 were empty and the glebe was neglected ; no Lutheran pas- 
 tors were near enough to aid the congregation. Under these 
 circumstances Miihlenberg's thoughts were directed to Mr. J. 
 Frank, since 1 767 a teacher in the parochial school of the German 
 Lutheran church at Philadelphia a man of excellent character, 
 a good singer, not without the necessary erudition, of much 
 experience as a teacher, of pleasing address, and not without 
 spiritual life. Muhlenberg ariW his son Peter encouraged 
 Frank to enter the pastoral service. During August, 1775, 
 Frank paid a visit to Peter Muhlenberg at Woodstock, and 
 then went to Culpeper, where (Aug. 28th) a call was given 
 him, with the request that he should at once settle there. 
 Having returned to Philadelphia, he was examined by Muhl- 
 enberg and his sons Frederick (then on a visit from New 
 York) and Henry, and licensed by Muhlenberg, senior of the 
 ministerium. Kurtz, then praeses of synod, was requested to 
 approve of this action. Frank served three years at Culpeper. 
 In 1783, Paul Henkel, great-grandson of Gerhard Henkel, 
 formerly mentioned, began in Virginia his useful labors, which 
 included the Culpeper church. 
 
 The increase of the Philadelphia congregation which in 
 
LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 1775 numbered no less than six hundred families made the 
 acquisition of a more extensive parochial burial-ground most 
 desirable. The cemetery, situated at the north side of St. 
 Michael's Church and belonging to the congregation, had 
 hitherto been sufficient for the necessities of the membership, 
 but it could not be expected that the congregation would be 
 numerically reduced, and provision had to be made for future 
 necessities. Through his friend the Rev. Rich. Peters, D. D., 
 rector of Christ Church, Miihlenberg addressed Governor 
 John Penn in behalf of his congregation, which, though still 
 under a heavy debt in consequence of the erection of Zion 
 Church, could pay a reasonable price for a suitable piece of 
 ground. The times, however, were not propitious. The polit- 
 ical excitement greatly disturbed all trades and commerce was 
 prostrated. In this matter Muhlenberg also addressed the 
 Hon. James Tilghman, secretary of the provincial council, 
 and requested his kind assistance. The congregation had in 
 view a piece of ground belonging to the governor, now bound- 
 ed by Eighth and Franklin, Vine and Race streets. A part 
 of it came into the possession of the congregation as early as 
 
 1776 for the sum of five hundred pounds, Pennsylvania cur- 
 rency, the governor retaining for himself the ground adjacent 
 to Vine street, south side, one hundred and forty feet deep. 
 The political leaning of the Gterman Lutherans in those times 
 was probably not pleasing to him, and made him rather un- 
 willing to show any particular favor to them. When the con- 
 gregation was made owner of that ground, the vestry allowed 
 the membership to bury in it, but never gave any deed for a 
 grave or a lot. The value of the ground continually rising 
 with the increase of the city, the congregation in 1865 trans- 
 ferred the dead buried there to the ground bought in 1859 in 
 Hart Lane (Lehigh avenue), west of Ridge avenue, sold most 
 of the property between Eighth and Franklin streets, assisted 
 other congregations growing out of the mother-church with 
 a large part of the proceeds, and finally, in 1869 and the fol- 
 lowing year, erected in Franklin street, opposite Franklin 
 Square, the new Zion Church and parsonage, and subse- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 489 
 
 quently the school-house north of the church. After these 
 great changes the old St. Michael and Zion were sold, and 
 those time-honored and revered landmarks disappeared. The 
 old school-house also, from whose belfry during the week the 
 children of successive generations had been called to school, 
 and on Sunday the congregation to the two churches stand- 
 ing in close proximity, was sold, and the larger portion of 
 its walls is incorporated in a commercial building now occu- 
 pying its former site. Sic transit gloria mundi! 
 
490 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 1776 et seq. 
 
 Muhlenberg again settles with his family at Providence. Death of Ziegenhagen 
 and Sigismund Streit. Streit's legacy. Muhlenberg's decreasing strength 
 and loss of hearing. Last attendance at synod. He is created doctor of 
 divinity. End of his official relation to the Philadelphia congregation. 
 His labors in behalf of the proposed hymnbook of the ministerium. The 
 first edition of the Liturgy. Muhlenberg's conservative principles on church 
 services. His private reading. His meditations on the Bible. Aversion 
 to neology and irreligious tendencies. Specimens of his correspondence. 
 Letters exchanged with Wrangel. News from Ebenezer. Rev. J. E. Berg- 
 mann. Muhlenberg and the medical art. 
 
 FOR the period of thirty-two years H. M. Muhlenberg had 
 done the work of a missionary and of a pastor in this 
 country amid great hardships and unusual difficulties. For 
 fifteen years he had presided over the German Lutheran 
 congregation of St. Michael and Zion at Philadelphia. His 
 efforts in behalf of the Lutheran Church as such were crowned 
 with eminent success. Under his judicious guidance the Phil- 
 adelphia congregation was raised out of the chaos in which he 
 found it. It was now governed by a constitution of his mak- 
 ing one which proved to be a great blessing and, as far as 
 human wisdom and energy could provide for it, the future of 
 that large body was secure. We cannot wonder that Muhl- 
 enberg, for some time feeling the increasing weakness of ad- 
 vancing age, desired to be at least to some extent relieved 
 from duties becoming more and more arduous to him, and to 
 retire to a more quiet life. We are safe in saying that no one 
 was ever more entitled to rest in the evening of his days, and 
 no one could better enjoy otium cum dignitate than he ; for he 
 was not inclined to rest on his laurels, but to keep them fresh 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 49! 
 
 to his last breath. He did not wish to sink into debility and 
 dotage in the presence of those who had for so long a period 
 seen and admired and loved him in the glory of his vigorous 
 and energetic manhood. To retire in proper time from the 
 wonted scenes of our activity is wisdom the value of which 
 he fully understood. Life in the city never offered him any 
 particular attractions : his preference was decidedly for the 
 country. The political complications of the times may also 
 have exercised some influence upon him in this matter. He 
 could willingly bid farewell to a city which was then the very 
 focus of great national excitement and of most stirring events 
 and transactions. Considering the possibilities of a bloody 
 war and the position which his sons subsequently took in the 
 great struggle of the provinces for independence, Miihlenberg 
 could not be expected to expose himself in that city to the 
 rudeness of the enemy and to jeopardize life and personal 
 freedom. The congregation which he had so faithfully served 
 and brought into a flourishing condition was now under the 
 care of his son-in-law, Dr. Kunze, and of his son G. H. E. 
 Miihlenberg: both of them willingly and conscientiously 
 gave to it their talents and their energy, and both enjoyed 
 universal esteem and love. The father felt that his trust was 
 in good hands and that his personal presence was now less 
 indispensable, while he was ever ready to offer his assistance 
 in seasons of extraordinary labor or in any emergency. 
 
 Since June, 1774, Miihlenberg's official relation to the con- 
 gregation had undergone some change. He retained then the 
 title rector, but, the Fathers at Halle having ordered that on 
 account of his long and faithful service in the church he 
 should enjoy as a special benefice the interest of the Solms- 
 Roedelsheim legacy invested in Philadelphia, it appears that 
 he no longer claimed a regular salary from the Philadelphia 
 congregation ; but when he proposed to move to the country 
 the vestry settled on him a yearly stipend of fifty pounds, and 
 he virtually became the assistant pastor. In a letter 'of Oct. 
 31, 1778, to the Rev. G. A. Freylinghausen, D. D., one of the 
 directors of the Halle Orphan-House, he speaks of the Vt- 
 
492 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 cariats-Dienste during 1775 ; which means that he then no 
 longer considered himself as regular actual pastor. His 
 official connection with the congregation, however, did not 
 cease until 1779. 
 
 Already during the year 1775 he endeavored to find a suit- 
 able place in the country to which he and his family might 
 retire. Very naturally, his eyes were directed to Providence 
 (Trappe), where he had been settled from 1745 to 1761, and 
 where among German and English people he had many 
 friends warmly attached to him. Here through so many 
 years had been the headquarters of his pastoral and mis- 
 sionary activity, and many recollections of his earlier life 
 in America made that locality peculiarly dear to him. His 
 former possessions there, house and farm-land, sold by him to 
 the surgeon Maertens, were now in the hands of Mr. George 
 Diel, a friend of his and of his family. There were offered 
 to him by another acquaintance, Mr. Church, for three hun- 
 dred and forty pounds, Pennsylvania currency, a roomy and 
 comfortable two-story stone building and seven acres of 
 ground. This offer, though the house and the land had 
 been much neglected in addition to other improvements 
 Miihlenberg was obliged to put in thirty-six panes of glass 
 and plant two hundred trees was not considered unfair, and 
 Miihlenberg accepted it. Of the Solms-Roedelsheim legacy, 
 amounting to eleven hundred and sixty pounds and invested 
 in Philadelphia, the vestry transferred two hundred pounds 
 to this property in Providence. One hundred pounds were 
 added without demand of interest by Mr. Schaefer of Phil- 
 adelphia, father-in-law of Fred. Aug. C. Miihlenberg, who wish- 
 ed his family to have a place of refuge in time of war or other 
 disturbances ; one hundred and sixty pounds, the rest of Mrs. 
 Miihlenberg's paternal inheritance, helped also to put the 
 property in a comfortable and useful condition. Miihlenberg 
 moved to his newly-acquired home Mar. 1 8, 1776; the sale 
 had been consummated in January. For some days he 
 enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Diel, who also, as another 
 proof of his good-will, brought to the house a load of wood. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 493 
 
 In July, Muhlenberg took his wife and the youngest daugh- 
 ter, Mary Salome, to Providence. He had moved for the last 
 time in his earthly pilgrimage. A statement made in one of 
 his letters clearly proves that on the memorable Fourth of 
 July, 1776, he was in Philadelphia. The house in which 
 Muhlenberg resided at Providence until his end is still stand- 
 ing, about a quarter of a mile distant from Augustus Church. 
 To strangers is pointed out the window from which he could 
 view the American soldiery transiently encamped in the neigh- 
 hood, and not in all respects proving good neighbors.* 
 
 During the year 1776, Muhlenberg received the sad news 
 
 * F. G. Hobson, Esq., of Norristown, Pa., furnishes us with much valu- 
 able detail concerning the state of affairs in that locality during the war, and 
 especially during the time directly after the battle of Brandywine, which took 
 place Sept. u. 1777. Muhlenberg states in his diary of that day: "This morn- 
 ing we heard hard and long-continued cannonading, which seemed to be about 
 thirty miles off, toward the Brandywine Creek." After that day Providence expe- 
 rienced much of the hardships of war. Sept. 1 6th, Muhlenberg says: "This 
 afternoon, about one o'clock, we heard, toward the south-west, about fourteen 
 miles from us, a sharp battle with field-pieces and small-arms in the midst of a 
 heavy rain." This was the battle of Warren's Tavern, in Chester county. The 
 Americans retreated and left Philadelphia exposed to the British. Washington 
 crossed the Schuylkill at Parker's Ford (now Lawrenceville) and marched toward 
 Providence, coming out at the great road just above Augustus Church. Sept. iQth 
 the British camp on the other side of the Schuylkill could be seen with the tele- 
 scope. Washington marched with his troops to the Perkiomen, and the regi- 
 ments encamped on both sides of the creek. On Sept. 22d, with his whole army 
 he encamped on the hills right above Trappe (Providence), with different com- 
 panies scattered around the village at various places. On the same day the British 
 general Howe crossed the Schuylkill, and a feint was made for a while, as though 
 to move to Trappe ; yet the British army moved south along the Schuylkill, and on 
 the 26th entered Philadelphia. A party of the British had arrived on the 22d at 
 New Providence township. The American army was then at New Hanover and 
 Pottsgfove (Pottstown). It moved (Sept. 25th) toward Providence, but at Lim- 
 erick Square turned toward Schwenksville. A part of it came to Trappe and 
 made its headquarters in the Lutheran church and the school-house, both of 
 which were on that occasion shamefully desecrated. The soldiers of the militia 
 behaved very rudely and predatorily, and Father Muhlenberg had his chickens 
 stolen and horses driven into his buckwheat-field. In consequence of the 
 battle of Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777), Washington, with the main body of his 
 army, returned to his former quarters at Schwenksville, and the militia to their 
 camp at Trappe. Dec. 1 2th, Washington, with his whole army, went into winter- 
 quarters at* Valley Forge, where he remained until June 18, 1778. 
 
494 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the death of the venerable, beloved Dr. Ziegenhagen at Lon- 
 don, and of another man whose name also deserves to be kept 
 in grateful remembrance in the Lutheran Church in America 
 no less than in Germany. This was Sigismund Streit (born at 
 Berlin Apr. 13, 1687), who as a young man without any 
 means, but of good Christian principles, had gone to Venice, 
 found a situation in a mercantile house, established in 1715 a 
 business of his own, acquired, under the blessing of Prov- 
 dence, considerable wealth, never married, died Dec. 20, 1775, 
 at Padua, where for some years he had resided, and was buried 
 Dec. 22d in the Protestant cemetery at Venice. He frequent- 
 ly corresponded with the Rev. Dr. G. A. Francke at Halle and 
 other men of Christian character and responsible positions, 
 and was moved not only to transfer to the classical high 
 school (gymnasium) at Berlin the sum of sixty-three thou- 
 sand thalers, but in 1753 to deliver fifteen thousand florins 
 to the directors of the Halle Orphan-House, to be admin- 
 istered by them. An equal sum he gave to them in the 
 following year, and again seventeen hundred florins in 1756. 
 The interest of these sums he retained for himself dur- 
 ing his lifetime ; after his death the half of the interest of 
 the sum-total was to be used for the benefit of the Lutheran 
 Church in America, the other half for the Lutheran missions 
 in East India. In accordance with the will of the founder, 
 these provisions are still carried out. In America the benefit 
 is shared in equitable proportions by the Evangelical Luther- 
 an Ministerium of Pennsylvania and adjacent States, the Syn- 
 od of West Pennsylvania, and the Ministerium of New York. 
 The principal is invested in Prussia under the control of the 
 authorities of the Halle Orphan-House, who are responsible 
 to the royal government. 
 
 One of the special reasons why Miihlenberg retired from 
 regular pastoral activity was the loss of hearing in connection 
 with general debility. At a military funeral the misfortune 
 was greatly aggravated by the discharge of guns in his prox- 
 imity. In a letter to Rev. Dr. Freylinghausen dated Oct. 31, 
 1778, he says : " Concerning myself, the supernumerary, or 'the 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 495 
 
 fifth wheel of the wagon,' it may be said I daily and hourly 
 expect the call to eternity. Last winter I was obliged to stay 
 up many a night, and, in consequence of having taken cold, 
 was troubled with neuralgia in the head ; the military salutes 
 at a funeral in Philadelphia, July 28, A. c., nearly destroyed the 
 rest of my hearing, so that since that time I have suffered con- 
 tinually with giddiness and ringing in the ears, as if I were in 
 a mill or alongside of a cataract. I can occasionally preach, 
 but am unable to hold public catechization because of the loss 
 of my hearing." For a time he had charge of the New Han- 
 over congregation ; and whenever he was called upon, and he 
 felt strong enough, he preached not only at Providence taking 
 care of this his wonted field of labor in connection with Rev. 
 Voigt, who after resigning the Hanover charge (1776) settled 
 at Pikestown, west of the Schuylkill but also in neighboring 
 churches, and at first occasionally, in later years very rarely, 
 in Philadelphia. At Providence, when Voigt held services, he 
 sometimes played the organ. During the spring of 1781, 
 notwithstanding his infirmity, he instructed forty-four young 
 catechumens in New Hanover, five others at Providence. Oct. 
 31, 1778, after the departure of the English from Philadelphia, 
 he preached in Zion Church, which during their temporary 
 possession of the city (Nov. 22, 1777) had been transformed 
 into a military hospital. The furnishing of the large building 
 with galleries and pews had been done in cheap times before 
 the war with an outlay of about two thousand three hundred 
 pounds ; now all this had been destroyed, and it was not until 
 1782 that the church was again properly restored. Whoever 
 wished to sit during services was obliged to bring his own 
 chair. During the war many members of the congregation 
 had moved to the country. Miihlenberg's own son Henry 
 had found a refuge in his father's house at Providence, but 
 even his father was in danger of being made a prisoner by the 
 English, and Kunze had sole charge of the Philadelphia con- 
 gregation during their presence. Father Muhlenberg spent 
 some time at Philadelphia during the spring of 1779, but was 
 at that period already troubled with swelling of the feet. 
 
496 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 When, in 1781 (June 10), synod assembled in Philadelphia 
 he was present. The meeting of synod in the following year 
 at Lancaster he could not attend, neither any of the subse- 
 quent meetings. A copy of the minutes was sent to him by 
 synod. By special invitation he preached in Zion (Sept. 22, 
 1782) at the rededication of the building. For some time 
 many voices greatly desiring his return to the city were heard 
 in the Philadelphia congregation ; his increasing feebleness 
 prevented such a change. Already during the winter of 
 1784-85 he complained that without assistance he could no 
 longer dress himself or ascend the steps leading to the pulpit. 
 On June 9, 1787, he paid the last visit to his daughter Mary 
 Catharine, married to Major Francis Swain, sheriff of Mont- 
 gomery county, Pennsylvania. His youngest daughter, Mary 
 Salome, in 1782 married Mr. Matthias Richards, the ancestor 
 of several highly-respected theologians in the Lutheran Church. 
 The last pastoral act performed by H. M. Miihlenberg, a few 
 days before entering into eternal rest, was baptizing, on Sept. 
 29, 1787, a child of John Frey of Providence. 
 
 When, in 1784, the University of Pennsylvania made H. M. 
 Miihlenberg a doctor of divinity an act which might have 
 been performed at a much earlier date without in any way 
 infringing upon the dignity of the institution Kunze for- 
 warded the news to his venerated father-in-law in a letter of 
 June 1 2th. Miihlenberg says in his diary that the D. D. on 
 the outside of the letter at first startled him, since he had no 
 inkling of the intention to honor him in this way ; he next 
 thought it an error of Kunze : when he read of his new dig- 
 nity, he remembered that very ignorant people in Upper 
 Lusatia at Grosshennersdorf had called him magister, and his 
 companions on board the brigantine in which he crossed the 
 Atlantic had dubbed him doctor, since he wore a cockade in 
 the form of a rose on his hat and sometimes administered 
 Halle medicines to the sick. In his answer he requested 
 Kunze and all his friends to ignore his new title in their in- 
 tercourse with him. 
 
