LUTHERANS IN AMERICA 580 LUTHERANS IN AMERICA
epoch in which it assumed organic form. No man could have heen more eminently fitted than was H. M. Muhlenberg for the mission to be accomplished. ''He jwssessed piety, learning, experience, skill, industry, and perseverance.'' He was, moreover, " deeply interested in the work to which he had devoted himself, as is ap- parent from the manner in which he discharged his du- ties, and the condition in which he left the Church at the time of his decease."' When he came there was an absence of all organization. It is true the Swedish brethren gave assistance to their German brethren free- ly and cheerfully, but this was by no means sufficient to ailvance the interests of Lutheranism. Muhlenberg saw this clearly, and he at once applied himself to the task of eifecting an organic union of German Lutherans at least. The greatest obstacle he found in the want of jireachers and of houses of worship; but he was not in the least discomfited by this jejuneness of his beloved Church. His influence at home was that of a pious and devoted servant of the Lord, and he soon drew a number of his former associates and friends to this side of the Atlantic, so that by 1748, only six years after his landing on these shores, he was enabled to call around him the strongest and ablest representatives of the Lutheran min- istry in America, to counsel together and form a synod. The Swedes had contented themselves with the election of one of their own number as lirovost (q. v.), to preside over them and act as their representative before the coun- try, IMlihlenberg, however, desired stricter conform- ity to the rules and regulations of the mother Church, and, as the fate of the Swedish Lutheran Church after- wards showed, his course proved to be the onh' safe way towards a perpetuation of the Lutheran Church in Amer- ica. The men who joined Mt'thlenberg in the convention at Philadelphia, Aug. 14, 1748, for the purpose of organ- izing the first Lutheran synod in America, were Brunn- holtz, Handschuh, and Hartwig, of the German, and Sandin and Naesman, of the Swedish Lutheran Church. It was by this bod}' that the first German Lutheran was regularly set apart in this country' to the work of the ministry. His name was .John Nicholas Kurtz. He was not, however, the first Lutheran minister ordained here. As early as 1701, Falkner, a student of divinity, was or- dained by the Swedish ministers Rudman, Bjtirk, and Auren, to labor in the .Swedish Lutheran Church; quite an eventfiU act, also, because it set aside forever the supposition that the Swedish Lutherans received the doctrine of the episcopacy in the sense in which it is tauglit in the Anglican Church. After 1748 the synod met regularly each j'ear, and these meetings " were at- tended with the most beneficial results. They not only advanced the prosperity of the Church, but the hands of the brethren were strengthened, and their hearts en- couraged. They promoted kind feeling, and formed a bond of union among the churches." In 1765 a private theological seminary was started, under the care of Drs. Helmuth and Schmidt, and in 1787 the Legislature of Pennsylvania established Franklin College, "for the spe- cial benefit of the (Germans of the commonwealth, as an acknowledgment of services by them rendered to the state, and in consideration of their industry, economy, and public virtues." There were, in the year of Muh- lenberg's arrival in this country, in Pennsylvania alone, 110,000 Germans, and of these about two tiiirds were of the Lutheran Church. One of the sons of Dr. H. IVL Miihlenberg — Henry Ernest^ — at this time pastor of the Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pa., was honored with the distinction of first president of this now widely cel- ebrated institution of learning. In 17!>I the Lutheran Church received further recognition for its services to education by the Pennsylvania Legislature in the gift of .5000 acres of land '■ to the free-schools of th.e Luther- an Church in Philadelphia," the centre of Dr. Henry Melchior Miihlcnbcrg's labors.
During the Pevolutionary days the Lutherans acted the part of patriots and Christians ; many of their num- ber came forward in defence of the country of their
adoption. Dr. IMlihlenberg, among others, had two sons in the army ; one of them exchanged the gown for the colonel's uniform. In consequence of this identification of the Lutherans with the cause of American liberty, the English came to dislike them greatly, and many were the sufferings and deprivations to which they were subjected ; several of their churches were burned or des- ecrated, and all manner of oppression was visited upon them. The close of the War of Independence, however, left them, if anything, gainers in the struggle. Aside from the liberal donations which they received in Penn- sylvania, as we have seen above, they received large ac- cessions from the very ranks of their enemies. ISIany of the German soldiers who, by the ignominious treaty of the English Mith the Hessians, had been brought to this country to exterminate the love of freedom, at the close of hostilities concluded to remain this side the At- lantic, and became valuable members of the Lutheran Church in America. Out of 57"23 soldiers that had come here from Brunswick, 1200, with seven officers and their chaplain, at one time entered the fold of American Lu- theranism. Of the Hessians, also, some 7000 remained to swell the number of adherents to the Church of the great German reformer.