During the same year the Church celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the formation and adoption of the Heidelberg Catechism. This celebra- tion was originall}' suggested by the Rev. Dr. Har- baugh, and the preparatory arrangements made by a committee of which he was chairman. ISIinisters, el- ders, and members from all parts of the Church met in General Convention in the German Reformed church. Race Street, Pliiladelphia, Jan. 17, 1863, and continued in session six days. Twenty essays and
discourses on the origin, history', doctrines, confession- al relations, and the fortunes of the Heidelberg Cate- chism, prepared by distinguished theologians of Eu- rope and America, were read and discussed. The ju- bilee was formallj' closed by a similar convention held at Reading Islay 21, 1864.
Though held during the darkest times of the war of the Rebellion, yet the celebration was in all respects a success. Profound and general interest was awak- ened in the origin, history, faith, and relations of the German Reformed Church among ministers and the laity. The Church came to a better apprehension of her historical character as an original branch of the , Protestant Reformation, and acquired a clearer con- sciousness of her present relative position and voca- tion, and of her future mission. A new impulse was at the same time given to all her practical operations.
As the fruit of this celebration, two volumes pos- sessing permanent historical value were published: the Trifjlott Catechism and the Tercentenary Monument. The first is a critical edition of the Catechism in the original German, in Latin, modern German, and in English, printed in parallel columns, and accompanied with an historical introduction. The English is a new translation. Tlie 3Ionume7it consists of the dis. courses and essays delivered at the Convention held in Philadelphia, and was published in English and German.
This tercentenar}' jubilee constitutes a most impor- tant epoch in the history of the Church, and may be regarded as the relative conclusion of the ethical forces at work for the previous twenty' or thirty years.
The second General Synod, held at Dayton, 1866, authorized the organization of two additional synods: the one, consisting of the classes of St. Joseph, Indi- ana, Sheboygan, Heidelberg, and Erie, to be called t!ie North-western Sj'nod ; and the other, consisting of the clasEcs of Clarion, St. Paul's, West New York, and Westmoreland. The first was organized at Fort Wayne, Ind., May 28, 1807. The organization of the other body is still pending, but will probably be ac- complished during tlie coming 3'car (1870).
For the last ten j'ears measures have been in prog- ress to restoi-e the original title lieformed Church by dropping the American prefix Germ m. The change has finallj' been secured by a vote of two thirds of the classes, and only awaits the formal decision of the General Synod.
The Heidelberg Catechism is the syml)ol of faith, and the only standard of doctrines. The book may be said to embodj' two theological tendencies; the one Melancthonian, tlie other Calvinistic. We may des- ignate them more coiTectly, perhaps, by saying that the one tendency, proceeding from faith in the divine- human Saviour, a concrete fact, as the fundamental principle, is christological, sacramental, churchh', and conservative ; while the other, presupposing the sover- eign will of God as the determining principle of Chris- tianity, is in sj-mpathy with intellectualistie, nnsacra- mental, and unchurchly views, and renders the book susceptible of a construction which is apparently in full harmony with all the logical deductions which flow from the supralapsarian theory. Hence it is that the Catechism could be cordially indorsed by the Synod of Dort, 1618, which wrought out and affirmed with such logical consistencA' tiie celebrated Five Points of Calvinism ; and that the Reformed (Protestant Dutch) Church, while it receives the Heidelberg Catechism as a correct and excellent exponent of revealed truth, nevertheless holds it onlj' as construed according to the fomous decrees of Dort and the Belgic Confes- sion.
The German Reformed Church has never affirmed this supralapsarian element as a ruling principle. We mean the German, in distinction from the Swiss Re- formed, French, Dutch, Scotch, and other branches of the Reformed Church. In the German branch the
GERMAN REF. CH. IN AMERICA 828 GERMAN REF. CH. IN AMERICA
Melancthonian element has been predominant rather than thu Calvinistic, thoiii;h many of her theologians and ministers, and even Ursinus, one of the authors, interpret the Catechism in accordance \vith the Calvin- istic theory of decrees.
Tlie leading characteristic of the Catechism is the peculiar position which the Apostles' Creed occupies. The Creed is princi])ial. It is not an element co-ordi- nate with the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer, but the Decalogue and Lord's Prayer hold a place respect- ively which is demanded by the idea of the Creed. The Creed underlies and pervades the Catechism like a plastic power, and determines, prevailingly, the nature and substance of wiiat must ber received as the true faith.
It determines the ruling theory' of Christianity as being a new creation rather than a system of revealed doctrines ; as being an objective and concrete order of life rather than subjective experience and abstract theory. It determines the relation in which the be- liever is held to the new creation as being immediate, direct, and personal. Like the earth before the nat- ural eye, so do supernatural objects stand before the eye of the spirit as a reality — a reality which is the possession of the believer.