 When, in 1776, Miihlenberg moved to Providence, his offi- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 497 
 
 cial connection with the Philadelphia congregation was thereby 
 not dissolved : he still was pastor, had the title " rector," and 
 retained his seat and his vote in the vestry. March 24, 1779, 
 the vestry passed a resolution that since H. M. Miihlenberg, 
 Sr., had moved to the country, the congregation yearly pay 
 him fifty pounds, that the rectorship be declared vacant, and 
 that a rector be elected ; thereupon Dr. Kunze was unani- 
 mously elected rector. It appears that a certain expression 
 used by Miihlenberg in a letter sent some time before to Phil- 
 adelphia had been misunderstood by Kunze, and interpreted 
 as a desire to be released from his office as rector and from 
 all further responsibility. When the resolution was passed 
 the president of the vestry remonstrated against it ; Kunze, 
 who acted as secretary, remained passive. His colaborer, 
 Henry E. Miihlenberg, was, as it seems, not present at the 
 meeting, but heard of it soon afterward was greatly offended 
 at Kunze and the vestry, and sympathized with the large 
 number of the membership who considered the action of the 
 vestry very objectionable. Those who had voted for the 
 resolution maintained that Father Miihlenberg's removal 
 from the city was equal to a formal resignation ; but he had 
 left the city with the permission and the knowledge of the 
 vestry, and with the understanding that he was still rector. 
 On the whole subject there was considerable agitation through- 
 out the congregation. In a congregational meeting G. H. E. 
 Miihlenberg, with whom his brothers were in full sympathy, 
 expressed his disapprobation in very strong terms, resigned 
 Apr. 5th, and afterward moved to New Hanover. April 26th 
 a number of members violently interrupted the meeting of 
 the vestry. Kunze was in great distress. He wrote letters of 
 apology to Father Miihlenberg, who, of all those interested 
 in this unfortunate affair, was the most calm, and never for a 
 moment lost his mental equilibrium, though it appeared prob- 
 able to him that he would be obliged to end his labors at 
 Philadelphia amid congregational strife, as he had begun 
 them in 1761. On Friday, Apr. 9th, he received from the 
 Philadelphia vestry a letter signed by its presiding officer, 
 
 '62 
 
498 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Mr. Schaefer, wherein the assurance is given that there had 
 been no intention to offend a father whose spiritual children 
 they had for so many years been, that they had acted think- 
 ing that the charter of the congregation demanded such ac- 
 tion, and that now they invited him to come and preach on 
 the following Sunday. And Miihlenberg came, and preached 
 Apr. nth, the first Sunday after Easter, in Zion, on John xx. 
 19 sqq., not at all alluding to the existing dissensions, but 
 laying stress upon the words of Jesus, " Peace be unto you !" 
 On the two following days he visited a number of friends, and 
 everywhere impressed it on all whom he met that it was self- 
 evident that in his great debility he could no longer bear the 
 responsibility of an office. On Wednesday, Apr. I4th, Miihl- 
 enberg appeared in the meeting of the vestry and requested 
 that, as he was there in the capacity of both plaintiff and de- 
 fendant and could not preside, they would elect a chairman. 
 Mr. Dav. Schaefer was elected. Then, presenting his case, 
 Miihlenberg said that, contrary to the charter and the con- 
 stitution of the congregation, ten members had deposed him 
 from his office and elected another rector. His name, he said, 
 was well known in Europe and in America, and such an act 
 would greatly injure his public reputation. He could not 
 pass over it in silence : he would be obliged to lay the case 
 before the congregation, and, if this brought no relief, before 
 the courts of law ; but, as a lover of congregational peace, he 
 would propose that they should at once rescind the resolution 
 of his discharge and allow him afterward to hand in his resig- 
 nation. There was no difficulty on this point. Resolutions 
 were passed stating that there had been no intention to offend 
 the venerable pastor of the congregation, that they gladly em- 
 braced this opportunity to express their never-ending and 
 exalted esteem for him, and accepted his suggestion that his 
 removal from the city did not sever his official connection 
 with the congregation ; consequently, the resolution of March 
 24th lost its efficacy. Miihlenberg now formally handed in 
 his resignation ; upon its acceptance a resolution was passed 
 granting him a yearly pension of one hundred pounds. And 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 499 
 
 now Kunze was regularly elected rector; which title was, how- 
 ever, shortly afterward (1781) abolished. In this way further 
 strife was prevented, and Muhlenberg closed his official career 
 with a peaceful triumph of dignified firmness, wisdom, and 
 good-will. The relation between Kunze and his brothers-in- 
 law was not so soon amicably restored, and a few years later 
 he was even impelled to bring charges against one of them 
 before the praeses of synod for the use of abusive language. 
 
 After preaching in Zion, April i8th, Muhlenberg gave to the 
 congregation the necessary information concerning the action 
 of the vestry. That he performed this duty in the spirit of peace 
 and charity, of this we need not inform our readers. He added 
 that he had been invested with the right to appear from time 
 to time in the midst of the congregation and to preach to 
 them. We know already that this was done as his. health 
 and other circumstances permitted. Apr. 25th his son Henry 
 preached in Zion his farewell sermon before removing to the 
 country, where he took charge of the New Hanover congre- 
 gation until he was called to Lancaster. The address con- 
 cerning his resignation delivered by him at the conclusion of 
 his farewell sermon in Philadelphia was not calculated to pour 
 oil upon the troubled waters, though it did honor to the heart 
 of the son of the aged pastor. 
 
 Being released from the performance of heavy pastoral 
 duties and responsibilities, Muhlenberg, though for a time 
 serving at New Hanover and assisting Voigt in the service 
 at Providence, could devote more time to labors which could 
 be performed as well in the quiet of the study in behalf of the 
 ministerium and of the Church at large. When, in 1782, it 
 was resolved that synod should publish a hymnbook for the 
 use of the united congregations, he was requested to collect 
 hymns for the book and to write the preface. He went to 
 work conscientiously, and his selection proves his fine recog- 
 nition of the necessities of the Lutheran Church and his dis- 
 taste for neological conceptions and phraseology. From the 
 treasures of German Lutheran hymnology he offered to the 
 congregation a collection showing his preference for the older 
 
500 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 hymns of the Church, without neglecting those of a later pe- 
 riod. We cannot wonder that the hymns of the earlier period 
 of Pietism also found favor with him. But the sympathy with 
 the song of the preceding period had not outlived itself, and 
 never will outlive itself as long as there shall be a German 
 Lutheran Church. Miihlenberg was too conservative a Church- 
 man to deprive Lutherans of hymns to which tradition and 
 habit had attached them, and which strenuously echoed the 
 Lutheran faith. In this respect this hymnbook, the largest 
 part of which Miihlenberg compiled, and which was published 
 by synod in 1786, is much superior to the one edited under 
 synodical authority in 1849, but does not attain to the mer- 
 its of the Kirclienbiicli edited by the General Council of the 
 Lutheran Church in America and representing the highest 
 standard of liturgical and hymnological theory. There are 
 elements in the book of 1786 for which we would not like to 
 make Miihlenberg responsible. What he says in his preface 
 on the principles which ought ever to guide those who are 
 entrusted with collecting hymns for the use of congregations, 
 and those who furnish the music corresponding to the sacred 
 character of divine worship, has not lost its value at the pres- 
 ent time. 
 
 The Liturgy published also in 1786 by synod essentially 
 harmonizes with the hymnbook of that year. It even more 
 purely expresses the creed of genuine Lutheranism : in it we 
 have, though wifh some change, those liturgical forms which 
 since the formation of synod in 1748 were used by mutual 
 understanding by the pastors of the united congregations. 
 Miihlenberg entertained very conservative ideas concerning 
 the forms and the instrumentalities of public worship through- 
 out the Lutheran Church. In giving, as praeses of synod, cat- 
 echists permission to serve in their respective fields of labor, he 
 laid great stress on this that they should solemnly promise 
 not to deviate in any way from the order of service prescribed 
 by synod, and not introduce new forms of their own taste or 
 invention. In a letter of Nov. 5, 1783, addressed to Dr. Godfr. 
 Enox of Loonenburg on the Hudson, he says : " It would be 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 50 1 
 
 a most desirable and advantageous thing if all the Evangel- 
 ical Lutheran congregations in the North American States 
 were united with one another, if they all used the same order of 
 service, the same hymnbook, and in good and evil days would 
 show an active sympathy and fraternally correspond with one 
 another." In speaking of his labor in collecting hymns he 
 says in his diary of Jan. 21, 1783, that synod had resolved 
 the book should contain seven hundred and fifty hymns ; 
 that, following the " Halle epitome in heavy type," he had 
 selected five hundred and thirty-four; that from a number 
 of hymnbooks containing excellent material he could make 
 no selection, since they were not furnished him. He says : 
 " Hymns on the last judgment, intimating its speedy advent 
 and introducing unsuitable signs of its approach, I omitted; 
 also those which, following the language of Solomon's Song, 
 use terms having a taint of the sensual ; also those which 
 speak of Jesus in a playful manner, etc. in diminutive terms, 
 because such language, though intended as child-like and 
 familiar, appears to me childish and not according to Scrip- 
 ture language. Hymns, however, of the oldest and of sub- 
 sequent times which are known to all Lutherans from child- 
 hood are not omitted, though, while they are orthodox, their 
 style and rhythm may appear somewhat harsh." Certain 
 errors of Moravian hymnology may in this matter have exer- 
 cised an influence upon Miihlenberg. 
 
 We know that in his liberality Miihlenberg went so far as 
 to invite Whitefield to be present at a public school-exami- 
 nation in St. Michael's and to preach once in Zion at Phila- 
 delphia; but he was not inclined indiscriminately to open 
 Lutheran churches to other denominations. March 23, 1/83, 
 Rev. Voigt informed him that an English Methodist was cre- 
 ating disturbance in his congregations west of the Schuylkill, 
 and that some of his adherents intended to open the Lutheran 
 churches to him. In a letter addressed to the officers and 
 membership of those congregations Miihlenberg gave de- 
 cisive advice not to allow that person to preach in Lutheran 
 pulpits, because those who gave such a permission " take 
 
502 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 upon themselves a very heavy responsibility before God and 
 all the united Lutheran congregations." 
 
 When Muhlenberg retired from regular pastoral work 
 he found leisure and made good use of it for medita- 
 tion, reading, the continuation of his diaries, and correspond- 
 ence. The study of the Scriptures had at all times engaged 
 his mind. In his later years he paid special attention to the 
 prophetic voices of the Bible. All publications referring to 
 the word of God engaged his peculiar interest. This is 
 clearly evidenced by his careful manner of preparing his ser- 
 mons, of which not one has come down to us in complete 
 form, while in his private papers are found sketches prepared 
 by him with the greatest care and elaboration in every partic- 
 ular. We plainly see that it was not his habit to be satisfied 
 with a few leading propositions, and to trust that in the pul- 
 pit the flesh would attach itself in beautiful proportions and 
 muscular strength to the few bare bones a method which 
 often ruins a talented preacher and keeps barren one without 
 talents. 
 
 Of his meditations on the Bible Muhlenberg left many 
 traces in his diaries, and an interesting anthology of them 
 might easily be compiled. His annotations frequently are sug- 
 gestive and very practical, indicative of independent thought, 
 with a firm conviction of the inspiration of the Scriptures and 
 their authoritative character. As a sample of his way of treat- 
 ing Bible questions we here introduce his remarks on the 
 admission of Judas Iscariot into the discipleship of Jesus. 
 He says : " When reading the history of Judas we can hardly 
 escape the question, Why did Christ call this man and permit 
 him to be among his most intimate disciples and friends, while 
 through his divine omniscience he had the foreknowledge of 
 the condition of his heart and the issue of his career ? I an- 
 swer in the language of our Lord : ' That the Scriptures may 
 be fulfilled : He that eateth my bread with me, has lifted up his 
 heel against me' (Ps. xli. 10; John xiii. 18). Here simple- 
 minded people will say, ' If this be thus, Judas could not act 
 differently; otherwise, the Scriptures would not have been 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 503 
 
 fulfilled.' It will be almost impossible to make people not 
 used to more acute thinking understand the meaning of the 
 terms ' spontaneity of the human mind ' or ' freedom of will/ 
 since they do not delight in the abstract, but the concrete. 
 The divine purpose in admitting a hypocrite and dissimulat- 
 ing arch-enemy among the select twelve disciples and most 
 intimate friends of our Saviour during his state of humilia- 
 tion and the last few years of his earthly pilgrimage, and 
 permitting him by day and by night to be about the Re- 
 deemer and to observe closely all his words, deeds, and even 
 secret actions, was to associate with our Lord a spy who after- 
 ward, when his conscience was awakened, himself testified to 
 the Saviour's innocence when he said before the Pharisees, 
 ' I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood,' 
 If Judas, during his most intimate intercourse with Jesus, 
 had observed or discovered the least error in his teachings or 
 the least wrong in his conduct and works, he would have made 
 use of it in self-defence, and said, ' I was right in betraying 
 him, he is only receiving his deserts/ etc." 
 
 Muhlenberg at times expresses his grief when he sees that 
 in Germany Neology and Rationalism were in his day begin- 
 ning to make inroads into theology, and especially into the 
 whole treatment and interpretation of the Scriptures. During 
 the last years of his life he took much interest in reading J. L. 
 Semler's autobiography (published 178182), though he knew 
 that Semler, while never ceasing to discharge the duties of 
 personal piety in his home circle, by his very free treatment 
 of the Bible-text had opened the gates in Germany for the 
 rationalistic treatment of the Bible narratives. He found 
 profitable reading in J. Jac. Hess's Last Three Years of the 
 Life of Jesus (published and edited at Leipsic, 1768, in^two 
 volumes) a book published since that time under a changed 
 title in various editions, and not without value even for our 
 generation. He also took interest in Crusius's Morals; 
 Goecking's History of the Salzburg Emigration; Mosheim's 
 Church History; Magn. Fr. Roos's Christian Confession of 
 Faith and Convincing Proof of the Divine Origin of the Bible 
 
504 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 against Objections most recently raised; J. Jac. Moser's Monthly 
 Contributions to the Advancement of True Christianity ; the writ- 
 ings of Gellert, Michaelis, J. A. Bengel, the Missionary Reports 
 of East India, and in a number of other publications of sim- 
 ilar character. In a letter to Dr. Kunze, speaking of Deism 
 and Naturalism in his times, he expresses the hope that Ger- 
 many will produce men capable of demonstrating .the shallow- 
 ness of such views and counteracting their evil influences. He 
 was much grieved to learn that some men intended to repub- 
 lish Voltaire's Works in America. When, Oct. 8, 1778, an 
 offensive article setting forth that "Adam was indicted for 
 eating the fruit, etc., he pleaded guilty, and on trial the jury 
 found him guilty, etc.," had appeared in Dunlap's Pennsylvania 
 Packet, Miihlenberg's indignation being roused, he prepared 
 to that scoffing piece an answer beginning, " Whatsoever in- 
 tention, aim, or purpose the anonymous writer might have 
 in view, I am sorry he did choose the wrong object for sport, 
 ridicule, and mockery. The sacred Scriptures, delivered unto 
 Christian nations in the original languages and careful trans- 
 lations, contain the foundation upon which the Christian re- 
 ligion is built, and remain an inestimable treasure, light, and 
 comfort for millions of mortals endued with common sense 
 and in earnest to promote their temporal and eternal peace 
 and happiness, and therefore should not be abused and pro- 
 faned. The present remarkable Revolution in North America 
 calls all civilized nations to attention and causes the news- 
 papers to be transported, translated, and read in all the inhab- 
 ited parts of the world. What ideas must civil and religious 
 people form of the North American inhabitants when they see 
 such base and scurrilous pieces published, which tend to ridi- 
 cule and profane the sacred Scriptures and Christian religion ? 
 And what security, peace, and prosperity can the wisest and 
 best government of States expect from oaths, attests for alle- 
 giance, if they tamely suffer the principles and foundations of 
 religion thus publicly to be buffooned, vilified, and the liberty 
 so dearly defended and bought by many precious lives and 
 anxious struggles to be turned into licentiousness, and thou- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 505 
 
 sands of sober, religious, and useful members of the common- 
 wealth to be affronted and grieved ? History affords dreadful 
 instances of empires, kingdoms, and states, how they ended 
 in ruin by licentiousness and overwhelming national vices. 
 And, concerning the anonymous writer in particular, we wish 
 he may be admitted into a charity school, there to learn that 
 the almighty and omniscient God, Creator and Preserver of 
 the universe, had no need to call a jury inquiring into the 
 transgression of Adam, and that he does not want any harle- 
 quin or fool to inquire, What kind of wood ? What part of 
 the garden ? What kind of fruit ? etc. etc." Certainly, the in- 
 dignation which finds vent in these words does honor to the 
 author's heart and head. It also cannot escape our observa- 
 tion that Muhlenberg here in 1778 speaks of the States and 
 the liberty gained in the struggle as something about which 
 there is no longer any doubt in his mind. 
 
 The correspondence with Europe suffered much interruption 
 during the war. In December, 1783, Muhlenberg complains 
 that since February, 1779, he had received no letters from 
 Halle. The war ,had inaugurated the period in which the Lu- 
 theran Church in America peacefully entered upon her inde- 
 pendence from the f< Fathers " in Europe. The correspond- 
 ence between those men who, like Kunze and Helmuth, were 
 sent from Halle and the Halle directors did not cease during 
 their lifetime, but it was not of the character of former years ; 
 and after the publication of the Halle Reports from 1745-85 
 in collective form in 1787, no such Reports from the united 
 Lutheran congregations in North America were given to the 
 public. The United States began the peaceful evolution of 
 their political and social life ; Europe was startled by the ter- 
 rors of the French Revolution, overwhelmed by bloody wars, 
 and finally reconstructed. 
 
 In his correspondence not only with the members of his 
 family, but with the brethren in the ministerial office and with 
 others, Muhlenberg faithfully continued until the end of his 
 days. Thereby he exercised an exceedingly beneficial influ- 
 ence. In his letters he was no less outspoken than in his 
 
506 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 personal intercourse. He was a friend who would sacrifice 
 much for the sake of friendship, but never the truth. He 
 knew the weakness of human nature, but, while fully sympa- 
 thizing with the ills to which it is exposed, he never was will- 
 ing to give way to its whims. Having at all times made heavy 
 claims upon himself, he tried to arouse the latent energies in 
 others and to direct them to practical views of life and the 
 plain path of duty. 
 
