RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Young People’s Societies
Christian faith, and it seeks to produce in each member fidelity to his own church by promoting his usefulness as one of its workers, and to help each member to be a true witness for Christ and an efficient teacher of the Gospel.
Four classes of members are recognized, active members, associate members, cooperating members, that is, those who for any reason can not accept the duties of full membership, but who are willing t6 render either financial or other valuable services
to the league, and finally, in view of
2. Organ- the relation of the league to the church, ization and the pastor and members of the church
Principles. council, who are ex-officio honorary members of the league. The principles of the league are federation, which is the governmental principle, and cooperation, which is the economic principle, seeking to avoid waste in the development and utilization of the energies of the young people of the church. The league presents to the young people of the Lutheran Church the opportunity for self-culture. As an organization it means to aid young people in the Christian life, and it proposes doctrinal intelligence as the highest form of selfculture for the Lutheran youth. The Lutheran Church follows up baptism by catechization and confirmation, and the preparation of Lutheran Christians for the work of Christ and his Church is to know their own work and way of working best of all. The league does not offer the Lutheran young people a system of study entirely colorless of doctrine, but it proposes to give the great truths of the Gospel to its members, as received by the Lutheran Church, by a systematic Bible study.
The Luther League has an organization in almost every state of the union where a Lutheran congregation is to be found. Since its organization as a national body in 1895, its work has extended around the world. At the national convention in Chicago in 1908, the Luther League of Porto Rico and the Luther League of Canada were received into membership. Immediately following the Chicago convention, Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, the general secretary of the Luther League of America, by
action of the convention, visited the
3. Exten- Lutheran missions throughout the sion and world. Steps were taken for the or- Adminis- ganization of the Luther League in the tration. Lutheran missions in Japan, China,
Federated Malay States, and India; and the character of the work of the organization has been brought to the attention of the pastors and Christian workers in Germany. The official organ of the society is The Luther League Review, founded and edited by E. F. Hilert, of New York City, and it also publishes The Luther League Topics and Junior Topics. The organization of the Sullin League consists of the National as the thinking, suggesting, directing head, and the local societies as the active, operating factor. The locals compose the district, and the district organizations the state. Local, district, and state societies are represented in the National conventions by duly elected and accredited delegates. Since the Cincinnati convention of 1900 the President of the Luther League has been Wm. C. Stoever, a Philadelphia layman, and the
other officers are as follows: general secretary, Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, Omaha, Neb.; assistant general secretary, Harry Hodges, Philadelphia, Pa.; treasurer, C. T. A. Anderson, Chicago, Ill.; statistical secretary, Rev. C. K. Hunton, Salem, Va.; literature secretary, Rev. Paul H. Roth, Beloit, Wis.; topic secretary, Rev. George H. Schnur, St. Paul, Minn. Besides these, an executive committee of ten members has entire charge of the work of the league. Lurser M. Kuans.
IX. Young Men’s, Apprentices’, and Working Men’s Associations in Germany: The young men’s associations in Germany had their origin in the desire of young men to associate with persons of equal position and age, as well as in the anxiety of parents and pastors to protect young men, living away from home, against temptation, an additional factor being the desire of those interested in the welfare
of society to keep them from the dan-
1. Origin gers of the spirit of the time in its pe-
of Young culiar forms of revolutionary ideas,
Men’s As- social democracy, and estrangement sociations in from the Church. The oldest of these Germany. societies date from the middle of the eighteenth century; and though there were at first only vague ideas of such associations and some sporadic germs, the second stage of their development clearly showed the beginnings of systematic activity and of federation, as well as a realization of the importance of such societies for larger classes, while in the third stage the work has advanced so far, through the enlargements of its unions and their international connections, that it has become an important factor in Christian social life.
The first small associations had an essentially Pietistic character, and the one founded at Basel by Pastor Meyenrock in 1758 is usually considered the earliest. Among the rules of this society we find the injunction to remain faithful to the word of God and to the Apostles’ Creed, and to consider it one’s right, and even duty, to admonish one’s neighbor.
About fifty years later this society was 2. History. dissolved, although it was soon revived,
and shortly afterward, in 1817, a similar association grew up in Stuttgart under the leadership of an official named Engelmann, who established it chiefly as a gathering for prayer. Another society, established at Elberfeld in 1816 by Pastor K. A. Déring (1783-1844) for the purpose of fostering zeal for missions, was even more successful. An association very similar to that of Basel was founded in 1834 by F. L. Mallet (q.v.) in Bremen, the rules of which became the basis of the West German associations. From Bremen the cause of these societies received a vigorous impulse and entered larger circles, owing chiefly to the services of a merchant, C. F. Klein, while J. H. Wichern (q.v.) and his activity in the field of home missions also contributed to the general spread of publicity. Thus far the work had been carried on chiefly by laymen, but now theological and other trained workers were employed. About this same time, moreover, federations were formed, as, for example, the Rhenish-Westphalian federation of young men (1848), the East German federation (1856), the
Young People’s Societies