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American Lutheranism (Vol. 1&2). Friedrich Bente
Читать онлайн.Название American Lutheranism (Vol. 1&2)
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isbn 4064066399788
Автор произведения Friedrich Bente
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44. Tributes to, and Estimates of, Muhlenberg.—In his letter to Dr. Freylinghausen in Halle, Muhlenberg himself reveals the pious and humble frame of his mind as follows: "To-day, December 6, 1762, it is forty years since I set foot in Philadelphia for the first time; and I believe that my end is no longer removed very far. Had I during these forty years served my Lord as faithfully as Jeremiah, I could look forward to a more joyful end. But I must now account it grace and mercy unparalleled if the gracious Redeemer, for the sake of His all-sufficient merits, will not regard my mistakes and weaknesses, but receive me graciously." Speaking of Muhlenberg's faithfulness, Dr. E. A. W. Krauss remarks: "Muhlenberg continued faithful in things both small and great, even after he had received assistance from Germany, and one coworker after another began to labor at his side. Before long his activity had exceeded the sphere of his three congregations. On request he visited the scattered Lutherans in Germantown, Tulpehocken, Lancaster, York, Raritan, Frederick. He was the counselor of poorly served congregations, the judge in their quarrels. Confidence was everywhere reposed in him. "By reason of his talent for organizing, his erudition, but, above all, his unselfishness, his modesty, dignity, and piety, he was in universal demand, and was compelled to take the lead, which he also kept till his blessed departure from this world." (Lebensbilder, 694.) Dr. H. E. Jacobs sketches Muhlenberg's character as follows: "Depth of religious conviction, extraordinary inwardness of character, apostolic zeal for the spiritual welfare of individuals, absorbing devotion to his calling and all its details, were among his most marked characteristics. These were combined with an intuitive penetration and extended width of view, a statesmanlike grasp of every situation in which he was placed, an almost prophetic foresight, coolness, and discrimination of judgment, and peculiar gifts for organization and administration." Dr. A. Graebner writes: "The task which Muhlenberg found set before him when he entered upon the wild and disordered field which had been allotted to him here, was such that, if any one in Halle had been able to tell him and had told him what was awaiting him in America, he would hardly have found the necessary courage and cheerfulness to lay his hand to the plow which was to convert this wild bramblepatch into an arable field. Still, where could a second man have been found at that time who would have proven equal to the task in the same measure as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg? Richly endowed with a robust physique and a pious mind, with faithfulness in matters great and small, with cheerful, but firm courage, with restless activity and a spirit of progressive enterprise, with wisdom and prudence, with the ability to inform himself quickly and to accommodate himself to the circumstances, and, in addition to this, with the necessary independence of volition and action—characteristics seldom found combined in one and the same person—Muhlenberg was splendidly equipped, both as to degree and variety, with the gifts which a missionary and an organizer has need of. And from the very first day of his planting and watering God gave a rich increase to his labors, so rich, that Muhlenberg could say with a grateful heart: 'It seems as though now the time had come that God would visit us with special grace here in Pennsylvania.' Furthermore, self-exaltation was utterly foreign to him. 'God does not need me,' he would say; 'He can carry out His work also without me.' Likewise, he was ever content although he never saw much money. During the first half-year of his stay in Philadelphia he earned his board by giving music lessons." (279.) Dr. A. Spaeth: "Though there were Lutheran congregations and pastors among the Dutch on the Hudson, and among the Swedes on the Delaware, as early as the first half of the seventeenth century, and, later on, among the numerous German immigrants, still the real organization of the Lutheran Church in America, on the foundation of the fathers, only dates from the middle of the eighteenth century, and is due to the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, by common consent the patriarch of the Lutheran Church on this continent, through whose efforts the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 'The Mother Synod,' was established in 1748. In missionary zeal, in pastoral tact and fidelity, in organizing ability and personal piety, he had no superior." (C.P. Krauth, 1, 316.)
MUHLENBERG'S CONFESSIONALISM.
45. Unqualified Subscription to Entire Book of Concord.—Like the "Fathers in Halle," Muhlenberg, self-evidently, desired to be a Lutheran and to build a Lutheran Church in America. He himself says, in a manner somewhat touchy: "I defy Satan and every lying spirit to lay at my door anything which contradicts the teaching of our apostles or the Symbolical Books. I have often said and written that I have found neither error, nor mistake, nor any defect in our Evangelical doctrine, based, as it is, on the apostles and prophets, and exhibited in our Symbolical Books." Dr. Spaeth: "The standards of the Lutheran Church of the sixteenth century were accepted and endorsed by Muhlenberg without reservation, and in his whole ministerial work he endeavored to come up to this standard, as he had solemnly pledged himself in his ordination vow before the theological faculty of the university at Leipzig, on August 24, 1739, which committed to him the office of 'teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments according to the rule given in the writings of the prophets and apostles, the sum of which is contained in those three symbols, the Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian, in the Augsburg Confession laid before Emperor Charles V, AD 1530, in the Apology of the same, in Dr. Luther's Large and Small Catechism, in the Articles subscribed to in the Smalcald Convention, and in the Formula of Concord. He solemnly promised that he would propose to his hearers what would be conformed and consentient to these writings, and that he would never depart from the sense which they give.' (Dr. W. J. Mann's The Conservatism of Henry Melchior Muehlenberg, in the Lutheran Church Review, January, 1888.) And this was the position not of the patriarch alone, but of his colaborers, of the whole Synod of Pennsylvania, which he organized, and of the sister- or daughter-synod of New York, during the lifetime of Muhlenberg and Kunze. 'Those fathers were very far from giving the Lutheran Church, as they organized it on this new field of labor, a form and character in any essential point different from what the Lutheran Church was in the Old World, and especially in Germany. They retained not only the old doctrinal standards, but also the old traditional elements and forms of worship; the church-year with its great festivals, its Gospel- and Epistle-lessons, the Liturgy, the rite of Confirmation, preparatory service for the Lord's Supper, connected with the confession of sins and absolution. Their doctrinal position was unmistakably Lutheran, in the sense in which Lutheranism is historically known, and is something individual and distinct, and as such stands in opposition to Romanism on the one hand, and to Zwingli, Calvin, and all other so-called Protestant parties on the other. Those fathers were admitted to the ministry on condition of their own declaration that they were in harmony with the Confessio Augustana Invariata, and with all the other Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church. They demanded of those whom they admitted to the sacred office the same condition. They allowed no organization or constitutions of congregations without demanding the acknowledgment of all the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church as the doctrinal basis.'" (1,317.) In a letter dated June 14, 1774, and addressed