 Of this we can offer to our readers very striking examples. 
 Returning from Charleston, S. C., the Rev. Christian Streit 
 was for a time pastor of the New Hanover charge. He suf- 
 fered the loss of an only child, and the physician Dr. Rush 
 of Philadelphia whom he had consulted about the sickly 
 condition of his wife plainly told him that he should prepare 
 himself for his separation from her, since no cure was to be 
 expected. It seems that this announcement put Streit into a 
 state of deep melancholy. When visiting Miihlenberg in July, 
 1782, he was very despondent, spoke of being unable to preach, 
 and was altogether downcast. Miihlenberg, who entertained 
 very friendly feelings toward him, was grieved to see him in 
 this condition, but saw in it a moral and spiritual weakness 
 which should be counteracted. To him he addressed a letter 
 in which, after alluding to the information received from Dr. 
 Rush and to Streit's melancholy, he says, " Does what the 
 doctor said appear to you so strange ? We all have to die. 
 Death is the reward of sin, and our dear Lord died for all the 
 children of Adam, that in and through him we may have eter- 
 nal life ; and those who through the Holy Ghost believe in 
 him and live for him shall even ' not taste death,' but at once 
 enter into rest and the glorious life to come. My dear brother, 
 you are a magister, a master of science and the liberal arts ; 
 you have studied theology; you are ordained and called upon 
 to preach to others the whole story of salvation, and by teach- 
 ing and by your walk and conversation to convince them of 
 the truth of revelation. The universal order of things encom- 
 passes every part of the whole. Since we all have to die, the 
 partner of your life makes no exception. How is it possible 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 507 
 
 that a truth so well known and experienced from day to day 
 could depress your mind to such an extent and make you 
 melancholy ? Your beloved grandparents, whom I person- 
 ally knew, your much-beloved mother, who was a lover of 
 our Lord Jesus and of his gospel, have gone to their rest; 
 even your own dear child died ; I and you have to die : how 
 can it appear to you strange that the physician says that your 
 beloved wife will have to die? Knowing that through the 
 blood of Christ she is in true faith purified from all sin and that 
 her soul is clothed with his righteousness, you might rather 
 wish and in your chamber pray God, who owns her, that 
 according to his fatherly goodness and mercy he may soon 
 release her from the sufferings of painful sickness and take 
 her into his care and kingdom. We desire those whom we 
 love to enjoy not only what is good, but what is better and 
 the very best. You have not created, not ransomed, not 
 adopted her in holy baptism, not crowned her with glory ; 
 she belongs to God : he alone has the right to give and to 
 take as it may please him. Remember, 'Well done is all that 
 God may do.' There is a cordial in this. You, my dear 
 brother, have much more cause to adore God in truth and to 
 offer thanks to him in humility than to give way to depress- 
 ing and melancholy thoughts. God's kind providence re- 
 leased you from your tribulations in Carolina and brought 
 you to Philadelphia. Deprived of all external means and 
 without money, you could not have remained there in the 
 present time while high prices rule. I consider it providen- 
 tial that you came to New Hanover. Even here no place 
 would have been found for sick Mrs. Streit unless you had 
 been acquainted with Mr. Swaine and my daughter, who 
 could offer you a room ; for in the country a spare chamber 
 and opportunity for boarding are rarely found. To occupy a 
 house of your own with a sick person you had neither furni- 
 ture nor servants. Consequently, you will have to learn to 
 adapt yourself to the ways of Providence, to exercise mutual 
 forbearance, and mutually to relieve the burdens until God 
 will bring about a change and ease the circumstances. As to 
 
508 LIFE AND. TIMES OF 
 
 the rest, I pray God that he may mercifully guard you against 
 obnoxious melancholy and sceptical thoughts, and strengthen 
 your mind and preserve it to the advantage of the congrega- 
 tion. For if you will deprive yourself of the ability needed 
 for the sacred service, the cause of the Master will suffer; you 
 will be without sustenance, and can help neither yourself nor 
 your wife in these distressing circumstances. And I pray 
 that God may consummate the work of his grace through his 
 word and Spirit in the heart of our sick sister, that when He 
 who owns her shall call her she may depart in joyful faith 
 and full of comfort. You, my dear brother, are now like the 
 spring in the watch. Should you through unnecessary mel- 
 ancholy, whims, and notions be confused and disabled from 
 preaching, the whole work will end in disorder and confusion 
 and suffer much damage. I advise you to take much exer- 
 cise; this will drive away restless caprices. I was glad to learn 
 you visited old Burkhard and administered to him the Lord's 
 Supper. Be not faithless, but believing, manly, and strong in 
 the Lord Jesus, and beware of disorders of the mind which 
 change gnats into elephants. The sainted Luther says, Oratio, 
 meditatio, et tentatio will make a theologian." Miihlenberg 
 adds that he intended to pay a visit to Streit and to his wife, 
 but was not well enough to do so. In all this letter we see 
 the intention to arouse Brother Streit to a common-sense view 
 of his situation, to an active faith, and to energy of will. There 
 is not the least sentimentality in it, but a real desire to do 
 good to the brother. 
 
 While pastor in Philadelphia, Miihlenberg had become one 
 of the sponsors of a certain young man who had so far ad- 
 vanced in years as to realize his duty to become a member 
 of the Church. To satisfy his own conscience, Miihlenberg 
 addressed (April 26, 1787) the following letter to him in 
 English : 
 
 " MUCH ESTEEMED FRIEND i Divine Providence has brought 
 us into a certain relation and connection by which we are 
 obliged to answer before God Almighty. When I had the 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 509 
 
 honor to engraft you by holy baptism into the kingdom of 
 Christ our Saviour, and stand godfather upon request of your 
 beloved father and mother, who were faithful members of the 
 German Evangelical religion and Church, I, together with your 
 dear parents, promised, by the help of God, to see you edu- 
 cated and instructed in the principles of our holy religion to 
 become an exemplary Christian in deed. Your beloved pa- 
 rents were early promoted to eternity and you left an inno- 
 cent orphan in this state of trial and vexation. A wonderfully 
 kind and merciful Providence has been leading you to the 
 years of discretion endowed with sound reason, understand- 
 ing, and wisdom, and it is now time to perform and fulfil the 
 sacred promise, vow, and covenant on our side solemnly made 
 in holy baptism viz. to become a true and faithful member 
 of our blessed Saviour in his kingdom of grace by preparing 
 and partaking the ordained and commanded Lord's Supper as 
 the Lord himself enjoins : ' Do this in remembrance of me,' 
 and ' You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command 
 you.' If you have a mind so to do and to join with our holy 
 religion and communion, which affordeth sound and saving 
 doctrine sufficient for justifying faith and sanctifying life, you 
 may easily spend some hours in the evening to converse either 
 with the Rev. Mr. Kunze or with the Rev. Mr. Helmuth, who 
 liveth at Mr. Keppele's, not far from your abode, who will be 
 kind enough to give you advice concerning preparation and 
 confirmation. If you seek first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, purchased by the sufferings and death of our 
 Saviour for your precious immortal soul, the rest pertaining to 
 an honest bodily maintenance will be added by industry and 
 frugality. For what is a man profited if he should gain the 
 whole transient world and lose his soul ? I know your con- 
 science and feelings are too tender to imitate other irreligious 
 young gentlemen who walk in the broad way that leadeth, 
 after a short foolish pleasure, to endless misery, woe, and 
 destruction. 
 
 " Hoping, much esteemed friend, you will not take my sim- 
 ple admonition amiss, nor neglect the most important point 
 
510 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tending to your temporal welfare and eternal happiness and 
 to the ease of my conscience, I recommend you to the tender 
 mercy of our most glorious Redeemer and to the most gra- 
 cious influences of the Holy Spirit, the only true Comforter; 
 and remain your well-wishing friend and servant, 
 
 H. M., SR." 
 
 What tender care for a young man exposed to many dan- 
 gers and temptations is here exhibited ! We see that Miihl- 
 enberg was very far from considering the sponsorship a mere 
 form. It was exactly in the same spirit that in the leisure 
 hours of evening he instructed a servant-girl in spelling, read- 
 ing and the Catechism, because in her youth she had been neg- 
 lected in those things. 
 
 Hardly anything ever aroused a livelier indignation in Miihl- 
 enberg than the information he received (April 21, 1784) that 
 Rev. W. Kurtz, formerly of Earltown (New Holland), later of 
 Lebanon, Pa., brother of the highly-respected Rev. J. Nic. 
 Kurtz of York, Pa., at a special conference had maintained 
 and intended to demonstrate that the apostles had preached 
 false doctrines, that especially St. Paul had introduced in 
 Rom. ix.-xi. pharisaic leaven de facto, and that we must ex- 
 clusively follow the teachings of Christ himself. Miihlen- 
 berg's letter to him, while it breathes a spirit of grief, is in 
 its tone most decided, spares the offender in no way, shows 
 up the consequences of such confused and frivolous notions, 
 and puts W. Kurtz into the predicament of " a mere appren- 
 tice in theology, and a man of weak judgment who has no 
 conception of the compass of the inner connection of the 
 teachings of Christ, and apparently had no occasion, neither 
 sought it, to read and to study the paraphrases and annota- 
 tions of the most approved theologians who does not know 
 the depths of Satan, thinks entirely too much of himself, and 
 does not guard against his own thoughts." " You remind 
 me," says Muhlenberg,-"of a man who wished to buy a Bible 
 of me, but emphatically and frivolously added, ' But one with- 
 out glosses, for I make my own glosses.' " Finally, Miihlen- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 511 
 
 berg writes : " Until something better is proposed, I know no 
 better counsel than I. That I, provided my life is spared, at 
 the next meeting of the Ministerium lay this matter before the 
 same, with the request to appoint a committee and to have 
 this subject impartially investigated. 2. Such committee should 
 demand of Rev. Wm. Kurtz a declaration in writing and argu- 
 ments supporting his propositions, to investigate them as time 
 and opportunity may be given, and send in their judgment in 
 writing to the prases ministerii. 3. Suppose that he, Rev. W. 
 Kurtz, could ,not substantiate his propositions (in my opinion 
 they cannot be proved), but would continue to be opinionated 
 and make no retraction, the Rev. Ministerium, for conscience' 
 sake, would be necessitated to exclude him until a change for 
 the better would take place in his views, to warn the congre- 
 gations against him, and to report on the unfortunate affair 
 to the Right Rev. the Fathers in Europe. For such cancers 
 seem at first only trifling excrescences, but soon are enlarged 
 unless the root is cut out in proper time ; and a little leaven 
 can easily leaven the whole lump." In conclusion, Miihlenberg 
 assures W. Kurtz that true love and interest in his true wel- 
 fare as a brother dictated this letter. The answer of W. 
 Kurtz (dated Lebanon, May 19, 1785) contains a humble ad- 
 mission that he sometimes allows his tongue too much free- 
 dom, but, avoiding the main point of the accusation, lays 
 stress upon the exceptional position of our Lord Christ, who 
 alone was the perfect, infallible Teacher whom God had 
 anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows (Heb. 
 i. 9). 
 
 Oct. 21, 1784, Miihlenberg rejoiced over the arrival of a 
 letter from his friend and colaborer C. M. Wrangel, dated 
 Sahla in Sweden, June 15, 1784. It shows Wrangel's con- 
 tinued attachment to his friend, and, in addition to the expres- 
 sions of brotherly love, contains various items which may be 
 of interest to our readers. Speaking of himself and contrast- 
 ing his changed situation with his experience in America, he 
 says (we give his own English) : " As for my part, I suppose 
 you have heard that after my return I have been called to 
 
512 LIFE AND 'TIMES OF 
 
 bear the testimony of the ever-blessed Saviour before a court 
 and the great of this world. Instead of riding on horseback, 
 I have b^en obliged to drive in stately coaches ; but believe, 
 sir, I have always had my heart and spirit in America, and all 
 the honor and favor of the world have been as nothing to me 
 against the pleasure to labor with the Lord's singular bless- 
 ing, you being my fellow-laborer and sufferer. I am now set- 
 tled in a very comfortable manner, in a very pleasant part of 
 the country, having two parishes and four assistant ministers 
 and sixteen congregations under mine inspection as provost. 
 I keep my station at court as great almoner and chaplain of 
 the Most Honor. Order of Seraphim, but the travelling sev- 
 eral times a year for six years hurt so much my health that 
 I was obliged to ask my dismission." Speaking of America, 
 he continues : " Mr. Acrelius is in life, but 'most blind, and 
 unable to do anything. The society pro fide et CJiristianis- 
 mo flourishes by the blessing of God, and the place of our 
 archbishopric is filled with a zealous and pious man, the 
 worthy Dr. Menander. He esteems and loves your name 
 very much. I am now about to write the History of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Congregations in America, and the first volume 
 is under the press. I am happy to have an opportunity to 
 open a scene of divine mercy in which the Lord has pleased 
 to honor you in so remarkable a manner. I should be glad 
 to have a complete account of that which has happened since 
 my time, for the second part. Your son-in-law, Mr. Kunze, 
 has honored me with a letter, to which I returned an answer, 
 by way of Cadiz, and hope it has come safe to hand. Our 
 agent of that place has given notice that it was sent open to 
 Philadelphia. I sent him seven pieces for you that have been 
 printed by me, of which the sermon printed on the king's 
 coronation, on the great Revolution, and on the opening of 
 the Order of Wasa, were published by the king's special 
 command. I have since published a treatise on the character 
 of our Lord as Saviour of the world, and am about to print 
 a Commentary on the Gospel of St. John'' Of all this, the 
 volume published on the History of the German Lutheran 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 513 
 
 Congregations in America would to us have most interest, 
 for we never saw a copy of it. Miihlenberg's answer (dated 
 Oct. 22, 1784), framed in his usual courteous style, compares 
 Wrangel with Joseph, who in Egypt finally was raised to 
 highest honors, but forgot neither his God nor his father's 
 house, and then gives an outline of the condition of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran congregations at the time of writing. It espe- 
 cially speaks of those pastors of whom Wrangel still had a 
 remembrance, and of the prominent events in Miihlenberg's 
 life since Wrangel's departure. Miihlenberg's sons also, in 
 whom Wrangel had taken a friendly interest, came in for a 
 share, and no less Kunze, Helmuth, Schulze, Schmidt, and 
 Krug. He says that he is unable to give any report on the 
 Swedish pastors, since they no longer desire a more intimate 
 relation with the Germans, and since the circumstances are 
 changed. To his signature he adds Candidatus mortis. The 
 correspondence between the two old friends had been inter- 
 rupted since 1773, and soon ceased altogether, Miihlenberg 
 (April 22, 1787) receiving news of Wrangel's death. 
 
 Miihlenberg's interest in the unfortunate Ebenezer (Ga.) 
 congregation never ceased. Since the War of Independence 
 all there was confusion. Triebner, as Dr. Urlsperger of Augs- 
 burg informed Miihlenberg, had delivered to the authorities 
 in England * the most valuable legal documents affecting the 
 finances of the congregation an act of justice for which 
 Miihlenberg willingly gave him credit. But the consequences 
 of violent dissensions, with those arising from the disorders 
 never absent in war-times, could not so soon be removed. Ra- 
 
 * The Rev. Dr. J. G. Burkhardt, pastor of the German Lutheran Savoy congre- 
 gation (St. Mary's Church), London, in his History of the German Congregations 
 of London, published 1798, relates that "a certain Mr. Triebner" arrived from 
 Ebenezer, Ga., in London, and made the attempt to force himself as an assistant 
 pastor upon the Savoy congregation, but was neither here nor afterward by Rev. 
 Wachsel of St. George's congregation desired in that capacity. For some years 
 he officiated successively in two chapels rented for this purpose. Of a book 
 published by him in London with the title, Valleys of Death at Ebenezer, or 
 Anecdotes of Twenty-four Years in the Ministry, Burkhardt says that it contains 
 nothing of interest to the public. 
 33 
 
514 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 benhorst's death and Triebner's flight left the people without 
 a pastor. A number of other leading men had died or moved 
 away. Mr. Treutlen in whom Miihlenberg had placed much 
 confidence, and who was a courageous adherent of the Amer- 
 ican cause was obliged to leave Ebenezer; he moved to 
 South Carolina, bought himself a plantation and house, was 
 called to the door one night by five Tories, rudely dragged 
 into a swamp, and there literally cut to pieces. For a time an 
 unworthy subject Fr. Gerresheim, who had left a wife living 
 in Maryland and married another at Ebenezer tried to palm 
 himself off as pastor upon the congregation. The people, 
 hearing of the prospect of one of Miihlenberg's sons (Fred. 
 Augustus) coming as a pastor to their relief, rejoiced and 
 went to work to repair Zion Church, but finally were disap- 
 pointed in their hope. The condition was most discouraging. 
 Miihlenberg made every effort to advise the members through 
 correspondence, and in their behalf addressed letters to influ- 
 ential men in Ebenezer, Savannah, London, and Augsburg. 
 Finally, in 1785, Rev. J. E. Bergmann arrived, well recom- 
 mended, from Germany, and entered upon his pastoral duties. 
 He was a man of good character, but very latitudinarian in 
 his associations, fraternized with Methodists and Baptists, and 
 opened the way to rapacious clerical representatives of various 
 denominations. He unfortunately was averse to the introduc- 
 tion of the English language in the public services, though the 
 spiritual interests of the younger generation demanded the 
 change. The German has for many years ceased to be heard 
 there; but when, in 1824, Bergmann died, the congregation 
 had lost almost all the distinctive features of a Lutheran con- 
 gregation, and could not in subsequent times regain them. 
 
 To receive letters from absent members of his family or 
 from his former colaborers in pastoral and synodical work 
 always proved to H. M. Miihlenberg a source of much com- 
 fort. The letters of his sons and daughters and of his sons- 
 in-law are beautiful evidences of the high esteem and the 
 tender filial love in which he was held. Those of his son 
 Henry, after 1780 pastor of the Lancaster congregation, 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 515 
 
 show a most beautiful frankness, allowing the venerable father 
 to see into his inner life : he speaks of the detail of his pastor- 
 al work, of his manner of preparing his sermons, of his encour- 
 aging and discouraging experiences, of the spiritual condition 
 of his congregation. We know that the son, by inclination 
 and talent devoted to the study of natural sciences, was con- 
 sidered an authority, especially in botany, and his name was 
 held in the highest honor on both sides of the Atlantic ; but 
 it would be a great mistake to suppose that on this account 
 he considered his clerical office a matter of secondary con- 
 cern : the accounts he gives his father of his labors in his 
 study and among his membership prove the reverse. We 
 may here take occasion to allude to a certain element in the 
 mental framework of the father which points in the direction 
 of natural science. In his course of study he had paid some 
 attention to the medical art, and never lost his interest in it. 
 During the years of his retirement at Providence he was fre- 
 quently requested to advise in various cases of sickness. He 
 never pretended to be a professional physician, and always 
 gave his advice gratuitously. It happened in a very serious 
 case that two regular physicians requested his presence at 
 their consultation. Whenever he speaks of cases of sickness 
 where his advice was asked, he uses professional terms in- 
 dicative of his information on the subject. As a proof of his 
 sound sense also in such matters we quote a remark made 
 in his diary when, in the autumn of 1784, he heard of the 
 terrible sickness by which his son-in-law, Rev. Schulze, and 
 his wife were prostrated at Tulpehoken ; whic.h remark calls 
 forth an excusable smile. He was too weak to go to Tul- 
 pehoken, but .he had his sick and suffering son and daughter 
 constantly before his mind, wished to know the course of med- 
 ical treatment, and, having learned of it, writes in his diary : 
 " There is an old obnoxious German custom prevalent of 
 keeping sick people smothering under heavy covers, and, so 
 to say, almost immuring them in the sick chamber, making 
 the stove red hot and preventing the entrance of fresh, whole- 
 some air. Physicians of common sense will say that a mouth- 
 
5l6 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ful of fresh, wholesome air is worth to the sick man more 
 than a tablespoonful of medicine." Truly, a man of such prac- 
 tical views deserved the confidence of the sick. Again refer- 
 ring to Rev. G. H. E. Miihlenberg of Lancaster, we are happy 
 to state that the aged father's heart was a few months before 
 the end of his life gladdened by the news that at the meeting 
 of synod in June, 1787, his son was elected president. 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 517 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 1776-1787. 
 
 Respect shown to their senior, Miihlenberg, by the Ministerium. He is lovingly 
 remembered at Halle. Sebast. Anclr. Fabricius. Muhlenberg's last pastoral 
 acts. His last sickness and his death. Respect shown to his memory through- 
 out the Church. Memorial sermons preached by Rev. Drs. Helmuth and 
 Kunze. Their delineation of Muhlenberg's personality and work. His 
 descendants. His grave, and the inscription thereon. 
 
 THE members of the ministerium never ceased to show 
 their senior, who no longer was able to be present with 
 them at their annual conventions, unaffected deference and 
 sincere love. Not only were the minutes sent to him, but 
 his advice was asked in all matters of importance, and his 
 services were employed as far as he could give them, as in 
 the work of preparing the hymnbook. Helmuth informs him 
 specially of certain changes made in that book and in the Lit- 
 urgy. The proof-sheets are sent to him, and he is made to feel 
 that the respectful attachment of the brethren and the value 
 of his services are in no way diminished. To them his heart 
 and his house are open, and visits of one or another of them 
 were considered cheering occasions. Among them appeared 
 also (Nov. 10, 1786) Rev. Hartwig, who had not yet changed 
 his roving disposition. In the same year Miihlenberg received 
 the last visit of Rev. Dr. Kunze and his family from New York. 
 Rev. Voigt, who during those years served the Providence 
 congregation, was expected at the house of Muhlenberg every 
 Sunday on which he had services in the Augustus Church ; 
 and whenever, under pressure of engagements, Voigt failed to 
 come, the failure was noted in the diary. 
 
