CHAPTER XIII.

SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES: THE GER

MAN REFORMED CHURCH.

and accepted. During this period the seminary was removed from Carlisle to York, and from that to Mercersburg in the same state, about fifty miles from Carlisle, and THIS offshoot from the Church, bearing there it is now permanently established. the same name in Germany, is, like it, Marshall College was opened in connexPresbyterian in its government, and Cal-ion with it in 1837, and the Rev. Dr. Rauch, vinistic in its doctrinal standards. who had been president of the preparatory The "Reformed" being mingled with department of the seminary at York, was the Lutherans in the early German emi-chosen president. Under that distinguishgrations, societies of the former soon ap-ed scholar and excellent minister it soon peared, particularly in Pennsylvania, and enjoyed an enviable reputation; but in the spread, ere long, to the south and west of spring of 1840 the church was called to that province. These, though long exist- lament his premature decease. The presing apart, were at last united in 1746, by ent theological professor, Dr. Nevin, is a the Rev. Mr. Schlatter, who, having been man of distinguished abilities and deep pisent from Europe for the purpose, suc-ety. There are about twenty-five students ceeded in giving a better organization as of theology, and the academical classes well as more union to their churches. have an attendance of from eighty to 100 Their increase since has given them an youths. important place among American Presbyterians.

The German Reformed Church seems to have experienced a crisis in 1841, that It is a singular fact, that the first mission-year having been appointed to be celebraaries to the German Reformed in Ameri- ted as a centenary jubilee for all its conca were sent out by the Classis of Am-gregations. A century having elapsed sterdam and the Synod of North Holland, through which channel their churches continued to receive their ministerial supplies, and to which they were kept, down to the year 1792, in the same subordination as the Dutch churches in America used to be. Mr. Schlatter, the pioneer in this good cause, was soon followed by other men sent over by the said classis and synod.*

since its first organization in America, such an acknowledgment of God's mercies was deemed eminently becoming; and that the occasion might be turned to the best account, it was resolved that an effort should be made to raise sufficient funds for the endowment of the seminary and college at Mercersburg. The result must have fully realized the expectations of the church's most sanguine friends, for at a late meeting of its synod upward of 80,000 dollars were ascertained to have been subscribed, and to a large amount actually collected, while the contributions of more than half of the congregations had yet to be reported. Assurances have since been received that more than 100,000 dollars, the amount originally specified, will be obtained.

The dependance of the Reformed German Church in the United States on the Dutch Church in Europe was brought to a close in 1792, in consequence of the difficulty of maintaining the previous relations of America with Holland after the conquest of the latter by the French. An independent constitution was accordingly adopted, constituting a Synod, consisting of clerical and lay delegates; but it The field which this church has to ocwas not until 1819 that the synod was di-cupy is very extensive. Besides the large vided into classes or presbyteries, and German population in the Atlantic States, based upon a representation of the classes the Great West-the Valley of the Misby clerical and lay delegates. The church sissippi-over which German immigrants being now left to its own resources, the are now settling in vast numbers, cries training of young men for the ministry to this and to the Lutheran Church for was for many years intrusted to such pas- help; and it is hoped that in a few years a tors as were willing to receive students host of labourers from both will be raised of theology into their families; still the up for the harvest, which is ripe for the want of proper institutions for that pur- sickle. pose was deeply felt. At length, in 1824, The German Reformed Synod has now the synod resolved that they would have in its connexion about 180 ministers, disa theological seminary, and this resolution tributed thus: 112 in Pennsylvania; thirtook effect the following year, by the open-ty-seven in Ohio; three in Indiana and ing of an institution at Carlisle, a pleasant Illinois; ten in Maryland; ten in Virginia town in Central Pennsylvania. Dr. Mayer and North Carolina; and three in Newwas appointed the first professor, and con- York. It is supposed to have about 600 tinued in the discharge of that office until congregations, and from 75,000 to 100,000 1839, when his resignation was tendered communicants. It may be said with truth that its congregations are rapidly increasing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and from present indications, we hail the period

Among these were Weiber, Steiner, Otterbein, Hendel, Helfenstein, Helfrich, Gebbard, Dallicker, Blumer, Faber, Becker, and Herman.

as not far distant when, instead of being attained a good degree of organization and reckoned, as they have long been, among efficiency. the least of the tribes of Israel, they will be found occupying a place in the very van of the sacramental host of the Lord. In home missionary, educational, and foreign missionary efforts, they are taking a deeper and deeper interest every year, uniting with the Congregational and New School Presbyterian churches in supporting the American Home Missionary Society, the American Education Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

CHAPTER XIV.

SMALLER GERMAN SECTS.

THERE are some smaller bodies of German Christians in the United States, which may be classed, though not, perhaps, in all cases without qualification, among the evangelical denominations. The Moravians might have been placed here, but we have put them in a separate chapter, partly because they are Episcopal, partly because they are no longer purely German either in blood or language.

