In fulfilling the duty which you have assigned me, I have selected a topic pertaining to the history of the preparation of the earliest and fundamental Confession of Protestant Christianity, the Augsburg Confession. It is my purpose to estimate the influence, upon its final form, of a document which the Lutheran Reformers found in circulation on their arrival at Augsburg more than seven weeks before the Confession was presented by the Evangelical Princes to the Emperor Charles V.

During the first century of the occupation of Manhattan Island by Europeans we find there two settlements of Lutherans, the one of an earlier, the other of a later date. The earlier settlement was that of Dutch Lutherans, who came over from Holland with the first settlers, whilst some seventy-five years later German Lutherans began to arrive, at first in smaller and then in ever increasing numbers until many thousands had settled mainly along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. It is now two hundred years ago that the first colony of German Lutherans arrived in the harbor of New York. They were the Palatinates who, in 1707, because of continued political and religious disturbances, had with their pastor, the Rev. Josua von Kocherthal, left the fatherland, and found a new home near where the city of Newburgh now stands. It goes without saying, that though most of them settled along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, yet many of them remained on the Island of Manhattan. Whilst the immigration of Lutherans from Holland, after the middle of the eighteenth century practically ceased, that of the German Lutherans increased, and the Lutheran Church on Manhattan which at first was Dutch afterwards became German. And this first German Lutheran Church in the present city of New York had the good fortune to have among its pastors some of the most distinguished men and theologians of the eighteenth century, such as the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in this country, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D.D., and his son, the Rev. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a man of burning patriotism, who in time became speaker of the First and Third Congresses of the United States.

THE eighteenth century was noted rather for the rise of new denominations than the union of old ones. Nevertheless it is not to be forgotten that attempts at union were made even though they were unsuccessful. It has taken nearly two hundred years for us in America to work out a plan of federation such as was attempted at Philadelphia in the early part of December, 1908. Federal Union was unknown, unthought of, in those early days. Organic union was the kind most generally considered. And this greatly increased the difficulties of forming church unions, as denominations were not generally willing to give up their peculiarities or their independence. I wish to speak of two efforts at church union especially connected with my own church, the German Reformed Church, leaving it for others to speak of other efforts that may have been made in the early history of America. In this age when church union is in the air it is certainly not unsuitable to study these early movements.

What is contemplated in this paper is a general rather than a careful or exhaustive treatment of the subject named,—a rapid survey, we may say, of the nature and extent of ministerial training in America prior to the establishment of our present theological schools.

There are two facts to be borne in mind in regard to Luther's whole attitude to social and economic questions. The first is that ordinarily this was a territory to be confined to experts, in which ministers should not meddle. He believed that a special knowledge was necessary to deal with some of these matters, and that they had better be left to those to whom Providence had assigned them, whether the jurists, those clever in worldly knowledge, or the authorities. The other fact is that the Church after all has social duties, and that Church and clergy must fight flagrant abuses and try to bring in the Kingdom of God on earth. The Church must use the Word of God against sin and sinners, and so by spiritual ministries help the needs of the time. The authorities on their part shall proceed by strict justice against evil doers. But there is another fact here which it is necessary to mention to get Luther's whole attitude, viz., that the State's function is not simply to administer justice, but to secure the general weal. They shall do the very best they can for their subjects, says Luther. “The authorities shall serve their subjects and use their office not petulantly [nicht zu Mutwillen] but for the advancement of the common good, and especially for the poor.” The princes shall give laws which shall limit as far as possible social misery and national dangers. They should listen to the proposals of the Church to this end, and on the ground of wise counsels of churchmen, do away with old laws and make new ones.

The convent annalist in darker ages had slight sense of proportion and value in what he recorded. We, too, even in days of journalistic publicity, may not know the real significance of the day's happenings and the year's record is arbitrary until results apportion value. We do not know whether the high celebrations of institutional life or some simple deed or word hid in obscurity to us shall be to after times the great mark of our year. Our first thought must be of farewells spoken sadly and reverently for those who have been faithful doers in our engrossing tasks and now have ceased from their labor. For us the first remembrance is of James William Richard, Henry Charles Lea, Adolph Hausrath, and last of all George Park Fisher, and what they achieved will carry their memory into years far distant. The death also of Father George Tyrrell wakens poignant regret in all who have viewed his spiritual chivalry in the most recent struggle within the Roman Church. The year has been calamitously marked also in modern annals by the shocking massacre of Christians in Adana and Tarsus in the month of April, an atrocity relieved only by the fact that it was instigated in futile reaction against a reform of the Turkish Constitution and so may mark the end of an evil day. In the annals of the Roman Church the year may have permanent significance by the third volume of the Acta Pontificis Maximi appearing in March, a volume whose contents cancel the veto rights of secular powers in future papal elections and under pain of excommunication forbid the cardinals to allow, during the conclave, any direct or indirect influence of the secular authorities.

The instinct of association must be regarded as among the most elemental and important of human instincts. It has bound men together in various forms of organization, domestic, political, religious. The family, the state, the church are its most familiar products. But there is another type of association distinct from these, prompted by different motives and seeking different ends. Of this type the Guild is historically the most familiar example. It may be described as a voluntary association of those living near together, who unite in a fraternal spirit for a common purpose, who feast and worship together, pay contributions into a common fund, and aid each other in case of poverty, sickness, bereavement, or other misfortune.

Since 1885, when Ludwig Karl Keller published his Reformation und die älieren Reformparteien. In ihrem Zusammenhange dargestellt (Leipzig), the question of the true origin of the Anabaptists has been a matter of debate. With considerable ingenuity and show of reason, Keller argues for the historical genesis of the sect from the well-known medieval movements of the Petrubrusians, the Apostolic Brothers, the Arnoldists, the Humiliati, the Lollards, the Spirituals, the Friends of God, the Brethren of the Common Life, the Waldensians, the Moravian Brethren, and the German Mystics. Kolde and Carl Mueller have shown the untenability of this theory, and yet it is appealed to again and again by that class of Baptist historians who endeavor to set up for their theological views a quasi apostolic succession

The circumstance that immediately after the death of Mary the English people welcomed the accession of the Protestant Elizabeth, precludes the theory that the return to Romanism under Mary indicated any thorough devotion on their part to the Pope or to mediæval religion.