 After the conclusion of the peace between America and the 
 
5l8 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 mother-country, Muhlenberg received letters frorh Halle which 
 clearly proved to him that there he was not forgotten, but was 
 kept in sweet remembrance. Of course, the number of those 
 with whom more than forty years before he had associated in 
 Halle and other places, and who still lived, was a very small 
 one. Among those who had served with Muhlenberg in the 
 Halle institute was that good man Sebastian Andr. Fabricius, 
 who in a letter dated March 19, 1785, informed him of the 
 death of Rev. Dr. Freylinghausen which had taken place 
 Feb. 1 8, 1785 and assured him of the high esteem in which 
 he had always been held by this venerable father. He very 
 pleasantly reminds him of the honorable remembrance in 
 which all the leading men connected with the Halle Orphan- 
 House held him, and especially alludes to the fraternal in- 
 tercourse they had enjoyed forty-three years before, when 
 Muhlenberg, departing for Pennsylvania, was a guest at the 
 Rev. Dr. Francke's house. Fabricius knew perhaps better 
 than any other man in Europe of Miihlenberg's labors and 
 hardships in America. A brother of John Philip Fabricius of 
 the East India missions, he had been for many years private 
 secretary to Rev. G. A. Francke, D. D., and later served as 
 inspector of the Canstein Bible Society. Through his hands 
 passed the correspondence of the East India and Pennsylva- 
 nia missions, and to a large extent he prepared the material 
 published in the Halle Reports. He always proved himself a 
 warm-hearted, faithful friend of Muhlenberg and his family. 
 When (Jan. 10, 1790) he departed this life his death was felt 
 as a great loss by an extensive circle of friends. 
 
 It was an agreeable circumstance that during the last years 
 of Miihlenberg's life a number of his children, with their fam- 
 ilies, lived in his neighborhood and could often come to visit 
 the aged father. The families Swaine and Richards were in 
 those years settled at New Hanover; Frederick Augustus, 
 though frequently necessitated to be at Philadelphia, had his 
 family at Providence ; J. Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, major- 
 general U. S. A., had at various times to travel to Virginia 
 and the West, but for a time was also sojourning quite near 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 519 
 
 to the paternal home or came from time to time as a visitor ; 
 Rev. Dr. Kunze of New York, whom official duties and the 
 inconveniences of travelling prevented from making more fre- 
 quent visits at Providence, did not omit in his correspondence 
 to inform the venerable father of his experience in his new 
 field of labor, of his literary work and publications, and of 
 his views on the most recent inroads of Rationalism into the- 
 ology. April 29, 1787, Muhlenberg and his wife for the last 
 time had the pleasure of having all their children, save Mrs. 
 Kunze, with -them, and also a considerable number of grand- 
 children. When one of the latter young Andrew Schulze 
 of Tulpehoken recited to the grandfather no less than six 
 German hymns, the fact was entered in the diary. No less 
 the quaint answer which one of the little ones gave to the 
 grandfather's question : " With what sense do we become aware 
 of the things around us." "With the tongue," said the boy; 
 and grandfather thought there was considerable truth in it. 
 
 We know that Muhlenberg was at all times most welcome 
 in the pulpit of the Philadelphia congregation. In 1779, and 
 again in 1782 at the rededication of Zion Church, he preached 
 there ; we have discovered no proof that he preached there 
 after this time. In the month of June, 1783, he was invited, 
 during the absence of Kunze at the synodical meeting at York, 
 Pa., to come to Philadelphia and assist Helmuth, but excused 
 himself, saying that he was too feeble and could not leave his 
 sick wife, but if, by stress of circumstances, it must be, they 
 should send a light wagon and a strong horse and take him to 
 Philadelphia "living or dead, whole or in pieces;" and added 
 that he and his wife were best fitted for a hospital or a grave. 
 
 After retiring from Philadelphia he had performed pastoral 
 services at New Hanover, where, in November, 1742, he had 
 preached his first sermon in Pennsylvania. His regular ser- 
 vices there came to an end in 1780, though he yet assisted in 
 the following year in that place. He could not avoid on cer- 
 tain occasions in later years doing pastoral services at Prov- 
 idence. His last sermon he preached there Sept. 26, 1784. 
 The increasing swelling of his feet made walking very difficult 
 
52O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for him he had to be assisted in ascending the pulpit and 
 the frequent spells of giddiness to which he was exposed em- 
 barrassed him greatly. In rare cases he delivered funeral 
 addresses, sometimes performed marriage ceremonies at his 
 house, and baptized children who were brought to him. In- 
 creasing physical weakness prevented outdoor exercise and 
 exposure during his latter years. He left Providence the 
 last time July 9, 1787, when his children sent a wagon from 
 New Hanover, and for a few days had father and mother 
 with them. It proved a great exertion to the enfeebled 
 parents. As for years Mrs. Miihlenberg was prevented by 
 her nervous disorders from worshipping with the congrega- 
 tion, and he for the last few years of his pilgrimage on earth 
 was unable to walk to the church, about a quarter of a mile 
 distant from his house, he held special services every Sunday 
 at his private dwelling with his family. 
 
 Calling to our remembrance all the excessive hardships 
 which Miihlenberg had endured in his pastoral and mission- 
 ary labors in a country where bridges rarely spanned the 
 rivers and creeks, the roads during a large part of the year 
 were almost impassable, and the traveller was frequently ex- 
 posed to all the inclemencies of the weather without being 
 able in proper season to find shelter and comfortable lodg- 
 ings, we cannot wonder that the energies of nature became 
 exhausted in one who never placed pleasure above duty. We 
 add to all these disadvantages the severe claims continually 
 laid upon his mind and his soul. We are not surprised that 
 the body was almost prematurely exhausted, but we are as- 
 tonished to learn that to the very end his intellect retained 
 its wonted vigor and freshness. During the last years of his 
 life Miihlenberg keenly felt his inability to move about and 
 to labor in the service of his Master, which to him was the 
 life and the light of his soul. Here and there in his diary he 
 speaks of himself as a pondus inutile terra. Others never 
 viewed his advanced age in such a manner. God found it 
 best before his end to lead him through a school of suffering 
 to perfect and consummate in his servant the regenerating 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. $21 
 
 work of his Holy Spirit. And we rejoice in stating that in all 
 his writings, diaries, and correspondence we never discover 
 any traces of an abnormal, morbid disposition of mind, of 
 discontent, or of murmuring against the ways of the Father 
 in heaven. 
 
 Saturday, Sept. 29, 1787, Miihlenberg entered the last item 
 in his diary. In the habit of making a record of the events 
 of each day of his life he continued conscientiously even dur- 
 ing the years of his infirmity, though toward the end we 
 observe that to write was a difficult task for his trembling 
 hand. But we are thankful that even then he indicated with 
 a few short, telling words the condition of his mind and stated 
 facts which nowhere else are preserved to posterity. It de- 
 serves to be mentioned that he took the greatest care to put 
 his house in order also as to external things.* All his ac- 
 
 * The historiographer of Providence, F. G. Hobson, Esq., published the last will 
 of Miihlenberg, and we enter here some of his sentences : " In the name of God, 
 Amen. I, Henry Melchibr Miihlenberg, of late minister of the German Lutheran 
 congregations in the city of Philadelphia and townships of New Providence and 
 New Hanover, in the State of Pennsylvania, being old and weak in body, but of 
 sound understanding and memory thanks be to God my Saviour ! do make and 
 ordain this my last Will and Testament : that is to say, first of all I deliver my soul 
 unto Almighty God, my Lord and Saviour, who gave and redeemed the same, and 
 my body I recommend to the earth, to be buried as time and circumstances may 
 allow, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same 
 again by the mighty power of God. And as touching my little worldly estate, I 
 give, devise, and dispose of the same in the following manner and form, viz. : I. I 
 give and bequeath unto Ann Mary, my beloved wife, during her widowhood and 
 life, all my real and personal estate ; that is to say, the piece in New Providence 
 township, where we live upon, containing seven acres of ground, be the same 
 more or less, together with all and singular the buildings and appurtenances ; a 
 land containing ten acres of ground, be the same more or less ; moreover a lot near 
 the German Lutheran church at New Providence, containing three acres of ground, 
 be the same more or less, with some apple trees and the property of one-half of a 
 draw-well upon the line between mine and Mr. Bateman's lots, and whatsoever 
 my beloved wife Ann Mary has a right unto in part of her deceased father Conrad 
 Weiser's real and personal estate in Reading, Shamokin, and wheresoever, together 
 with all and singular my personal estate, unto her own possession and use during 
 her widowhood and life, upon the following conditions," etc. We find, also, the 
 following : " Mine hereafter constituted Executrix and Executors shall be pleased 
 to sort my Manuscripts, Writings, and Journals, and whatever belongs to the Rev. 
 Synod of the United German Lutheran Ministry or to the Attorneys of the Legacy 
 
522 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 counts were in the most perfect order, and he had stated in 
 writing where documents of value to the family might be 
 found after his decease. 
 
 The condition of Muhlenberg during the year 1787 was 
 frequently exceedingly painful. To dropsy, the premonitory 
 symptoms of which had shown themselves years before, were 
 added various concomitant ailments which medical skill could 
 hardly alleviate, never remove. Eight days before his enter- 
 ing into eternal rest he seemed to improve somewhat, and 
 exhibited the full vigor of his mind. Voigt, who had come 
 to see him, expressed his joy at the sight of such cheering 
 symptoms, but the aged father, fully realizing his condition, 
 told Voigt when he said " Farewell " that they were not likely 
 to meet again in this world, and recited a verse of a hymn of 
 Martin Boehme (Kirchenbuch, No. 558) which he used to quote 
 in days of health : 
 
 "A heavy road before me lies 
 Up to the heavn'ly paradise; 
 My lasting home is there with Thee, 
 Bought with thy life-blood once for me." 
 
 In this diagnosis of the state of his health he was not mis- 
 taken. Alarming symptoms were noticed on the following 
 day, and continued in spite of all medical applications. Day 
 and night he suffered intense pain ; no slumber came to his 
 eyes and he could breathe only with great difficulty. The 
 partner of his life and almost all his children were around 
 him in great distress. From time to time words full of faith 
 and love fell from his lips and encouraged them. He placed 
 before his spiritual eye his blessed Saviour suffering for him 
 on the cross, and to Him he sent his sighs. It was a remark- 
 
 or to the Right Rev. Directors at Halle in Saxony, or to any individual as, for 
 instance, Documents, Accounts, Receipts, Testimonies, and such like in order to 
 deliver them to such persons or person as have a just right to ask for or receive the 
 same. The rest of my writings and correspondence may be preserved for some 
 time, in case one or another important question should arise which thereby should 
 be decided and answered solely." He appoints his wife and his sons (by a special 
 codicil Peter Muhlenberg among them) his executors. The document is dated 
 June 12, 1782, and revokes all and every other will formerly made by him. 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 
 
 able phenomenon that shortly before his end his hearing re- 
 turned. On Saturday evening, his strength being exhausted, 
 he apparently entered into the valley of the shadow of death, 
 yet his mind was perfectly clear. He expected to die at mid- 
 night, and inquired whether it were not yet twelve o'clock. At 
 his request two of his children took him to bed. There re- 
 clining, he recited the last verse of Paul Gerhard's immortal 
 hymn, Befiehl du deine Wege, etc. : 
 
 "Haste, Lord, to end our sorrow, 
 
 Our feeble hands support; 
 Each day and each to-morrow 
 
 Be thou our soul's resort. 
 May we to thy great mercy 
 
 Till death commended be, 
 Then shall our earthly footsteps 
 
 Us safely lead to thee." 
 
 Having finished this verse, he once more took a deep breath, 
 and then quietly fell asleep in Jesus. The spirit of the ven- 
 erable patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America had 
 taken flight from the Church militant to the Church trium- 
 phant. The faithful servant had entered into the joy of his 
 Lord. Henry Melchior Miihlenberg breathed his last between 
 twelve and one o'clock on Sunday morning, Oct. 7, 1787, at 
 the age of seventy-six years and thirty-one days. It was veri- 
 fied by his death : " It shall come to pass that at evening-time 
 it shall be light " (Zach. xiii. 7). 
 
 The news of the death of the aged and venerable father, 
 whose name and fame were in all the Lutheran congrega- 
 tions throughout the land and in many others, spread from 
 Providence as rapidly as the means of communication in those 
 days allowed, and everywhere called forth deep sympathy and 
 sorrow. The vestry of the German Lutheran congregation at 
 Philadelphia, thinking that they had particular claims in this 
 sad case, and intending to do all possible honor to the mem- 
 ory of their beloved spiritual father, at once sent two delegates 
 to the bereaved family in behalf of the congregation to request 
 that the mortal remains of the deceased might be conveyed to 
 
524 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Philadelphia and there be given a resting-place in Zion Church, 
 in the pulpit of which he so often had stood before thousands 
 and raised his voice as a witness of God's word. The family, 
 fully appreciating the most honorable proposition of the Phil- 
 adelphia vestry, preferred to have the head of the house rest 
 in Providence at the side of the Augustus Church, where al- 
 ready some of the children whom God had called to himself 
 in early years had found their resting-place. The funeral took 
 place Wednesday, Oct. loth, and was attended by an immense 
 concourse of people. Of ministers of the Lutheran Church, 
 besides Rev. G. H. E. Miihlenberg, D. D., of Lancaster, there 
 were present Rev. Messrs. Voigt, Schulze, Dr. Helmuth, Van 
 Buskirk, Wildbahn, Roeller, and Lehman. Rev. M. Schlat- 
 ter, of the Reformed Church, had also come to show his love 
 and esteem for his old friend on this mournful occasion. 
 From Philadelphia and from localities far and near a large 
 number of friends had arrived to participate in the obsequies. 
 At the family mansion Dr. Helmuth offered prayer. The 
 Augustus Church being entirely too small to hold all the 
 multitude present, Rev. Voigt, after the mortal remains had 
 been deposited in the grave on the east side of the church, 
 delivered an address under the open sky on the words of Ps. 
 xv. i, 2 : " Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? Who 
 shall dwell in thy holy hill ? He that walketh uprightly and 
 worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart." 
 
 Many manifestations of respect and sympathy testified to 
 the high veneration entertained for H. M. Miihlenberg within 
 the Lutheran Church and beyond its limits. Throughout 
 the whole Church there was a decided and sincere feeling 
 that a mighty one in Israel had fallen that the congregations 
 had lost one who in the providence of God had fulfilled a 
 great mission and had for a long time stood high among 
 them as a spiritual father and a most excellent adviser. 
 In most of the churches services commemorative of the 
 venerated father were held at his departure. The congrega- 
 tion at Lancaster ordered their church-bells to be tolled with 
 muffled tongues on the day of the funeral. The churches 
 

 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. $2$ 
 
 there, at Philadelphia, and at New York were also draped in 
 mourning; the officers of the congregations wore the emblems 
 of mourning. Even in some Reformed churches the minis- 
 ters took occasion specially to testify to the noble qualities 
 and the Christian bearing of H. M. Miihlenberg. 
 
 Of the sermons preached in commemoration of his death, 
 two have come down to posterity. Both are on the same 
 text (2 Kings ii. 12): "And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My 
 father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen 
 thereof! And he saw him no more; and he took hold of 
 his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces." 
 
 One of these two sermons was delivered in Zion Church, 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 21, 1787, by Rev. J. H. Chr. Helmuth, whose 
 theme was, "The lamentation which is allowed upon the de- 
 parture of faithful servants of God." He first treats of the 
 qualities of such servants, showing that they not only are 
 called to the responsible office, but faithfully execute its im- 
 portant duties. As such a one he describes Elijah, and with 
 him compares Miihlenberg. As Elijah was sent to the Israel- 
 ites, who after separating themselves from' the mother-Church 
 at Jerusalem had established services of their own defiled by 
 pagan abominations, so was Miihlenberg sent by Providence 
 to the Lutheran congregations in this country when cut off 
 from the mother-Church beyond the sea, destitute of the 
 proper administration of the gospel, and often misled by 
 men not properly called to the pastoral office nor qualified 
 for it. As Elijah had to go and seek the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel, tell them of the true God, and establish his 
 proper service, so Miihlenberg had to gather into congre- 
 gations the Lutherans dispersed over a large territory, bring 
 them into proper order, preach to them the counsel of salva- 
 tion, and establish divine service for them. As Elijah ho doubt 
 had his eye on the schools of the prophets mentioned in his 
 times to preserve in this way for future generations the sound 
 doctrine and the true service of the living God, so Miihlen- 
 berg never ceased to care for the Christian education of the 
 young, and to provide as much as was in his power for the 
 
526 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 continuance and extent of the preaching of the word of God. 
 As Elijah apparently stood alone in his time in resisting the 
 encroaching spiritual destruction, so Miihlenberg was obliged 
 in his days to carry alone the heavy burden of the office ; but, 
 like Elijah, he was faithful to his trust, and of this his whole 
 life bears ample evidence. Helmuth then proceeded to speak 
 of the departure of teachers having the character of Elijah 
 as an exceedingly heavy loss to the Israelites, but a glorious 
 testimony of God in his behalf and a triumph ; and then very 
 feelingly spoke of the final years and days of Miihlenberg's 
 life, of his being well prepared for his removal, and of his 
 peaceful end and his eternal reward in heaven. At last the 
 speaker refers to the lament of Elisha upon the departure of 
 his beloved spiritual father, and to the universal lamentation 
 throughout the Church, the congregations, and all the mem- 
 bership for him who had indeed been a spiritual father to 
 them, whose influence, under God's blessing, had been in the 
 highest degree beneficial, and the remembrance of whom is 
 such as to awaken the strongest feelings of gratitude on the 
 part of all those who by his agency were led to Jesus. 
 
 Helmuth's sermon delivered on that mournful occasion was 
 requested for publication by a number of members of the con- 
 gregation. There are added to it also a short biographical 
 sketch of the departed, which contains the most important 
 events of his life, and a number of poetical compositions 
 which strongly testify to the high veneration in which the 
 aged father was held. 
 