First, then, there is a body called the "UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST." This is a Methodist sect, which began to rise as early as 1770, and gradually attained an organization in the year 1800. The founders of it were the Rev. Messrs. Otterbein, Boehm, Geeting, and other German ministers, who had once belonged to the German Reformed, the Mennonists, and the Lutherans. Their first Annual Conference was held in the year 1800. From that epoch this denomination has continued to increase among the Germans and German descendants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and other portions of the Union, until they have at present one General Conference (which meets once in four years), nine Annual Conferences, four bishops, six hundred ministers, of whom 250 are itinerant, and 350 are local preachers. The number of places, churches, schoolhouses, private houses, etc., where they preach, is supposed to exceed two thousand. Many of their congregations are small. The number of their members or communicants is reported to be more than 50,000.

This body, which is in all essential points the same, as it regards doctrines and modes of worship, as the Episcopal Methodist Church, has been becoming more thoroughly organized from the first. Within a few years successful efforts have been made to introduce discipline and order into their churches, and to require from the preachers regular and accurate reports of the number of communicants, etc. This looks well, and shows that this body has

2. The "EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION." This denomination, also a sect of German Methodists, was founded in the year 1800. The founder was the Rev. Jacob Albright. His associates were the Rev. John Walker, George Miller, and others. With regard to doctrine and church government, there is some similarity with the Methodist Episcopal Church. This Association has at present two bishops and four annual conferences, viz., those of East and West Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. It also has churches and stations in Maryland, Virginia, New-York, Indiana, Missouri, and the Territory of Iowa. The annual conferences embrace districts, circuits, stations, and missions. There is a General Conference, which meets once in four years. This body has at present about 112 travelling, and nearly 200 local ministers. The number of places of public worship, including churches, schoolhouses, and private houses, is about 900; and the number of communicants is about 14,000.

3. The WINEBRENNARIANS, a sect of German Baptists, so called from their founder being a Mr. Winebrenner, a pious and zealous German, who lives at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his followers are chiefly found. They form several congregations, and are said to be quite evangelical in their doctrines, and, as a body, irreproachable in their lives. Their ministers, though not well informed, have the reputation of being devoted, laborious, and useful men.

Winebrenner seems to have commenced his labours among the Germans very much in the spirit and with the aim of Hans Houga in Norway.

4. The MENNONISTS have some churches, but the most of their little congregations meet in private houses; they probably have about 50 or 60 preachers, and perhaps some 200 small congregations.* They are an amiable, and, in the main, evangelical people, yet rendered somewhat lukewarm, it is to be feared, by their worldly prosperity. They are, for the most part, descended from Mennonist immigrants from Holland and Germany. Their confession of faith, as stated by one of their ministers, Mr. Gan, of Ryswick, in Holland, appears to be moderate orthodoxy. They reject infant baptism, but though their founder, Simon Menno, maintained that baptism should be by immersion, they do not deem it indispensable. On the contra

vate houses oftener than in church edifices. Their * The Mennonists meet for their worship in pricongregations are very small, and for a long time scarcely existed out of Pennsylvania.

I fear that their orthodoxy is less unequivocal They are opposed to the use of the words Person and general than it was sixty or eighty years ago. and Trinity, when speaking of the Father, Son, and 'Holy Ghost.

ry, they sprinkle, or, rather, pour water | doctrines and polity of the body from upon the head of the candidate, after which which they seceded, their dissatisfaction follow the imposition of hands and prayer. with which arose from their preachers not They have no order of preachers, but eve- being admitted into the itineracy, and, ry one in their assembly has the liberty to consequently, having no share in the gov. speak, to expound the Scriptures, to sing, ernment of the church, nor a right to reand to pray. ceive salaries, being only local preachers.

The Mennonists of Holland, as is well known, claim to be descended in the main from those Waldenses who, towards the close of the twelfth century, emigrated in great numbers to that country. If this be so, then the Mennonists in America have in their veins the blood of those wonderful survivers of long ages of persecution and oppression.

CHAPTER XV.

SMALLER METHODIST DENOMINATIONS.

There were one or two other secessions a little later, one of which was headed by the Rev. Mr. Stillwell, in the city of NewYork, by which the Methodist Episcopal Church lost a few of its congregations, but they were not of such consequence as to call for special notice. But it sustained a far more serious loss in 1828, when a considerable number of preachers, chiefly local, and of lay members, withdrew from it at Baltimore, and in other parts of the country. As this secession has resulted in the formation of a new communion, which promises to be permanent, it calls for farther notice.

SECESSIONS of greater or less magnitude have detached themselves from time to In what was said of the Methodist Epistime, and glided off like avalanches from copal Church, the reader will have rethe Mount Zion of the Methodist Episco- marked that its constitution lodges the supal Church, not, however, so as to dimin-preme power, legislative, judicial, and exish its grandeur, or change its physiognomy; but most of them sooner or later melted away to nothing.

