Lutheran Landmarks and Pioneers in America; A Series of Sketches of Colonial Times (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ...worthy of his hire by exacting no fees. In this way he continued for fifty-one years, working many years after the arrival of Muhlenberg. He was in America fourteen years before Muhlenberg came, and therefore the immediate forerunner of the great patriarch. He died while conducting a confirmation service on Ascension Day in 1779. Whilst he was in the midst of his many labors, the one of whom we wish to speak as the fourth of the forerunners reached eastern Pennsylvania. He arrived just ten years before Muhlenberg in the fall of 1732, the year made memorable by the birth of Washington. He gave out that he was an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church, and he was believed by the people, and his acts were afterwards accepted as authentic. He spoke and acted with authority, and did everything in a businesslike way. He was bold enough to demand his pay before the service began, and allowed himself to be well paid for all his acts. In some respects he did more to prepare the way for Muhlenberg than anyone else. He united the three congregations of Philadelphia, New Providence, and New Hanover into one parish, and urged them to send himself and several members on a collecting tour to Germany for the purpose of securing funds for churches and school-houses, and ministers and teachers for the people. He declared himself ready to set out for this hazardous journey in the spring of 1733. Before leaving he ordained John Caspar Stoever, Jr., for the work in Pennsylvania (happy consummation for young Stoever), and his father for Virginia, thus playing the role of an organizer and manager in a wise way. But we fear it was all business with him. In Germany he went astray, appropriating to his own use money that he had collected for the congregations in...