 The other of the two sermons above alluded to was preached 
 on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1787, in the Church 
 of the Holy Trinity at New York by the Rev. J. Chr. Kunze, 
 D. D., son-in-law of Miihlenberg, on the theme, " The sorrow- 
 ful wail of Elisha after the departure of Elijah, the man of 
 God, whom he loved." This sermon is dedicated to the 
 " Fathers " in Halle and to other friends in Germany and 
 in England, to the " Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
 pel " in London, to the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania and adjacent States, to the vestry and the 
 
HENRY MEL CHI OR MUHLENBERG. $2? 
 
 members of St. Michael and Zion congregations at Philadel- 
 phia, of Trinity congregation at New York, and to the be- 
 reaved widow and children of the departed, who are all men- 
 tioned by name. In this way Dr. Kunze gathers a remark- 
 able assembly around the mortal remains of the beloved father 
 whose memory he desires to honor. More elaborately than 
 Dr. Helmuth he undertakes to delineate the character and the 
 whole being of the eminent man with whom near relationship 
 connected him, and whose colaborer in the pastoral work he 
 had been for fourteen years. He begins his sermon by de- 
 scribing the peculiar position which in those times of polit- 
 ical . and religious confusion and deterioration Elijah main- 
 tained in Israel. There the prophet in his holy zeal proved 
 a power and stemmed the tide of idolatry which had broken 
 in upon the people of God. To Elijah, and to the large num- 
 ber of those who came under his influence and saw in him 
 the noble type of the true servant of God, he proved a spir- 
 itual father. Thence the sad wail of Elisha when he saw 
 himself deprived of a father and the people of one who in 
 himself was a host, a mighty power. And now the speaker 
 beautifully applies the words of his text to him whom he 
 mourns and whom thousands mourn with him. With the 
 many who, like himself, had enjoyed intimate intercourse 
 with the departed, received instruction and advice from him, 
 profited by his rich experience, and were encouraged by his 
 example, he deplored his loss as one whom they honored and 
 loved as their spiritual father. The same, he continued, was 
 the case with that large number of congregations whom 
 Miihlenberg had gathered, assisted, saved from utter destruc- 
 tion, encouraged, organized, and most faithfully served. Look- 
 ing at the wide field over which the services of the deceased 
 had extended, the Lutheran Church of this country as a whole 
 had cause to lament the loss of one who had indeed been a 
 father to her in the best sense of the term. All this was suf- 
 ficient proof that he was indeed a spiritual power among all 
 the congregations, and that all the members of the Church, 
 and many outside of her limits, deeply and mournfully felt 
 
528 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 that the death of Miihlenberg was a universal calamity; and 
 that a mighty man in Israel had fallen. Entering then upon 
 a more minute delineation of the personality, the intellectual 
 endowments, the religious and moral character of Miihlen- 
 berg, he says that the secret of his whole being, life, work, 
 and success was a beautiful blending of natural gifts with 
 those of divine grace. Of the natural gifts he mentions a 
 robust body and vigorous health, which alone enabled him 
 for so many years and in trying circumstances to carry all 
 the burden laid upon him, and to continue to have at heart 
 until two years before his peaceful end the great concerns of 
 the Church after he could no longer perform the regular 
 duties of the pastor. On account of the vivacity of his intel- 
 lect, which surprised all who came into contact with him, 
 Kunze calls him the Luther of America, and says that this 
 very quality, connected with much good-nature, made inter- 
 course with Miihlenberg so attractive ; nor had he ever met 
 anybody who in conversation with all sorts of people had 
 shown more consideration, more good-will toward others, 
 and had been more entertaining. Auxiliaries to this happy 
 faculty were good-humor, unaffected wit, a most retentive 
 memory, and a penetrating judgment. Miihlenberg's solid 
 and comprehensive erudition, Kunze confesses, far surpassed 
 what he had expected to find. He says that he had more 
 accurately mastered the ancient languages than had many a 
 scholar, was an adept in theology, mental philosophy, and 
 medical science, and in proclaiming the word of God was 
 able to use not only the German language which he handled 
 with peculiar originality and force but also the English, 
 French, Dutch, Bohemian, and had also some knowledge of 
 the Swedish. All these excellent qualities and abilities were 
 under the sanctifying and controlling influence of grace and 
 of the Spirit from on High. Miihlenberg not only preached 
 of conversion, but he was a converted man, and out of the 
 experience of heart and life he testified to the power of the 
 Spirit. And his whole personality, walk, and conversation 
 was full of the fruits of the Spirit. He was of a rare humil- 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 529 
 
 ity, and his humble opinion of himself sometimes moved him 
 to bestow rather too freely upon others honors which he 
 never took for himself. Without being artful, he was in his 
 intercourse with others eminently prudent. This gained for 
 him their confidence, and thus gave them the benefit of his 
 advice ; and by his prudence he escaped snares which were 
 laid for him under various pretexts. In him there was no 
 selfishness. His disinterestedness and his liberality rested 
 on the firm conviction that God would never forsake him 
 and those belonging to him, for whom he could not gather 
 earthly riches. Dr. Kunze also speaks of his readiness to 
 forgive and to be reconciled with those who had become em- 
 bittered against him. His self-possessed manners and his un- 
 affected kindness often disarmed his enemies and converted 
 them into friends. While he was very mild and tender of 
 heart, he was firm and unbending in his convictions and prin- 
 ciples, and would not spare those who, in spite of his warn- 
 ings, continued to disturb the peace and to bring about dis- 
 order. There was in him the spirit of prayer, and all those 
 who heard him pray felt his nearness to God. Conjoined to 
 all these noble qualities was a purity of life which even his 
 bitterest enemies never could successfully assail. We add 
 that most malicious attacks against his character were made 
 during his earlier years in America, but ended in the discom- 
 fiture of those who hated him because they hated the truth 
 which he preached. 
 
 Dr. Kunze, who does not forget to allude to Miihlenberg's 
 conservative position as a Lutheran which, though not ag- 
 gressive or polemical, distinguishes him from the succeed- 
 ing generation arrives at the proper conclusion, that all 
 this mental framework eminently qualified Muhlenberg for 
 the great mission of his life. He says all the supervision of 
 an exclusive diocese which an ecclesiastical dignitary of high 
 standing in Europe might exercise would never amount to 
 the work which Muhlenberg had to perform here, and which, 
 indeed, entitled him to the name of a father of the Lutheran 
 Church in America. He never ceased to labor in the Lord's 
 
 34 
 
53O LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 vineyard, being indefatigable in preaching and this in a most 
 attractive manner in teaching the young, in watching over 
 the soundness of doctrine, in his willingness to suffer most 
 distressing losses and to bear the cross which God in various 
 ways had laid upon him. Kunze also speaks of the wisdom 
 the venerable father had ever exhibited concerning the polit- 
 ical disturbances and parties of his time, and says that he 
 never allowed any except his most intimate friends to know 
 his views on political subjects. 
 
 There can be no doubt that on that solemn occasion Dr. 
 Kunze spoke out of the fulness of his heart. He was per- 
 fectly qualified to appreciate the intellect and the heart, the 
 life-work and the character, of one with whom he had been 
 connected in so intimate a relation. And he has not said one 
 word too much. Muhlenberg was indeed a man of uncom- 
 mon mind, character, and work. Our readers will judge for 
 themselves. In accompanying him through the course of his 
 life we cannot but receive the impression that we have before 
 us a man of unusual gifts, and that by them he was eminently 
 fitted for an extraordinary work, the great practical task, the 
 mission of his life, which Providence had entrusted to him. 
 Among the people he had grown up. A man of the people, 
 a popular man in the very best sense of the term, he was ; 
 and this he had to be amid the crude material which he was 
 obliged to mould. But, popular as he was, there was no one 
 who in his presence did not feel that, like Saul, though in a 
 different sense, Muhlenberg " from his shoulders and upward 
 was higher than any of the people" (i Sam. ix. 2). About 
 him there was a dignity which could not but most favorably 
 impress even those who, as to social or official position, were 
 far above him, but in all essentials found him their equal, and 
 in many and weighty matters better than themselves. 
 
 One of the peculiar talents of Muhlenberg was his organ- 
 izing faculty. He believed in proper order as the conditio 
 sine qua non of all human relations, and especially in all 
 spheres of public duty. In most places in the American prov- 
 inces he found the Lutherans in a deplorable state of con- 
 
HENR Y MEL CHI OR MUHLENBER G. 531 
 
 fusion, but he properly organized them into congregations, 
 and as far as was in his power gave them a solid doctrinal 
 and constitutional basis ; and in this way he secured for them 
 a healthful progress. He knew that in every congregation 
 various forces and interests can easily come into conflict, but 
 he strove to balance the diverse elements and to give their 
 respective dues to the conservative and the progressive de- 
 mands, at the same time most firmly guarding against changes 
 of the doctrines of the Church. If in subsequent times neo- 
 logical and extraneous influences began to alter that basis 
 and to undermine the unity of the Lutheran Church in this 
 country, no one could justly claim H. M. Muhlenberg as 
 an advocate of new and extravagant measures in matters 
 of doctrine and practice. A proof of his clear understand- 
 ing of the value of social order is seen also in the organiza- 
 tion of the first Lutheran synod on this continent, and in the 
 order of service adopted in behalf of the congregations even 
 before the synod was organized. 
 
 That sense of order which in all relations guided Muhlen- 
 berg is observable also in his private life. To this his diaries, 
 regularly kept until the end of his days, testify, and especially 
 the long columns of accounts referring to the finances of his 
 congregations, to the various trusts under his hand, or to his 
 own family. Everything is found in its proper place, and at 
 any time could he give a good account of his stewardship 
 even in minute detail. He was no lawyer, but the legal forms 
 needed for documents referring to the rights and the obliga- 
 tions of congregations, and of individuals necessarily con- 
 nected with them, he had learned through experience, and 
 knew how to make good use of them in his pastoral rela- 
 tions. 
 
 It deserves to be mentioned that Muhlenberg's German 
 style was eminently plain, perspicuous, and vigorous. He 
 was a contemporary of Count Zinzendorf, the difference of 
 their age amounting to no more than eleven years. Both 
 these men who during their life-work met and came into 
 conflict on the same field of labor give opportunity for 
 
532 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 interesting comparison. In respect to German style the 
 preference is most decidedly on the side of Miihlenberg. 
 His German is remarkably pure and easy-flowing, while 
 Zinzendorf's prose teems with expressions borrowed from 
 the French, and proves that he accommodated himself to 
 the abominable practice of a perverse taste prevailing in 
 German literature in the times following the Thirty Years' 
 War and antecedent to Klopstock, Gellert, Lessing, Schiller, 
 and Goethe. Muhlenberg's style reflects the sound natural- 
 ness of his whole being, the clearness of his whole mind, the 
 strength of his common sense, and the manliness of his per- 
 sonality. And in this connection even his handwriting dare 
 not be left out of sight. It is characteristic of the man. 
 His firmness and, the decisive manner of his demeanor were 
 strongly expressed in those bold strokes of the pen in his 
 hand, and there is not the least difficulty in reading all the 
 extensive volumes of manuscript left by him as a valuable 
 historical legacy to future generations. 
 
 Artistic representations of H. M. Muhlenberg's face and 
 features which have come down to us undeniably correspond 
 with his mental framework and character. There is a win- 
 ning openness in the face; the forehead, remarkably large, 
 seems to be the field of operation for an active, clear, compre- 
 hensive, but peaceful mind ; a strong portion of good common 
 sense looks out through these eyes into the world ; while as a 
 whole the face indicates much natural kindness and unaffected 
 affability, not interfering with a certain humor playing around 
 the mouth and a positive decision and energy expressed by a 
 well-developed nose. This face, beaming forth from a full and 
 well-fashioned wig, bespeaks a dignity becoming the official 
 character of the man. It also at once introduces us to a per- 
 son of thoroughgoing intellectual culture and refinement. 
 
 It is proper to state that H. M. Muhlenberg's descendants 
 on the male and female sides form already such an extensive 
 circle that we were compelled to give up the attempt to fur- 
 nish our readers with a genealogical tree rooting in the vener- 
 able ancestor and rising up and branching out in all directions 
 
HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 533 
 
 before and during our times. We had occasion to refer to a 
 number of eminent descendants on the male side by whom 
 the name of Miihlenberg (frequently Muhlenberg) seems to 
 be secured for many generations to come. We also men- 
 tioned the Schulzes, Richardses, and Swaines, descendants 
 of daughters of the reverend father in Pennsylvania and be- 
 yond it, branching out into numerous families. We have yet 
 to allude to the descendants of the Rev. Dr. Kunze, whose 
 wife was a daughter of the venerable patriarch of the family 
 and the Church. Kunze's only son, a doctor of medicine, 
 died before his parents, but the daughters left a large prog- 
 eny socially occupying a high standing. One of them mar- 
 ried Casper Meyer, the founder of the mercantile house of 
 Oelrichs & Co. of New York. Gustavus Schwab, Esq., who 
 is a son of the German poet of this name and now the head 
 of the above firm, is married to a granddaughter of Mr. 
 Meyer, who is consequently a great-granddaughter of Rev. 
 Dr. Kunze. A second daughter married a Mr. Oakley, and 
 a third one Mr. Jacob Lorillard, dealer in leather, the founder 
 of the family of that name well known for its commercial 
 activity and wealth. But, extensive as is the range of these 
 descendants, stretching from Maryland to Massachusetts and 
 toward the West as far as California, only a part of them re- 
 tain their connection with the Church to the service of which 
 the venerable patriarch had devoted his life. 
 f We regretted to find, when some years ago visiting the 
 Orphan- House at Halle, that Muhlenberg's name had fallen 
 into oblivion. Even at Eimbeck, his native place, no monu- 
 ment, no tablet, recalls to citizens or strangers the name of 
 one of her most eminent sons. Nor in America does any 
 monument erected to the memory of Henry Melchior Muhl- 
 enberg remind future generations of the honor and grat- 
 itude in which he is held in the Lutheran Church of this 
 country. His grave at Providence alongside of Augustus 
 Church erected, like many others, through his influence 
 and labors is covered with a large slab of white marble. 
 There rest his mortal remains and those of the faithful 
 
534 LIFE AND TIMES OF H. M. MUHLENBERG. 
 
 partner of his life, who after long, patiently-endured suffer- 
 ing followed him (Aug. 3, 1802) to the mansions in the 
 Father's house. There is added to his name and the date 
 of his birth and death the inscription, " Who and what he 
 was future times will know without a monument of stone." 
 May our book contribute its share to verify that inscription ! 
 
 "BY FAITH HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH " (Heb. xi. 4). 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen University, 
 Scotland, 326. 
 
 Acrelius, Israel, Rev. Provost, 142, 243 
 sqq. (his relation to the united 
 German Lutheran pastors, and 
 influence upon the Swedish con- 
 gregations) ; 286, 311 (at the 
 German Lutheran Synod at New 
 Hanover). 
 
 Albany, N. Y. ; 254 sq. (Dutch Luther- 
 ans there); 411. 
 
 Allemaengel, Pa., 430. 
 
 Allen, William. 125, 330, 342, 400. 
 
 Allentown, Pa., 430. 
 
 Alsace, Berks co., Pa., 149. 
 
 Altenburg, Germany, 172. 
 
 Amasland (Kingsessing), Pa., 316. 
 
 Amsterdam, 254 sq. (Lutheran Consist- 
 ory there). 
 
 Ancram, N. Y., 253. 
 
 Andrese, J. C, 150, 213, 224, 234, 240, 
 257 sq., 260, 305. 
 
 Anne, queen of England, 61. 
 
 Anniversary of the arrival of Brunnholtz, 
 J. N. Kurtz, and Schaum, 241. 
 
 Arens, B. A., Rev., 255. 
 
 Armbruster, A., 335. 
 
 Armstrong, J., Col., 220. 
 
 Arndt, J., D.D., 232 ( True Christianity}. 
 
 Artern, Germany, 438. 
 
 Arthur, Rev., 259. 
 
 Augsburg, 41, 222, 392; 469 (Confes- 
 sion of). 
 
 Augustus Church at New Providence, 
 129; 206 (dedication); 289. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bager, J. Geo., Rev., 385 (biogr.). 
 Baierle, Jacob, 303, 305. 
 Baltimore, Md., 308, 410. 
 Bancroft, Geo., historian, 73. 
 Barclay, H., Rev., 269. 
 Bard, Patr., Dr., 125. 
 
 Barren Hill, Pa., 295, 375; 377 sqq. 
 
 (difficulties there) ; 452. 
 Beachy Head, 46. 
 Beaufort, S. C., 65. 
 Bechtel, J., Rev., 114. 
 Bedminster, N. J., 240, 312, 315, 382, 
 
 424. 
 
 Beissel, Conr., 145. 
 Benezet, J. S., 114, 125. 
 Bengal, J. A., D. D., 504. 
 Berzelius, Jac., archbishop, 243. 
 Bergmann, J. E., Rev., 514. 
 Berkeley, governor of Virginia, 60. 
 Berkenmeier, W. Chr., Rev., 151, 157 
 
 sq., 170, 226, 246, 249, 253, 258 
 
 292. 
 
 Bermudian (Permutschin), Pa., 201. 
 Bernheim, G. D., D. D., 461. 
 Bernville, see Northkill. - 
 
 Bethesda, near Savannah, Ga., 67. 
 Bethlehem, Pa., no, in, 116, 189, 
 
 245 ; 246 sq. (Miihlenberg's visit 
 
 there). 
 
 Bethany, Ga., 470. 
 Bible, first edition in German and in 
 
 English in America, 43. 
 Birkensee (Perkasie), Pa., 200, 240. 
 Blue Mountains, 204. 
 Boehler, Pet., Rev., 116. 
 Boehm, J. Phil., Rev., 1 13, 115, 142, 293. 
 Boehme, A. W., Rev., 37, 144, 226. 
 
 Martin, 522. 
 Boetticher, Rev., 29. 
 Bogatzky, Von, 172. 
 Bohemian Protestants, 20 sq. 
 Bolen, Conrad, 2. 
 Boltzius, J. M., Rev., 40, 41, 62, 65, 71, 
 
 74, 77, sq., 80 sq., 140, 267. 
 Book of Common Prayer, 325 (German 
 
 translation). 
 
 Borell, Andr., Rev., 345, 372, 385. 
 Borries, of Eimbeck, n. 
 Bottler's Mill, Pa., 320. 
 Brandt, Phil., 95 sq. 
 
 535 
 
536 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Braun, Baron von, 21. 
 
 Brunnholtz, P., Rev., 158 (arrival); 159 
 (early career) ; 161 (serves at Phil- 
 adelphia and Germantown) ; 164, 
 I 77> 198 (sick at Providence); 
 206, 213 (serves as secretary at 
 the first synodical meeting) ; 222 
 (again sick) ; 223 ( Muhlenberg' s 
 ^pinion of him) ; 227, 233 sq. 
 (kindness to strangers) ; 241 (an- 
 niversary of his arrival) ; 244 
 (meets Acrelius) ; 263, 300, 332 
 sq., 353, 354 (about officers of the 
 congregation); 355 (his death). 
 
 Brycelius, P. D., Rev., 179. 
 
 Budden, Captain, 400. 
 
 Bugnion, Jos., Rev., 80. 
 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim' 1 s Progress, 232. 
 
 Burgmann, Chr., Rev., 381. 
 
 Burgsdorf, Von, 20, 23. 
 
 Burkhardt, J. G., D. D., 513. 
 
 Buskirk, Jac. van, Rev. ; 321 sq. (biogr.) ; 
 
 350, 375> 383, 43, 5 2 4. 
 Lawr. van, 270, 276, 288. 
 Butjender, H. A., Rev., 38, 41. 
 Biittner, G., Rev., 146 sq. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cammerhof, J. C. Fr., bishop, 181, 186, 
 246. 
 
 Camp-on-the-Hudson, 199, 250, 256 
 (West Camp). 
 
 Candler, Dav., Rev., 188, 194, 385. 
 
 Canstein, Von, 15, 518 (Canstein Bible 
 Society). 
 
 Carlisle, Pa., 385. 
 
 Casant, town, 41. 
 
 Catechists, 159; 185 (their duties and 
 rights). 
 
 Catechization with young and old, 289. 
 
 Cellarius, Councillor, 14. 
 
 Chandler, Saml., D. D., 330. 
 
 Chandler, Th. Bradbury, D. D., 347. 
 
 Charity schools in Pennsylvania, 326 
 sqq. ; 334 sq. (where located) ; 
 335 (German periodical connect- 
 ed with the school plan) ; 355. 
 
 Charles V., 4. 
 
 Charleston, S. C., 61, 79 sqq., 455, 
 
 459 s qq- 
 
 Child, Captain, 101. 
 Christ Church at Philadelphia, in, 125. 
 at Tulpehoken, Pa., 146 sq., 149, 
 179, 1 86; 206 (church dedica- 
 tion). 
 
 at New York, 308, 382, 386. 
 Christina (Wilmington), Delaware, 105, 
 107, 243,351. 
 
 Christian Ernest of Saxony- Salfeld, 172. 
 
 Churchtown, N. Y., 257. 
 
 Codorus Creek, Pa., 188. 
 
 Cohansey, N. J., 1 60, 205, 351, 382, 387. 
 
