RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Muehlau Muehlenberg'
tural discipline for the communicants, installed elders and deacons, and built school-houses and churches. Other congregations also asked for his advice and services; for example, the Lutherans on the Raritan River, New Jersey ; in southwestern Pennsylvania (Frederick) ; and even the churches on the upper Hudson, founded by the Palatinate immigrants, and the Dutch Lutherans in New York whom he served as pastor for two successive summers. Thus his influence gradually extended over all the Lutherans in the provinces of North America.
At his urgent request the fathers in Halle sent additional laborers into the American field, Peter Brunnholz, Nicolas Kurtz, Johann Helfrich Schaum, Johann Friedrich Handschuh, Johann Friedrich Schmidt, Justus Heinrich Christian Helmuth, and Johann Christopher Kunze, the most prominent and scholarly among them, who afterward became Muehlenberg's son-in-law. In 1748, on the occasion of the dedication of St. Michael's Church in Philadelphia, Muehlenberg organized the first Lutheran synod on this western continent, the ministerium of Pennsylvania. The Swedish Lutherans in Pennsylvania and Delaware were in full sympathy with him in his labors, Provost Johann Sandin taking part in the opening of the synod and Provost Magnus Wrangel de Saga being his intimate friend and safe counselor in all important church questions. In 1761 Muehlenberg took up his residence in Philadelphia and prepared the first draft of a constitution for the congregation, which was at once signed by 500 heads of families and became the model for many Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania. In 1766 he undertook the erection of the large Zion's Church, at the corner of Fourth and Cherry streets, Philadelphia, which could accommodate 2,000 persons and was long considered the largest and most beautiful church edifice in North America. In this church congress held the memorial service for Washington in 1799. In 1776 Muehlenberg returned again to Providence, but his resignation from the Philadelphia congregation was accepted only in 1779. From Aug., 1774, to Feb., 1775, he had undertaken another journey to the South, in order to settle certain difficulties which had arisen among the Salzburg colonists in Georgia. There he succeeded in establishing peace between the contending parties and prevailed on the congregation to adopt a constitution prepared by himself. The last decade of his life was spent among his country congregations, which he continued to serve with the Word and sacraments as far as his failing strength would allow. In those years he prepared the draft of the first Pennsylvania hymn-book (1786) which to this day is known as the "Muehlenberg Hymn Book." While it showed here and there the influences of the Halle Pietism, it was the best Lutheran hymn-book in eastern North America until it was replaced by the church-book of the General Council in 1877.
Muehlenberg bore the full burden of " a church in the planting " under the most difficult and distressing circumstances. He found among his people a state of utter disintegration and demoralization. The various elements, coming from different re-
gions of the fatherland and inclined to abuse their unaccustomed liberty, were hard to unite under a sound church discipline. And even the opposition of worldly-minded pastors, who resisted his work of organization at every step, had to be met and overcome in all patience and wisdom. His own coworkers in the synod not infrequently annoyed him by their lack of tact and of pastoral wisdom.
He died with the closing stanza of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Commit thou all thy griefs" on his lips. The Philadelphia congregation desired to have him buried under the pulpit of Zion's Church, but the family decided in favor of the churchyard of the Augustus-Church in New Providence (Trappe) as the place of his interment. His tombstone bears the prophetical inscription (which may be translated; "Had he no monument, future ages still would know how great a man he was ") :
Qualis et quantus fuerit,
Non ignorabunt sine lapide
Futura scecula.
Dr. Muehlenberg was married to Anna Weiser, the daughter of the famous Conrad Weiser, Jr., who, as an Indian commissioner and interpreter, held a very prominent position in the provincial government. Three of his sons who were educated at Halle and were destined to enter the service of the Lutheran Church as ministers became quite illustrious in American history. John Peter Gabriel, born at Trappe, Pa., Oct. 1, 1746, ordained in 1768, was pastor in New Jersey and afterward in Woodstock, Va. In Jan., 1776, he exchanged the ministerial gown for a colonel's uniform, and, at the head of his regiment, took part in the war against England. He became a general in the American army and enjoyed the intimate friendship of Washington. After the war he was vice-governor of Pennsylvania, member of congress, and senator. He died in Philadelphia Oct. 1, 1807. The second son, Frederik August Conrad, b. at Trappe, Pa., Jan. 1, 1750, ordained 1770, was pastor of Christ Church, New York City, and founded the New York ministerium of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Afterward he followed a political career, becoming a member of congress, speaker of the legislature of Pennsylvania, and president of the convention which ratified the constitution of the United States. He also presided over the first and the third congress as speaker. He died in Lancaster June 4, 1801. The youngest son, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst, born at Trappe, Pa., Nov. 17, 1753, is the only one who continued in the ministry. He was ordained in 1770, assisted his father in the ministry, and became third pastor of the Philadelphia congregation. From 1780 to 1815 he served the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church in Lancaster, Pa., and died there May 23, 1815. He achieved a reputation as a scholarly botanist. Adolph Spaeth.
Bibliography: Sources are the Hallesche Nachrichten, 2 vols., Halle, 1750-S7, republished with notes by W. J. Mann, B. M. Schmucker, and W. Germann, Allentown,
Muehlhaeusser Mueller