THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
tion, and to provide for the support of the ministry of the Gospel." The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America teaches, in its form of government (chap, vi.): " The Scriptures clearly point out deacons as distinct officers in the church, whose business it is to take care of the poor, and to distribute among them the collections which may be raised for their use. To them, also, may be properly committed the management of the temporal affairs of the church." [In accordance with this principle, deacons are a normal part of the machinery of the local churches and receive ordination, though they are not members of the church session (the governing body of the local church; see Presbyterians). The Reformed Presbyterian Church has held (1878) that the office is open to women, and in several presbyteries they have been ordained to this service.]
In the Congregational or Independent churches the deacons are very important officers, and take the place of the lay elders in the Presbyterian churches. At first the PUgrim Fathers of New England elected ruling elders; but the custom went into disuse, and their duties were divided between the pastor and the deacons. Cf. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, Boston, 1876, pp. 131 sqq.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church the deacons constitute an order in the ministrj^, as in the Episcopal Church, but without the jure divino theory of apostolical succession. They are elected by the annual conference, and ordained by the bishop. Their duties are, " (1) To administer baptism, and to solemnize matrimony; (2) To assist the elder in administering the Lord's Supper; (3) To do all the duties of a traveling preacher." Traveling deacons must exercise their office for two years before they are eligible to the office of elder. Local deacons are eligible to the office of elder after preaching four years. (Philip ScHAPFf) D. S. Schaff.
rV. The Modern Associations of Deacons in Germany : Like the similar deaconesses' organizations (see Deaconess, III.), these fraternities for Christian service are an outgrowth of the movement within the Protestant Church of Germany usually known as the " Innere Mission " (see Innere Mission-). But this work, however much it might be regarded as incumbent on all, can not be so well done by untrained volunteers as by professional workers who devote their whole lives to it and receive the requisite special education. It was the " Innere Mission " which for the first time among German Protestants clearly perceived this truth and undertook to train such workers. The epochmaking dates are 1833, when the Rauhes Haus was founded for male workers, and 1836, when the first home for deaconesses was established at Kaiserswerth.
The Rauhes Haus, at Horn near Hamburg, was cstabhshed by Johann Hinrich Wichern (q.v.) as a rescue-home for neglected children. The original foundation speedily expanded into a community, where the children dwelt in " families " or groups, cacli group constituting a unit for tlie purposes of n\oral, intellectual, and manual training. The • housefather " associated with himself in the
administration of the work a number of assistants ; and, as the work expanded and the ntimber of institutions increased, the necessity
1. Johann arose of a normal training for the Hinrich instructors. The Rauhes Haus became
Wichern. therefore a seminary for the training of workers in the field of the " Innere Mission," its early candidates coming almost exclusively from the humbler classes and comprising men whose simple piety and Christian spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty qualified them admirably for this service. Wichern gave the name of " Brethren " to his first associates. In the execution of his wider plans he came into conflict with the authorities of the Rauhes Haus who regarded with mistrust the departure from the original idea of an institution for children, and he was finally allowed to proceed with his plans for a brotherhood only on condition that he should assume the financial risks of the venture. His devoted labors brought their reward; means were soon obtained for the establishment and maintenance of the fraternity which Wichern sought to organize on the model of the medieval Brothers of the Common Life so far as that was possible under modern conditions. He did not attempt to revive the office of deacon as it existed in the primitive Church, and only reluctantly did he assent to the use of the term " deacon," which to him connoted a person officially set apart by the Church, while " brother " bore a more secular and independent signification.
Wichern supplied the model upon which all later institutions of a similar nature have been founded, which differ from the original only in the general use of the name deacon, and in the wider scope of work which the necessities of other times produced. By the side of those institutions whose field embraced every phase of Christian charity, others arose devoted to particular branches of work. Thus in southwestern Germany there are institutions for the training of teachers for the poor, dating from the period of predominantly educational interest which saw the rise of the " Innere Mission." Further, there are associations for lay
2. Exten- preaching and others whose special sion of field lies among the German Protes-
Wichern's tants scattered in Catholic countries Work. Con- (see Diaspora). The inner organiditions of zation is practically the same every- Admission. where, consisting of a clerical chief executive who exercises control over the educational and administrative work, and a curatorium or committee of trustees in whom the property of the institution is vested. Common also are the conditions for admission, of which a summary of the regulations prevailing in the Rauhes Haus may serve as an illustration. Applicants must be of unblemished reputation, and masters of some trade or profession upon which in case of emergency they may fall back; admission for the purpose of acquiring a trade or profession is not tolerated. Candidates must be between the ages of twenty and thirty, unmarried, and must have completed their term of military service. They must be prepared to yield absolute obedience