 Colchester, town, 36. 
 
 Collin, Nic., Rev., 451 sq. 
 
 Conestoga, Pa., 144, 383. 
 
 Conewago, Pa., 190, 196, 201, 385. 
 
 Conferences held by Zinzendorf in Penn- 
 sylvania, 81, in, 145; 475 (Lu- 
 therans at New York). 
 
 Confessions, see Symbolical Books. 
 
 Confirmation, 395. 
 
 Constitution of the Philadelphia German 
 Lutheran congregation ; 353 sqq. 
 (its history 'up to the times of 
 Muhlenberg) ; 365, 369 (framing 
 of a new constitution). 
 
 Contributions from Europe, 140, 301, 
 3.05, 379* 38o. 
 
 Conventicles, 398. 
 
 Cook, the Spanish, 44, 55 sqq. 
 
 Cressap War, 216. 
 
 Crusius, Chr. A., D. D., 503. 
 
 Currie, W., Rev., 483. 
 
 D. 
 
 Darmstadt, Germany, 241. 
 
 Daser, Fred., Rev., 459 sqq. 
 
 Delegates to synod, 212 sqq. 
 
 Denny, W., Gov., 220. 
 
 De Ronda, Rev., 270. 
 
 Deventer, town, 34. 
 
 Deyling, D. D., 18. 
 
 Diel, Geo., 492. 
 
 Dieren, J. B. van, 226, 256, 259. 
 
 Dohna, Von, 12. 
 
 Dover, 45. 
 
 Driesler, J. U., Rev., 68, 81. 
 
 Du Bois, Rev., 270. 
 
 Duche, Jacob, D. D., 344. 
 
 Dulany, Dan., 309. 
 
 Dunkers, 218, 237. 
 
 Dutch Lutherans at Charleston, S. C., 6l. 
 
 on the Raritan River, N. J., 151. 
 
 on the Hudson, 151. 
 
 at New York, 151, 249, 256, 261 sq. 
 (letter to H. M. Muhlenberg; 
 his answer) ; 263 (a call given 
 him); 451. 
 
 at Hackensack, N. J., 151. 
 Dutchmen of the Schoharie Valley, 167 sq. 
 Dylander, J., Rev., 101, 112, 142, 175, 
 
 353- 
 
 E. 
 
 Earltown (New Holland), Pa., 149, 174; 
 183 (organization of a Lutheran 
 
INDEX. 
 
 537 
 
 congregation); 188, 351 (resi- 
 dence of J. C. Stoever, Jr.). 
 J Easton, Pa., 160; 200 (visited by H. M. 
 
 Miihlenberg) ; 240, 309, 430. 
 Ebenezer, Ga., 40, 41 ; 70 sq. (begin- 
 nings) ; 75, 37> 444 sqq. (diffi- 
 culties there). 
 Egle,W.H., Dr., 1 73. 
 Eimbeck, town : 
 
 locality and history, I, 2. 
 
 relation to Lutheranism, 2. 
 
 schools, 5, 6. 
 
 members of council, 7. 
 
 orthodox zealots, 30 sqq. 
 
 family of Miihlenberg, 3 sqq., 284, 
 
 400. 
 
 Elders, 214 (delegates to synod). 
 Elizabeth, queen of England, 275. 
 Elizabeth Furnace, Pa., 383. 
 Endress, Chr. Fr. L., D. D., 417. 
 Eneberg, John, Rev., 350. 
 Engelland, J. Th., 307, 334. 
 English versus German, 418 sq., 514. 
 English Baptists in Pennsylvania; 320 
 (H. M. Muhlenberg preaches to 
 them). 
 
 Ephrata, Pa., in, 145, 180, 217, 245. 
 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, 268. 
 Erich, duke of Brunswick, 2. 
 Erlangen, University of, 228. 
 Eschenbach, Andrew, 144. 
 Evangelical Magazine, 418. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fabricius, Jac., Rev., 255, 350. 
 Seb. Andr., 518. 
 J. Phil., Rev., 518. 
 
 Falk, Gabr., Rev., 179. 
 Falkner, Justus, Rev., 151, 252. 
 
 Falkner Swamp, see New Hanover. 
 
 "Fathers" in Europe, 170, 171, 179, 
 203 ; 206 (relation of the German 
 Lutheran Church in - Pennsyl- 
 vania to them) ; 223, 239, 262, 
 285, 303, 352, 381, 388, 399, 491. 
 
 Feilestown, N. Y., 411. 
 
 Fellingsbro, Sweden, 245. 
 
 Firmian, L. A., bishop, 41. 
 
 Fisher, Sebast, 147. 
 
 Fieri, John, 468. 
 
 Fliigge, Rev., 32. 
 
 Hushing, N. Y., 258, 279. 
 
 Forks (Easton), 240. 
 
 " Formula of Concord," 2, 17, 32. 
 
 Fort Duquesne in Pennsylvania, 21 8 sq. 
 
 Fosseberg, N. J., 205. 
 
 Francke, H. A., D. D., 8, 14, 41, 273. 
 G. A., D. D., 14, 21, 40, 119, 145, 
 
 171, 209, 241, 287, 352; 381 (his 
 
 death); 494. 
 Francke, Mrs. Henr, 21. 
 Frank, J., Rev., 238, 487. 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, 224. 
 Franklin, Benj., 92, 326, 330, 333, 
 
 335- 
 
 Frederica, Ga., 68, 82. 
 Frederick I., king of Prussia, 9. 
 IV. of Denmark, 16. 
 the Great, 320. 
 Frederick, Md., 188, 191, 194 sq., 308, 
 
 411. 
 French (Huguenots) at Charleston, S. C., 
 
 82. 
 
 the; 217 (their encroachments). 
 Fresenius, J. Ph., D. D., 241, 284. 
 Frey, John, 496. 
 Freylinghausen, G. A., D. D., 381, 475, 
 
 49?, 518. 
 
 Friderici, J. A., catechist, 229, 430. 
 Friederichs, J. G., Rev., 82, 464. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaensel, Matthias, 305. 
 General Council, 500. 
 Gensau, Hartmann von, 159. 
 George I. of England, I. 
 
 II. of England, 40, 65. 
 Georgia, 40. 
 
 German Benevolent Society of Pennsyl- 
 vania, 403 ; of Charleston, S. C., 
 463, 484 sq. 
 
 immigration into Pennsylvania, 217, 
 
 327, 403- 
 Lutheran congregations; 359 sq. . 
 
 (their diverse elements). 
 Reformed, the, 94, 133, 142, 292, 
 
 353, 404. 
 
 Germann, W., D. D., 394, 423. 
 
 Germanjown, 91, 100, 112, 115, 142, 
 150, 191 ; 206 (church enlarged) ; 
 2 57 sc l-> 3 sc iq- (Handschuh 
 pastor) ; 302 sqq. (rebellion) ; 308 
 (reunited with synod) ; 350, 353, 
 
 375, 376, 393, 452. 
 Gerock, J. S., Rev., 235 ; 307 sq. (biogr.) ; - 
 
 310 (at Lancaster visited by H. 
 
 M. Miihlenberg); 373 (visits New 
 
 York ; is called there) ; 382,410. 
 Gerresheim, Fr., Rev., 514. 
 Gersdorf, Baron von, 21 sq. 
 
 Baroness von, 17, 19, 1 1 6, 122. 
 Gestricia, Sweden, 174. 
 Gichtelians, the, 94. 
 GlanhcnslieJ, by Ziegenhagen, 2OI. 
 Goeking, G. G. G. ; 503 (history of the 
 
 Salzburg emigration). 
 
538 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Goeranson, Andr., Rev. ; 421 sqq., 448 
 
 451. 
 
 Goering, Jac., Rev., 412. 
 
 Gottingen, University of, 7 sqq.; stu- 
 dents' life there, 8. 
 
 Goetwater, J. E., Rev., 254. 
 
 Goetz, Mrs. Dr., 27. 
 
 Goshen, Ga., 470. 
 
 Goshenhoppen (Old), Pa., 133, 149, 
 150; 286 (New); 329 (Roman 
 Catholic chapel). 
 
 Graaf, Will., Rev., 316 sq., 321; 322 
 (biogr.) ; 448, 45 2 , 486. 
 
 Graba, in Saxony-Meiningen, 172. 
 
 Gradin, Aroin, 175. 
 
 Gravesend, town, 41, 44. 
 
 Groessmann, J. N., 140. 
 
 Gronau, I. Chr., Rev., 41, 62, 65, 69, 71, 
 77, 470. 
 
 Grosshennersdorf, 16, 18 sq., 35, 98, 116, 
 
 122. 
 
 Grotz, Ph. J., Rev., 450, 453 sq. (Mtihl- 
 
 enberg addresses him). 
 Gwynedd, Pa., 322. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hackensack, N. J., 227, 255 sq., 271 
 sqq., 288 sqq., 317 sq. 
 
 Hahnbaum, J. T., Rev., 461. 
 
 Halberstadt, Germany, 353. 
 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia; 325 (German con- 
 gregation). 
 
 Halle, town, 8, 12, 276. 
 
 centre of Pietism, 15, 28. 
 University of, 224, 286, 385, 407. 
 
 Hallenses, 122, 170, 246, 298, 304,346, 
 378, 410, 413. 
 
 Halle Reports, 131 sq., 150, 239, 284, 
 344, 346, 371, 402, 457, 518. 
 
 Hanau, Germany, 224. 
 
 Handschuh, J. Fr., Rev.; 171 sq. (early 
 years); 173, 178 (arrival in 
 America) ; call to Lancaster, 
 Pa.) ; 184 (serves Lancaster and 
 Earltown); 200, 212 (dedication 
 sermon at Philadelphia) ; 241, 
 263 sq.; 299 sqq. (marriage; re- 
 moval to Germantown; 335 (at 
 Philadelphia) ; 355 (his engage- 
 ments there ; elected pastor) ; 
 356 sqq. (his labors and difficul- 
 ties) ; 386, 401 (his death). 
 'Hanover (McAllistertown), Pa., 188. 
 
 Hartel, C. R., Captain, 268, 283. 
 
 Hartwig, J. C., Rev. ; 199 (visits Mtthl- 
 enberg at Providence) ; 205, 206, 
 212; 246 sqq. (his field of labor 
 on the Hudson ; difficulties) ; 248 
 
 sqq. (Muhlenberg's visit) ; 258, 
 259; 263 (temporarily in Penn- 
 sylvania) ; 266 sq., 292, 296, 350 ; 
 403 sq. (his preaching in the Ger- 
 man . Reformed church at Phil- 
 adelphia) ; 449. 
 
 Hattorf, Frau von, 31. 
 
 Hausihl (Hauseal) B. M., Rev.; 195 
 (at Monocacy) ; 308 (addresses H. 
 M. Mtihlenberg) ; 309 (biogr.) ; 
 
 3 I2 3 8 3 387,404, 45 I- 
 Hebron Church, Va., 238, 486 sq. 
 Hedstrand, Rev., 174. 
 Hegeblad, Rev., 345. 
 Heidelberg, near Reading, 149, 221, 323, 
 
 384- 
 
 Heilbronn, Wiirtemberg, 266, 309. 
 
 Heintzelmann, S. P., U. S. A., 148. 
 J. D. M., Rev., 285 sq. ; 355 (his 
 
 death). 
 Israel, 286, 465. 
 
 Helen's, St. (Isle of Wight), 46. 
 
 Henkel, Gerhard, Rev., 238, 350. 
 Paul, Rev., 238, 487. 
 
 Henkel, Von, 12, 23, 26. 
 
 Helmstedt, Germany, 292. 
 
 Helmuth, J. H. Chr., D. D. ; 375 sq. 
 (biogr.); 415 sqq., 417 (at Lan- 
 caster and Philadelphia); 418 (as 
 a preacher) ; 435, 440 (called to 
 Philadelphia); 450, 517, 524; 
 525 sq. (memorial sermon after 
 H. M. Miihlenberg's death). 
 
 Hering, Mr., of Rotterdam, 34 sq. 
 
 Herrnhut, 17, 116, 121. 
 
 Hess, J. Jac., Rev., 503. 
 
 Hesse-Darmstadt, 301. 
 
 Hesselius, Rev., 244. 
 
 History of New Sweden, 245. 
 
 Hobson, F. G. ; 202 (Providence Inde- 
 pendent}; 493, 521 sq. 
 
 Hockheimer, E., Rev., 460. 
 
 Hofgut, J. L., 256. 
 
 Hollanders, Lutheran; 227 .(in New 
 York); 230 (in Curacao). 
 
 Hopkins, Mrs., and her child baptized, 
 204. 
 
 Horkheim, Wiirtemberg, 148. 
 
 Hornbach, Germany, 150. 
 
 Home,* Van, Rev., 404. 
 
 Hunter, Governor, 1 66 sq. 
 
 Button, James, 124. 
 
 I. 
 
 [Isenburg, town, 29. 
 [ndianfield, Pa., 149, 240, 286. 
 [ndians in Georgia, 66, 72. 
 in South Carolina, 62, 79. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 539 
 
 tndians in Pennsylvania, 90, 145, 167, 
 
 217 sqq., 336. 
 
 in New York (Mohawk), 167. 
 in Canada, 246. 
 missions among them, 66, 67, no, 
 
 199, 425. 
 give H. M. Muhlenberg a peculiar 
 
 name, 198. 
 Inspired, the, 94. 
 
 In-the- Valley," N. J., 312, 382. 
 Isenburg, Von, 1 1. 
 
 J- 
 
 Jacobi, Chr., 377. 
 
 James, St., chapel in London, 37. 
 
 Jena, University of, 12. 
 
 Jenney, Rob., Rev., 108. 
 
 Jerusalem Church at Ebenezer, Ga., 467 
 
 sqq., 470, 476. 
 Jones, Rev., 65. 
 
 Jung (Young), J. G., Rev., 383, 430. 
 Junker, Prof., M, D., 13. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kalm, Pet., Prof., 216 sq. 
 
 Kalteisen, Mr., 460. 
 
 Keppele, H., elder, 233, 286; 368 (treas- 
 urer of the Philadelphia German 
 Lutheran congregation) ; 378, 
 397, 400. 
 Henry, Jr., 400. 
 
 Kiderlin, G. M., 74. 
 
 Kimbel, Jas., 459. 
 
 Kingsessing, near Philadelphia, 380. 
 
 Kingston, N. Y., 248, 254. 
 
 Kirckenbuch, 500, 522. 
 , Kittanning, Pa., 220. 
 
 Klosterbergen, Germany, 1 7, 439. 
 
 Klug, G. S., Rev., 236 sq., 486. 
 
 Knapp, J. Geo., D. D., 381, 430, 439. 
 
 Knoll, M. Chr., Rev., 151 sqq., 157, 
 249, 256, 271. 
 
 Kocher, J. G., 73. 
 
 Kocherthal, Josh., Rev., 255. 
 
 Kock, Peter, 100, 101, 105, 106, 123, 
 
 75- 
 
 Koestritz, town, 12, 21, 26. 
 Konigsberg, Germany, 286. 
 Kraeuter, Ph. D., D. D., 249, 251. 
 Kraft, J. V., Rev., 95, 96, 97 sqq., IO2, 
 109, 115, 126, 127, 146, 174, 183 
 sq., 194; 309 (his death); 352. 
 Kreuz Creek, Pa., 187, "188. 
 Krug, J. A., Rev.; 409 sqq. (biogr.) ; 
 
 428 (his visit to Virginia) ; 450. 
 Kuhn, Dan., 423. 
 
 J- 355- 
 Kunze, J. Chr., D. D., 10, 288, 308 (pas- 
 
 tor at Philadelphia) ; 408, 430 
 (arrival from Europe) ; 438 sqq. 
 (biogr.); 440 (called to New 
 York); 441 sq. (his literary ac- 
 tivity); 446, 480, 497, 517, 526 
 sqq. (memorial sermon after H. 
 M. Miihlenberg's death). 
 Kurtz, J. N., Rev., 158 (arrival); 159, 
 170 (visits the Raritan congre- 
 gations); 1 78 (labors as catechist 
 at Tulpehoken, Northkill, and 
 Lancaster); 185, 197 sq., 200, 
 20 1 (his marriage) ; 204 (visits 
 again the Raritan congregations) ; 
 206 sqq. (his examination, ordi- 
 nation, etc.) ; 21 1, 241, 263 (pas- 
 tor at Tulpehoken) ; 300, 323, 
 348, 367 (on a tour of church- 
 visitation with Wrangel); 374 sq. 
 (serves temporarily at German- 
 town) ; 408 (called to York); 
 487. 
 
 J. D., Rev., 308. 
 
 W., Rev., 314,315; 374 (biogr.); 
 387, 510 sq. (letter of H. M. 
 Muhlenberg). 
 
 L. 
 
 Lancaster, Pa.; 142, 165, 173 sq. 
 (county and city) ; 1 74 sqq. (Ny- 
 berg's agitation) ; 176 sq. (Muhl- 
 enberg's influence) ; 178 (Mora- 
 vian church erected) ; 1 78 (Kurtz 
 labors as catechist) ; 181 sqq. 
 (Handschuh accepted as pastor) ; 
 1 86 (condition of the congrega- 
 tion); 197 sq., 241, 300, 404 
 (church dedication). 
 
 Langendorf, town, 26. 
 
 Langenfeld, Rev., 170. 
 
 Langerfeld, J. A., 112, 353. 
 
 Langhorn, Jerem., 340. 
 
 Lawrence, Th., 125. 
 
 Lebanon (see Quitopahilla), Pa., 385. 
 
 Lederer, J., explorer of both Carolinas, 
 60 sq. 
 
 Lehmann, Dan., Rev., 524. 
 
 Leipsic, 17, 439. 
 
 Lembke, H. H., Rev., 71, 470. 
 
 Leps, J. Chr., Rev., 440. 
 
 Lesly's Land, N. J., 205. 
 
 Leutbecker, Casp., 144. 
 
 Liberda, Rev., 20. 
 
 Lidenius, J. A., Rev., 316. 
 
 Lidman, J., Rev., 351. 
 
 Lindner, D. D., 172. 
 
 Lischy, Jac., Rev., 186, 188 sq. 
 
 Liturgy; 184 sq. (framed by Muhlen- 
 
540 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 berg, Handschuh, and Brunn- 
 
 holtz); 392, 500. 
 Livingston family, 250. 
 Lochman, J. G., I). D., 417. 
 Loeser, J. J., 160, 171, 185 sqq.; 200 
 
 (called to Lancaster) ; 201 (his 
 
 marriage), 
 feogan, James, 125. 
 London, 36 sqq., 276. 
 Loonenburg (Athens), N. Y., 253, 255, 
 
 259, 453- 
 
 Lorillarcl, Jacob, 533. 
 Losonz, Ref. school in Hungary, 233. 
 Lower Dublin, Pa., 307. 
 Liibeck, Germany, 422. 
 Liineburg, Germany, 228. 
 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 287, 325 sq. 
 Ludwig, Christopher, 485. 
 Luft, Rev., at Charleston, S. C, 82. 
 Luther, Martin, 2; 201 ("Small Cate- 
 chism"), 281, 289, 319. 
 Lutheran and Episcopal churches, 391. 
 -Lutheran Dutch congregation; 151 sqq. 
 (at New York and on the Upper 
 Hudson). 
 
 Lutheran German congregation at Phila- 
 delphia, 101, 107; 151 (on the 
 Raritan). 
 
 Lutheran Swedish congregation at Phil- 
 adelphia, 101, 365, 452. 
 Lutherans in South Carolina, 460 sqq. 
 at Charleston, S. C., 62. 
 at Savannah, Ga., 69 sq. 
 at Freclerica, Ga., 71. 
 at Ebenezer, Ga., 66 sqq. 
 in Pennsylvania, 94. 
 at Philadelphia, 95, 101, 1 12, 350 
 
 sqq. 
 
 in New Jersey, 150 sqq., 165, 382. 
 in the Mohawk Valley, 171, 454. 
 at New York, 227, 254 sqq., 308. 
 in Virginia, 236 sqq. 
 at Hackensack, N. J., 272 sqq. 
 at Baltimore, Md., 308. 
 in Maryland, 310, 
 
 M. 
 
 McAllistertown, see Hanover. 
 Macclenachan, Will., Rev., 341, 385. 
 Macungie, Pa., 200, 258, 311, 430. 
 Maertens (Martini), C. F., surgeon, 310, 
 
 366. 
 
 Magaw, Saml., D. D., 333. 
 Magens, J. M., 258, 261, 279. 
 Malander, J., 142. 
 
 Manathanim (Manatawney), Pa., 316. 
 Manchester, Pa., 238. 
 T- Mannheim, Pa., 384. 
 
 Mansfeld, Germany, 413. 
 Marburg hymnbook, 288. 
 Marienburg in Transylvania, 232. 
 Marsteller,.Fred., 106, 241, 304. 
 Martin, J. N., Rev., 459. 
 
 Colonel, 326. 
 Maryland ; 309 sq. (union of Church and 
 
 State). 
 Mary's, St., Church in Savoy, London, 
 
 39- 
 
 Matetscha, Pa., 144. 
 Matthison, Mr., 39,41. 
 Maul, Barthol., 189, 196. 
 Mayer, Ph. Fred., D. D., 419. 
 
 S. M., 309. 
 McClellan, Capt., 42. 
 Melsheimer, F. V., Rev., 412. 
 Mennonites, 94, 218, 397. 
 Mentzer, Balsh., D. D., 25. 
 Methodism, 67, 72, 290 sq. (disturbances 
 
 occasioned by it) ; 341, 501 sq. 
 Meurer, J. Ph., Rev., 146 sq. 
 Meyer, Caspar, 533. 
 
 Justus Fred., 400. 
 
 Michaelis, J. D., D. D., 36, 38, 366, 504. 
 
 Michael's, St., Church (at Philadelphia), 
 
 134, 206; 211 sq. (dedication); 
 
 214, 266 (organ dedicated); 293, 
 
 345. 3 8 9> 401 sqq., 424, 489. 
 
 Church (at Germantown), 142, 
 
 246; 301 (enlargement); 452. 
 Millen, Stephan, 465. 
 Ministerium, German Lutheran, see Syn- 
 od. 
 
 Moeller, H., Rev., 450, 456, 486 sq. 
 Mohawk Indians, 167. 
 Molatton, Pa., 179, 204, 239, 316. 
 Monocacy, river and locality in Mary- 
 land, 1 88 sq., 191, 194. 
 Moravians in Georgia, 66, 116. 
 
 in Pennsylvania, nosq., 141, 146, 
 157, 165, 175 sq., 180 sq., 189, 
 191, 193,200; 195 (Miihlenberg's 
 opinion of them); 213, 218, 243, 
 247, 324, 328, 397. 
 Morris, Gov., 219, 328. 
 Mosellem, Pa., 149, 307. 
 Moser, J. Jac., 504. 
 Mosheim, J. L., D. D., 503. 
 Mountain church, N. J., 205. 
 Miihlberg, town, 4. 
 Muhlenberg, H. M., D. D. : 
 Birth, I. 
 
 Parents and other relatives, 3. 
 Ancestry, 4. 
 School years, 4 sqq. 
 Death of his father, 6. 
 Progress in linguistics and music, 6. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 541 
 
 Muhlenberg at Zellerfeld, 7. 
 
 At Gottingen, 7 sqq. 
 _ Influences of friendship, 8. 
 Private secretary to Prof. Dr. Opo- 
 rin, 9 sq. 
 
 - In polite circles, 10. 
 
 Engaged in charity-school work, 
 
 IO sq. 
 
 - Preaches and catechises, II. 
 Leaves Gottingen, 12. 
 At the Orphan-House at Halle, 
 12 sq. 
 
 ~ Acquires knowledge of the medical 
 
 art, 13. 
 
 Intended as a missionary for East 
 
 India, 14, 15. 
 
 Call to Grosshennersdorf, 1 6. 
 Examination and ordination, 17 sq. 
 ~ Duties and labors at Grosshenners- 
 dorf, iQsq., 35. 
 ~ . , Call to the dispersed Lutherans in 
 
 Pennsylvania, 21. 
 -. Publication in defence of Pietism, 
 
 24 sqq. 
 Departure from Grosshennersdorf, 
 
 26. 
 
 Arrival at Halle, 27. 
 Departure from Halle, 28. 
 * Experiences at Eimbeck, 30 sqq. 
 Travel through Holland to London, 
 
 32 sqq. 
 
 Sojourning at London, 36 sqq. 
 Intercourse with Dr. Ziegenhagen, 
 
 39- 
 
 - Call to the three united congrega- 
 
 tions in Pennsylvania, 39. 
 Request to visit Ebenezer, Ga., 40. 
 Voyage across the Atlantic, 43 sqq. 
 Fellow-passengers, 44 sqq. 
 Want of drinkable water, 48 sq. 
 Arrival at Charleston, S. C., 49, 60. 
 Sufferings by sea-sickness, 49 sq. ' 
 Influence upon the passengers, 50 
 
 sqq. 
 
 Religious services, 5 2 sqq. 
 Conversation with the Spanish cook, 
 
 55 sqq. 
 
 - Meeting negro slaves, 62 sq., 289 sq. 
 Departure for Georgia, 63 sqq. 
 Incidents of the voyage, 64 sq. 
 Sojourn at Savannah and Ebenezer, 
 
 69 sqq. 
 
 Departure with Boltzius to Charles- 
 ton, 77. 
 
 Waiting at Charleston, 79 sqq. 
 
 Embarks for Philadelphia, 82. 
 
 Incidents and sufferings during the 
 voyage, 83 sqq. 
 
 Miihlenberg's arrival at Philadelphia, 86. 
 
 Physical and mental fitness, 87 sqq. 
 ^ First steps in Philadelphia, 94. 
 
 Sets out for New Hanover and New 
 Providence, 96. 
 
 Preaches at New Hanover, 98. 
 
 Visits New Providence, 99. 
 
 Returns to Philadelphia, 99. 
 
 First sermons in Philadelphia, 
 101. * 
 
 Begins pastoral work, 104. 
 
 Is accepted by the three united con- 
 gregations, 105 sqq. 
 
 Meets Count Zinzendorf, 117 sqq. 
 
 Pastoral work in the three united 
 congregations, 128 sqq., 138 sqq. 
 
 Teaches German and English, 130 
 sq. 
 
 Contributes to the Halle Reports, 
 131 sq. 
 
 Avoids the erection of so-called 
 union churches, 133, 142. 
 
 His outward circumstances, 139 sqq. 
 
 Is called to a place west of the 
 Schuylkill, 141. 
 
 His services requested at German- 
 town, 142 sq. 
 
 His attention directed to Tulpe- 
 hoken, 143. 
 
 His interest is claimed for the Lu- 
 therans in the Raritan congrega- 
 tions, I5osqq., 170 sq., 324. 
 
 His repeated visits there, 1 53 sqq., 
 205, 239, 313, 314, 315 sqq., 
 320 sq., 323, 382 sq., 429 sq. 
 
 Desires and receives colaborers from 
 Halle, 158. 
 
 Takes charge of the country con- 
 gregations, 161. 
 
 His acquaintance with J. C. Weiser, 
 Jr., and marriage, 161 sqq., 431. 
 
 Visits Lancaster, Pa., 165. 
 
 Visited by J. C. Weiser, Sr., i66sq. 
 
 Brought into connection with Lan- 
 caster, Pa., 176 sq., 197. 
 
 Begins to preach at Molatton, 179, 
 
 239- 
 Concerned about his father-in-law, 
 
 1 79 sqq. 
 Engaged in framing a liturgy, 184 
 
 sq. 
 On a missionary-tour to York and 
 
 Frederick, Md., 187, 189 sqq., 
 
 196 sq.; again, 309 sq. ; 417 
 
 (Lancaster and York). 
 He uses the Symbolical Books of 
 
 the Lutheran Church as evidences 
 
 of the truth, 189, 191, 192. 
 
542 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Muhlenberg uses discipline as to admis- 
 sion to the Lord's Supper, 196 sq. 
 ^* Visits Lutherans at Upper Milford, 
 Saccum, etc., 199, 200, 204, 239, 
 265. 
 
 ~ Preaches in English and German at 
 New Providence and Hanover, 
 202. 
 Pastoral cares, 202 sq., 284, 287, 
 
 296, 318 sq., 324, 465. 
 ^Correspondence, 203^284, 339, 341, 
 
 45 3 sq-, 455, 505 sqq., 514. 
 
 f^r At the first synodical meeting, 21 1 
 
 sqq. ; presiding officer, 212. 
 
 His Christian optimism, 215. 
 
 His benevolent interest in Wey- 
 gand, Schrenk, aud Raus, 224 
 sqq., 227 sq., 233 sqq. ; in W. 
 Graaf, 316 sq. 
 
 Visits Hartwig's congregations on 
 the Hudson, 244 sqq. 
 
 Is interested in the Lutherans in 
 Virginia, 237. 
 
 He travels with J. C. Weiser, Jr., 
 to the Upper Hudson, and tries 
 to pacify Hartwig's congregations, 
 246 sqq. 
 
 Visits New York; 257 sqq. (first 
 visit) ; he preaches to the Dutch 
 Lutherans, meets Berkenmeier, 
 is called to the old Dutch Lu- 
 theran church, 261 sqq. ; 266 sq. 
 (second visit) ; preaches in Dutch, 
 English, and German; 288 sqq. 
 (third visit); 313 (fourth visit); 
 382 (fifth visit) ; 450 sq. (sixth 
 visit). 
 
 His relation to clergymen of other 
 denominations, 292, 294. 
 
 Growing extent of his influence, 
 
 296. 
 
 *His family, 316, 325, 367, 399; 
 400 (departure of the three sons 
 to Halle). 
 
 Call to Nova Scotia, 325. 
 """* His interest in the education of the 
 youth of the Church, plan of an 
 orphan-house, 325 sq., 381 sq. 
 ""~*His relation to the charity schools 
 in Pennsylvania, 326 sqq. ; letter 
 to B. Franklin, 333. 
 ' Is made a trustee of the corporation 
 for the relief of Widows and 
 Children of the Episcopal Church, 
 336 ; a doctor of divinity, 496. 
 
 Distinguished visitors at Providence, 
 339 sqq. (Rich. Peters) ; 342 sqq. 
 (Ch. M. Wrangel). 
 
 Muhlenberg moves to Philadelphia, 349 
 sqq. ; causes which led to this 
 change, 357 sqq.; he acts as a 
 peace-maker, 368 sqq ; his ser- 
 vices in framing a new constitu- 
 tion, 369 sqq. 
 
 In embarrassment about St. Peter's 
 at Barren Hill, 377 sqq. 
 
 Is presiding officer of synod, 371 
 sq. ; he visits congregations, 382 
 sqq. ; his frequent absences from 
 Philadelphia cause murmurings, 
 386 sq. ; his title Senior, 448. 
 
 His relation to Pietism, 392 sq. ; 
 
 to Neology, Rationalism, etc., 
 504 sq. 
 
 His autobiography (in part), 394. 
 
 His diaries, 521, 531. . 
 
 On confirmation, 395. 
 
 On politics, 396 sqq, ; 483 sq., on 
 G. Washington, 485 sq. 
 
 Moves again to Providence, 440, 
 490 sqq. 
 
 Second visit to Ebenezer, Ga., 443 
 s qq-> 457 sqq. ; record of it, 457 
 sqq. 
 
 Malignant reports about him, 481 
 sqq. 
 
 Retires from pastoral activity, 490 
 sqq. ; loss of hearing, general in- 
 firmity, 494 sqq., 519; his resig- 
 nation of the Philadelphia con- 
 gregation, 497 sqq. 
 
 Collects hymns for the Synodical 
 hymn-book, 499 sqq. 
 
 His reading and meditating, 502 
 sqq. 
 
 Respect shown to him, 517 sq. 
 
 His last will, 521. 
 
 His death, 523. _ 
 
 Honors done to him after death, 
 5 23 sqq. 
 
 Memorial sermons of Helmuth and 
 Kunze", 525 sqq. 
 
 Retrospect and estimation of the 
 character, intellect, and labors 
 of H. M. Muhlenberg, 530 sqq. 
 Muhlenberg, Anna Eve, 286. 
 
 Anna Mary, 163 sq., 367, 379 sq., 
 520, 534- 
 
 Eve Elizabeth, 203, 407. 
 
 Fred. Aug. Conr., 240 sq., 400 ; 430 
 (return from Halle); 431 (exam- 
 ination and ordination) ; 432 (pas- 
 tor of Christ Church, New York) ; 
 433 (quits the church-service) ; 
 450 sq., 514 (expected at Eben- 
 ezer, Ga.); 518. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 543 
 
 Muhlenberg, H. Chr., 284. 
 
 G. H. E., D.D., 383, 400, 412, 
 430 (return from Halle); 431 
 (examination and ordination) ; 
 435 (in the pastoral office in New 
 Jersey and assistant in Philadel- 
 phia) ; 436 (elected third pastor 
 in the Philadelphia congrega- 
 tion); 437 (call to Lancaster; 
 his renown as a botanist) ; 446, 
 480, 497, 499, SHsq. (his let- 
 ters to his father) ; 516 (elected 
 president of synod) ; 524. 
 
 J. P. G. ; 165 (birth) ; 238, 321, 383, 
 400, 422 sqq. (in pastoral work) ; 
 428 (ordained at London) ; 428 
 sq. (his patriotism) ; 485, 486 sq., 
 518. 
 
 J. Arndt, 284. 
 
 F. A., M. D. ; Hon. H. A. ; H. H., 
 M. D.; F. A., D. D.; W. A., 
 D. D., 438. 
 Muller, H., publisher, 364, 398. 
 
 Wickard, 377. 
 Miinchhausen, Von, 10. 
 
 N. 
 
 Naesman, Gabr., Rev.,, 174, 178, 194, 
 
 212, 244. 
 
 Naumann, teacher, 285. 
 Nautschau, Germany, 439. 
 Nazareth, Pa., 116, 247. 
 Negro slaves ; 68 sq. (in Georgia) ; 289. 
 Neill, Hugh, Rev., 344. 
 Neusahl, Lutheran college in Hungary, 
 
 233- 
 
 Neustadt (Newtown), Va., 411. 
 
 New Amsterdam (New York), 61 ; see 
 New York. 
 
 New Brunswick, N. J., 259. 
 
 Newburg, N. Y., 256. 
 
 Newbury, Mass., 67. 
 
 New Germantown, N. J., 240, 312, 382, 
 
 424, 447. 
 
 New Hanover, Pa., 95, 112, 135, 2g2_: 
 206 (school-house erected) ; 255 
 (first German Lutheran congrega- 
 tion in America) ; 263, 311. 
 
 New Holland, see Ear/town. 
 
 New Market, Va., 238. 
 
 New Providence (Trappe), Pa., 95, 161, 
 202, 206 (church dedication) ; 
 241, 265, 289, 338 sq., 492, sqq., 
 
 524. 
 
 New York City, 227 (Lutherans from 
 Holland there) ; 254 sqq. ; 256 
 (German Lutherans call a pas- 
 tor) ; 263 (importance of the lo- 
 
 cality) ; 277 sq. (Dutch and Ger- 
 man Lutherans); 288 (union of 
 the two). 
 
 New York Ministerium, 411, 475. 
 
 Niemeyer, druggist, 422. 
 
 Nitschmann, Ludwig, III. 
 
 Norberg, Rev., 351. 
 
 Norden, town, 34. 
 
 Nordlingen, town, 74. 
 
 Northkill (Bernville), 178, 1 86, 198, 206 
 (petitions for a regular pastor). 
 
 Nubiihl, Schleswig, 159. 
 
 Nyberg, L. T., Rev., 165 sq., 175 sqq., 
 1 86 sq. (results of his labors at 
 Lancaster) ; 1 88 (at York) ; 206, 
 244 sq. (his insincerity) ; 386. 
 
 O. 
 
 Officers of congregations, 352 sqq., 355, 
 
 362. 
 
 Oglethorpe, J. E., Gov., 40, 65 sqq., 68. 
 Oley (Ohly), Pa., in, 145, 160, 307. 
 Oporin, Prof., Dr., 9, n, 29, 40. 
 Order of salvation, 197. 
 Orphan- House : 
 
 at Halle, 8, 9, 134 (books and med- 
 icines from there) ; 264, 285. 
 
 at Gottingen, n. 
 
 at Grosshennersdorf, 19. 
 
 at Langendorf, 26. 
 
 at Savannah, Ga., 67, 69 sq. 
 
 at Ebenezer, Ga., 72, 75. 
 Osnabruck, town, 32. 
 Otto, emperor, 4. 
 Ottolenghe, Jos., 469. 
 Oxford, near Philadelphia, 344. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palatinates in England, 37, 166. 
 
 on the Hudson, 62, 166, 199, 255. 
 
 on the Congaree River in South 
 Carolina, 62. 
 
 in the Tulpehoken Valley, Pa., 143. 
 
 in the Schoharie Valley, N. Y., 167. 
 
 in Lancaster co., Pa., 173. 
 
 in Ireland, 231. 
 Paradise, Pa., 238. 
 Parlin, Olof, Rev., 244, 246. 
 Pasche, F. W., Rev., 416, 462. 
 Pastoral conference, 264. -- 
 Pastorius, F. D., 91. 
 Pastors, self-appointed, 129, 130, 134, 
 
 149. 
 
 Paul's, St., Church (Episcopal), Phila- 
 delphia, 385. 
 Pausa, in Saxony, 114. 
 Pawling, Mr., 290 sq. 
 Paxton' Massacre, 220, 396. 
 
544 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Peina, town, 32. 
 
 Pemberton, Eb., D. D., 281. 
 
 Penn, John, Governor, 488. 
 
 Penn, William, 43, 89, 91. 
 
 Pennsneck, N. J., 107. 
 
 Pennsylvania at the arrival of Miihlen- 
 
 berg, 89 sqq. 
 
 population, 93, 21 6 sqq. (political 
 aspects). 
 
 Pennsylvania Packet, 504 sq. 
 
 Periodical, first German, in America, 43. 
 
 Perkiomen Creek, Pa., 240. 
 
 Perlitzius, Dan., M. D., 233. 
 
 Peter's, St., Barren Hill, Pa., 377 sqq., 
 
 452. 
 Philadelphia, 394 (Episcopal; new 
 
 organ) . 
 Pikestown, Pa., 319, 412. 
 
 Peters, Rich., D. D., 326, 330, 339 sqq. 
 (biogr.) ; 346 sqq. (letter to the 
 bishop of London) ; 425, 447, 
 488. 
 
 Philadelphia in early times, 91. 
 
 Philadelphia German Lutheran congre- 
 gation, 350 sqq. (its early his- 
 tory) ; 360 (need of a new consti- 
 tution; numerical growth) ; 357* 
 361, 363 (Muhlenberg's return to 
 the city demanded); 363 (erec- 
 tion of school-house ); 370 (adop- 
 tion of the new constitution) ; 371 
 (chartered) ; 393 (H. M. Muhlen- 
 berg's influence) ; 393 sq. (earth- 
 quake); 397 (politics); 417,452, 
 487 sq. 
 
 Pickel, B., elder, 227, 260. 
 
 Pietism, 8, 14 sq., 28, 67, 71, 145, 151, 
 249, 253, 291, 392 sq., 418. 
 
 Pietists, 122, 224, 299, 345. 
 
 Pikeland, Pa., 307. 
 
 Pikestown (Vincent), 319, 350, 412 
 sq. ; 456 (corner-stone laying); 
 482 (church dedication). 
 
 Pliitschau, missionary, 16. 
 
 Poelnitz, 26. 
 
 Poeltzig, town, 12. 
 
 Portsmouth, 46. 
 ^Pottstown, Pa., 413. 
 
 Prseses of synod, 267, 362, 372. 
 -Prayer-meetings, 392. 
 
 Presbyterians, 281 (at New York); 293, 
 347, 391, 397 sq. (at Philadel- 
 phia). 
 
 Princeton College, N. J., 326, 348. 
 
 Prizelius, P. D., Rev., 324 sq. (biogr.) ; 
 382. 
 
 Probstzell, Germany, 407. 
 
 Providence, see Neiv Providence. 
 
 Psalmodia Germanic a, 279. 
 Purry, J. P., 79. 
 Purrysburg, S. C., 79 sqq. 
 Pyrlaeus, J. Chr., Rev., 114, 118, 120, 
 123, 125. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Quakers ; 92 (their political interest) ; 
 
 136, 204, 218, 228, 327 sqq., 
 
 337, 396 sqq. 
 Quitopahilla (Steitstown, Lebanon), Pa., 
 
 385, 386. 
 
 R. 
 
 Raben, Chr., 377 sqq. 
 Rabenhorst, Chr., Rev., 307, 
 
 463- 
 
 444 sqq. 
 
 Racheway (Rockaway), N. J., 205. 
 
 Raccoon, N. J., 243, 451. 
 
 Rambach, J. J., D. D., 201. 
 
 Ramsgate Road, 45. 
 
 Raphel, Rector, 7. 
 
 Rapp, Ph. H, 257 sq., 305, 374 sq. 
 
 Raritan congregations, 150 sqq., 165, 
 
 1 70, 239, 240 (change of names) ; 
 
 255, 312 sq., 314, 315 sq., 323, 
 
 324, 414. 
 
 Ratterman, H. A., 423 (Deiitsch-Amer- 
 kanisches Magaziit], 
 
 Raus, Lucas, Rev., 232 sqq. (his life un- 
 til his arrival at Philadelphia) ; 
 234 (his peculiar temper) ; 234 
 sqq. (labors at Goshenhoppen, 
 Indianfield, etc.) ; 235 (pastor at 
 York); 259 (sent to the con- 
 gregations on the Hudson) ; 236 
 (later years and death) ; 266 sq. 
 270 sq., 385. 
 
 Reading, Pa., 149, 264, 309, 310 sq., 
 
 325, 382, 386, 387 sq., 450, 483, 
 487. 
 
 Reck, Baron von, 62. 
 
 Reed's Church, Pa., 144, 146, 178 sq. 
 
 Reformed Church, 252, 273, 294. 
 
 pastors, 212 (present at the ded- 
 ication of St. Michael's, Philadel- 
 phia) ; 273 sq., 290. 
 
 Regina, the released captive, 221 sq. 
 
 Remmerspach, N. J., 256, 273, 318. 
 
 Reuss, Von, 10 sq., 12, 17, 23, 26. 
 
 Reutlingen, Germany, 222. 
 
 Rhinebeck, N. Y., 199, 248, 250, 251. 
 
 Rhode, Ant., Rev., 23. 
 
 Richards, J. W., D. D., 457. 
 Mattias, 496, 518. 
 
 Riesenbeck, Dr., 10 sq. 
 
 Riess, J. Fr., Rev., 256 sqq., 266, 271. 
 278, 281, 273, 452 sq. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 Rittinghuysen, 91. 
 Roeller, J. Geo., Rev., 448, 524. 
 Roemhild, Germany, 376. 
 Romanists in Pennsylvania, 94, 329. 
 Roos, M. Fr., Rev., 503. 
 Rosenthal, Pa., 430. 
 Rosleben, Germany, 438. 
 Ross, En., Rev., 125. 
 Roth, Jas., Rev., 388. 
 Rotterdam, 35. 
 Ruckert, L. E., D. D., 16. 
 Rudman, Andr., Rev., 255. 
 Rudolph, Carl, 157, 170, 190, 204 sq., 
 237, 250, 256, 334. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saalfeld, Von, 12. 
 
 Saccum, Pa., 1 60, 199 sq., 240. 
 
 Salisbury (Salzburg, Pa.), 200, 322, 430. 
 
 Salzburg Lutherans, 40, 66, 76 sq. 
 
 Salzburger family, 41, 45, 48, 50, 64, 69. 
 
 Sahburger Reports, 474- 
 
 Salzwedel, Germany, 285. 
 
 Sandin, J., Provost, 211, 214. * 
 
 Sauer, Christian, 147. 
 
 Christoph., 43, 165 (his German 
 newspaper); 201, 331 sqq. (re- 
 lation to the charity schools). 
 
 Savannah, Ga., 65, 466 sqq. 
 
 Savoy congregation at London, 184. 
 
 Saxony, John Fred, of, 4. 
 
 Schaefer, Dav., 498. 
 
 Fr. D., D. D., 376, 382. 
 
 Schaff, of Schoharie Valley, 168. 
 
 Schaum, J. H., Rev., 158 (arrival); 159, 
 170 (visits the Raritan congrega- 
 tions) ; 183, 195 (visits Monoc- 
 acy); 200 sq. (at York); 205, 
 239 (examined and ordained); 
 241, 260, 263, 306 sq. (removal 
 from York; later pastoral activ- 
 ity and death); 309, 315, 319, 
 350, 386. 
 
 Schertlin, J. F., Rev., 311, 424. 
 
 Schippach, Pa., 133, 178. 
 
 Schlatter, Mich., Rev. ; 230, 292 (biogr.), 
 
 325, 330. 452, 524- 
 Schleydorn, Henry, 101, 106, 268, 293, 
 
 33> 304. 
 Schmidt, J. Fr., D. D., 375 sq. (biogr.); 
 
 414 sq., 451. 
 N., 95, 96, 104, 194. 
 Schmucker, B. M., D. D., 442. 
 
 J. G, D.D., 417. 
 Schneider, druggist, 362, 366. 
 Schoener, J. Dan., 351. 
 Schoharie Valley, N. Y., 143, 167. 
 Schortritz in Anhalt, 96. 
 35 
 
 Schrack, Widow, 99. 
 
 Schrenk, L. H., Rev., 227 (arrival and 
 reception) ; 228 (catechist at Up- 
 per Milford, etc.); 229 (ordained 
 and sent to the Raritan churches) ; 
 229 sqq. (his ungrateful behavior 
 and erratic course); 231 (em- 
 barks for Europe) ; 246, 320. 
 
 Schubert, Rev., 84. 
 
 Schultz, Fred., Rev., 285 sqq. (biogr.); 
 
 3I7- 
 Schultze, J. Chr., Rev., 112, 142, 174, 
 
 351- 
 
 Schulze, Ch. Em., Rev., 407 sqq. (biogr.) ; 
 
 451, 482, 524. 
 J. L., D.D., 132. 
 J. A. M., governor, 408, 519. 
 
 Schumacher, D., Rev., 325. 
 
 Schiissler, J. J., rector, 6. 
 
 Schwab, Gust., 533. 
 
 Schwarbach, J., catechist, 238, 428. 
 
 Schwarzwald, Pa., 147, 160. 
 
 Schwenkfelders, the, 94, no, 218, 397. 
 
 Schwerdfeger, J. L., Rev., 306, 372, 41 1. 
 
 Scotch-Irish immigrants, 93, 217. 
 Presbyterians, 173. 
 
 Seckler, Dan., 124. 
 
 Seidensticker, O., Prof. Dr., 403, 484 sq. 
 
 Selig, teacher, 377. 
 
 Seminary, Theological, at Philadelphia, 
 439 sq., 448 sq. 
 
 Semler, J. L., D. D>, 503. 
 
 "Senior" (title of honor), 409. 
 
 Seventh-day Dunkers, 1 1 1, 145, 180, 245. 
 
 Small Catechism, edited by Chr. Sau- 
 er, 201 ; edited in English by 
 Wrangel, 364. 
 
 Smith, Horace W., 336. 
 
 Will., D. D., 324, 326 sqq., 330, 
 331 (provost of the college and 
 academy at Philadelphia), 347. 
 
 Society de Promov. Cogn. Christ., 39, 
 
 462, 466. 
 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 39, 41, 66, 244, 326. 
 
 Solms-Roedelsheim, Count, 381 (leg- 
 acy); 492. 
 
 Solms, Von, 1 1 . 
 
 Somner, Rev., 96, 224. 
 
 Nic.,Rev. (at Schoharie, N.Y.), 249. 
 
 Spangenberg, A. G., bishop, no, 116, 
 145, 149, 175, 180, 195. 
 
 Spener, Ph. Jac., D. D., 8, 12, 291. 
 
 Spithead, 46. 
 
 Stanwix, John, Col., 341. 
 
 Statesbury, N. J., 253. 
 
 Steiner, J. C., Rev., 390. 
 
 Steinmetz, Abt, 17, 224. 
 
546 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Stendal, Germany, 285. 
 
 Stephens, Th., Col., 69. 
 
 Stiegel, H. W., 383 sq. 
 
 StillS (family), 148. 
 
 Stoever, J. C., Rev., Jr., 102, 112, 119, 
 127,142,144, 157,174, 183,188 
 (resided at Earltown) ; 213, 241 
 sq., 351 sq., 388 (received into 
 the ministerium). 
 J. C., Rev., Sr., 236 sq., 351, 486. 
 
 Stolberg, Von, n, 159. 
 
 Stone Arabia, N. Y., 454. 
 
 Stouchsburg, Pa., 144. 
 
 Strassburg, Alsace, 309. 
 Va., 411. 
 
 Strebech, Geo., Rev., 442. 
 
 Streit, Christian, Rev., 383 (biogr.) ; 430, 
 477, 56 sq. (letter of H. M. 
 Mtthlenberg to him). 
 Sigismund, 494 (his legacies). 
 
 Streiter, a teacher, 149, 194, 213, 308. 
 
 Stroudsburg, Pa., 248. 
 
 Stisse, Rev., 19. 
 
 Swain, Francis, 496, 518. 
 
 Swatara Cave (Atolheo), Pa., 385. 
 
 Swedish Lutherans, loi (at Philadel- 
 phia); 243, 391 (relation to the 
 Episcopal Church); 421. 
 settlers on the Delaware, 85, 91, 93, 
 
 243- 
 
 in West Jersey, 92. 
 *- on the Schuylkill, 93. 
 
 pastors and their relation to the 
 German Lutheran pastors, 342. 
 Symbolical Books of the Lutheran 
 Church, 189, 191, 210, 211, 281. 
 Synod; 208 (necessity of); 212 (at- 
 tempted by the Swedes); 214 
 (concerning places of meeting) ; 
 283, 324, 388 (congregations 
 united in it A. D. 1763). 
 Synodical meetings : 
 
 208 sqq. (first held at Philadelphia) ; 
 
 346, 371, 373, 388. 
 239, 385, 496 (at Lancaster, Pa.). 
 241 (at Providence). 
 286 (at Germantown). 
 311 (at New Hanover). 
 448 (at Philadelphia, clerical mem- 
 bers). 
 "'519 (at York, Pa.). 
 Synods of Pennsylvaia and adjoining 
 States, of West Pennsylvania, 
 and of New York, 494. 
 
 T. 
 
 Talbot, governor of Maryland, 6l. 
 Tappe, Dr., 31 sq. 
 
 Tar Bush on the Hudson, 250. 
 Tennent, Gilb., Rev., 336, 391. 
 
 W., Rev., 391, 463. 
 Theus, Swiss painter, 81. 
 Thomas, Governor, 107, 125. 
 Thurnstein, Herr von, 8 1, 94, 119, 124. 
 Till, mayor of Philadelphia, 1 24. 
 Timrod, H., 459. 
 Tinicum Island, 86, 348, 364. 
 Tohicon, Pa., 234, 258, 315. 
 Tranberg, Pet., Rev., 105, 106, 107, 123, 
 
 126, 142, 211. 
 
 Trappe, see Neu> Providence. -^, 
 
 Treutlen, Adam, 463-467 sqq. 
 Triebner, Chr. Fred., Rev., 444 sqq., 
 
 463, 467 sqq., 513. 
 Trinity (Hamburg) Church in London, 
 
 249, 258. 
 
 Church at Lancaster, Pa., 404. 
 Holy, church at New York, 526. 
 Tulpehoken, Pa.; 143 sqq., 161 sqq. 
 
 (confusion there); 198, 203, 206 
 
 (Christ Church dedicated); 206 
 / (petitions for a regular pastor) ; 
 
 241, 264 (pastoral conference); 
 
 374, 382. 
 
 U. 
 
 Uhl, Chr. R., 355. 
 
 Ulm, Germany, 309. 
 
 Unaltered Augsburg Confession, 191, 
 
 211. 
 
 Unander, Eric, Rev., 243, 245. 
 
 United German Lutheran churches, 214, 
 
 244 (pastors), 353. 
 Unruh, Geo., 147. 
 Upper Dublin, Pa., 382. 
 Upper Merion, near Philadelphia, 380. 
 Upper Milford, Pa., 160, 199 sq., 240. 
 Urlsperger, J. A., D. D., 444, 467, 474, 
 
 S 1 * 
 
 Saml., D. D., 41, 72, 284, 443 sq. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vigera, J. Fr., 73 sq., 160, 178, 200; 227 
 (marriage); 241. 
 
 Vincent, St., see Pikestmvn. 
 
 Virginia, German Lutherans in, 236 sq. * 
 
 Voigt, J. L., Rev. ; 375 (elected at Ger- 
 mantown, then at New Han- 
 over); 409, 412 sqq. (biogr.); 
 45 6 > 524- 
 
 W. 
 
 Wagner, Fred., D. D., 199. 
 
 Tobias, Rev., 148 sqq., 152 sq., 157, 
 163, 184,206, 210, 213, 241 sq., 
 264, 306, 307, 312, 388. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 547 
 
 Waldoborough, Maine, 148. 
 
 Wales, immigrants from, 93. 
 
 Wallrath of Schoharie, 168. 
 
 Walter, Mich., teacher, 263. 
 
 Washington, Geo., 218, 485 sq., 493. 
 
 Weinland, J. F., Rev., 376. 
 
 Weisensee, Ph. H., D. D., 284. 
 Weiser, J. C., Sr., 166 sqq. 
 
 J. C., Jr., 143, 145, 161 sqq., 167, 
 176, 178, 179 sqq., 240 sq.; 246 
 sqq. (journey with Miihlenberg 
 to the Hudson) ; 269, 276 sq., 
 312, 323 (his death); 330. 
 Anna Mary, 163. 
 
 Weisiger, Dan., 351. 
 
 Weiss, G. M., Rev., 133. 
 
 Weitendahl (White Hall), Pa., 307. 
 
 Wernigerode, town, 29, 407, 409. 
 Von, 10, n, 28, 285. 
 
 Wertsch, J. C. (Wurtz), 463, 467 sqq. 
 
 Wesley, Chas., Rev., 66 sq. 
 John, Rev., 66 sq. 
 
 Weygand, J. A., Rev. ; 223 sqq. (arrival 
 and reception) ; 226 (sent to the 
 Raritan congregations) ; 227 (or- 
 dination; call to New York; 
 death); 239, 241, 259, 263, 271, 
 280 sq., 295. 
 
 White, Bishop, 428. 
 
 Whitefield, Geo., Rev., 63, 67, 72, 116, 
 228, 290, 341, 388, 390 sq., 391 
 sq. (H. M. Miihlenberg dissents 
 from him) ; 401, 406, 447 sq. 
 '-White Hall, Pa., 430. 
 ~* Whitemarsh, Pa., 377. 
 
 W'icaco (Gloria Dei) at Philadelphia, 
 107, 174, 244, 342. 
 
 Wicksell, John, Rev., 345, 372, 451. 
 
 Wiesenthal, Chas. Fr., M. D., 410. 
 
 William I. of Prussia, 20. 
 
 Wildbahn, C. Fred., Rev., 386, 524. 
 
 Winchester, Va., 388,411. 
 
 Winkler, Rev., 32. 
 
 Witpen (Whitpain), Pa., 142, 322. 
 
 Wittenberg in Saxony, 119. 
 
 Wolf, J. A., Rev., 151 sqq., 170, 250. 
 
 Wolfe, General, 320. 
 
 \Vomelsdorf, Pa., 179. 
 
 Wood, James, 427 sq. 
 
 Woodstock, Va., 238, 411 ; 428 (former- 
 ly Staufferstadt) ; 486. 
 
 Wordmann, H.B. G., Rev., 307, 312. 
 .Wrangel, C. M., Rev., Provost, 245, 
 324, 342 sqq. ; 348 (his pastoral 
 activity ; relation to Methodism ; 
 to Pietism; to the Episcopal 
 Church; his friendship with 
 
 Miihlenberg) ; 345 sq. (his in- 
 terest in the history of the Lu- 
 theran Church in this country) ; 
 346 sqq. (introduced to the bish- 
 op of London) ; 359, 364 (trans- 
 lation in English of Luther's 
 Small Catechism) ; 367, 370, 380, 
 385, 420 (returns to Sweden) ; 
 421 (letter of introduction to the 
 bishop of London) ; 422 (his 
 death); 423, 511 sqq. (letter to 
 H. M. Miihlenberg). 
 
 Wiirtemberg, 301, 305, 307. 
 
 WiirtembergerSjtwo, disciplined by Miihl- 
 enberg, 228 sq. ; 360 (many of 
 them in the Lutheran congrega- 
 tion at Philadelphia). 
 
 Y. 
 
 York, Pa. ; 165, 185 sq., 187 sq. (early 
 history); 196 sq. ( Miihlenberg' s 
 visit there) ; 200 sq. (Schaum 
 sent there) ; 205, 306, 372, 384 
 sq. (dedication of church). 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zellerfeld, town, 7. 
 
 Ziegenbalg, missionary, 16. 
 
 Ziegenhagen, F. M., D. D., 15, 22, 36 
 sqq., 41, 1 17 sqq., I2O, 121, 140, 
 241, 298, 352, 381, 494. 
 
 Zinzendorf, Count; 17, 94, 109 sqq., 
 1 20, 123 (his assumed authority 
 over the Lutherans in Pennsyl- 
 vania) ; no, n I (his unionistic 
 tendencies and conferences) 5113 
 (preaches to the German Luther- 
 ans at Philadelphia) ; 114 (puts 
 Pyrlseus in his place at Philadel- 
 phia) 5115 (builds a church there 
 and establishes a Moravian con- 
 gregation) ; 352. 
 
 117 sqq. (conversation with H. M. 
 Miihlenberg); 124 (leaves for 
 England); 126. 
 
 145, 181 (was acquainted with J. 
 Conr. Weiser, Jr.). 
 
 Zion Church at Mosellem, Pa., 149. r-^ 
 Aat Ebenezer, Ga., 470, 514. 
 f at Pikestown, Pa., 319, 375, 412. 
 \ at Philadelphia, 390, 405 sqq., 489, 
 
 5I9- 
 
 Ziracka, Prince, 4. 
 Ziibly, Joach., D. D., 68, 306, 465 sq., 
 
 478. 
 Zwiesler, J. A., 94 sq. 
 
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