The first that occurred was that of the Rev. William Hammet, of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. His followers took the name of Primitive Methodists. The second was that of the Rev. James O'Kelly, in Virginia, about 1792. His followers called themselves Republican Methodists. This was by far the more serious of the two, but both soon and forever disappeared from the scene.

thought that the laity ought to be represented in the church courts; that is, should be admitted to the Annual and General Conferences.

ecutive, in the itinerating ministers. They alone compose the Yearly and General Conferences. But, to two classes of the members, this has been felt to be oppressive. First, to the local preachers, who, although they may be ordained ministers, can have no voice in the government of the church. Nay, ministers who may have been for years in the itinerating service, the moment that, from sickness, duty to their families, insufficient support, or any other cause, they leave that service, have no longer any voice in the affairs of that In the year 1816, about 1000 of the peo-church. Next, there were laymen who ple of colour in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Philadelphia, headed by a Mr. Richard Allen, seceded from the main body. Allen was a man of considerable talent, who, from having been once a slave in one of the Southern States, besides procuring his freedom, had acquired a handsome property, and becoming a preacher in the Methodist connexion, rose to be ordained an elder. After his secession he was ordained a bishop at the first General Conference of his followers, by prayer and the imposition of hands by five local elders, of whom one was a presbyter in the Protestant Episcopal Church. What the number of ministers in this small communion may be I know not. Since the death of Allen, instead of a bishop it has two superintendents.

Another secession of coloured members took place at New-York in 1819, and it has now several congregations of people of colour in New-Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Three years ago they had twenty-one circuits, thirtytwo preachers, and 2608 communicants. They are believed to have adhered to the

This dissatisfaction began to assume a more decided character about the year 1820. A journal having been established for the purpose of advocating what were called "equal rights," this led to the sending up of numerous petitions to the General Conference held in 1824. These being unfavourably received, much excitement and discussion followed. The party that wanted reform urged their demands with more eagerness, and, consequently, some suspensions from church privileges took place in Baltimore and elsewhere. Such was the state of matters when the General Conference met in 1828; failing in obtaining redress from which, they who thought themselves aggrieved seceded, and formed a new body, under the title of the PROTESTANT METHODIST CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. In taking this step they have made no change in their doctrines, nor any innovations in church polity, beyond what they had unsuccessfully peti

tioned for-the admission of lay represent- first preacher, George Fox, visited several atives and of the local preachers to the of the Southern provinces, and announced government of the church. They have his message, as he himself relates, to a also ceased to have bishops, all ordination" willing people." But the proselytes to among them being now confined to the im- his peaceful doctrines, especially if they position of hands by presbyters. Their attempted to propagate them, encountered General Conference meets once in four violent persecution almost everywhere, and years, like that from which they seceded. although they were from the first protected This body has one general and twenty- in Rhode Island, and did at length obtain two yearly conferences, 1200 travelling toleration in the South, they never made and local preachers, 60,000 communicants, much progress until, through the influence and 500 places of worship. Its General and exertions of William Penn, they obConference has instituted a Board of Do- tained an asylum, first in New-Jersey, and mestic and Foreign Missions, as also a afterward in Pennsylvania, towards the Book Concern, which has its headquar- close of that century, ters in Baltimore. There are four religious newspapers, also, published under its auspices. Its churches are to be found in all parts of the country, but particularly in the Middle, Northern, and Western .States.

CALVINISTIC METHODISTS-a small Welsh communion, consisting of twenty churches and as many pastors. They are an evangelical and zealous body, and as it is only a few years since the greater part of them came to America, they still use the Welsh language in their public worship and in their families. Though found in several states, they are most numerous, I believe, in New-York.*

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS.

THIS religious community first appeared in England towards the middle of the seventeenth century, and had an early share in the colonization of the United States. We have seen that its reputed founder and

They are now supposed to have about 500 congregations in the United States, and are chiefly settled in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, in New-Jersey, NewYork, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia, though some may be found in all the States. In Philadelphia alone they have six or eight large congregations or meetings."

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It is far from easy to make out what were the doctrines really held by George Fox, and some of the other early Friends, or Quakers, as they are more commonly called. They spoke so much about the "light within," and the "Christ in the heart," and so little about the proper divinity of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and divine authority of the Scriptures, &c., that good men of that day much doubted how far they held the saving truths of the Gospel. But the subsequent writings of Penn, Barclay, and others, to whom may be added many excellent authors of the present day, make it certain that a decided majority of well-informed Friends have been sound in "the faith that saves.'

But within the last fifteen years a deploThe number of national churches among the rable .schism has taken place. Doctrines Welsh emigrants and their descendants in the Uni- of the most dangerous character, imbodyted States is far greater than is commonly supposed. ing, in fact, a kind of fanatical deism, havFrom a statement which has been kindly furnished me while this work has been going through the press, ing been widely disseminated by the preachby the Rev. Jonathan J. Jones, pastor of a Welsh ing and writings of the late Elias Hicks, of Presbyterian church in the city of New-York, I Long Island, New-York, who was one of learn that there are, besides the Calvinistic Metho- their ministers, they separated into two dist churches mentioned above, no less than 38 Con- quite distinct bodies, each maintaining that gregational churches, 12 Baptist, 2 Presbyterian, 3 Episcopal, and 3 Wesleyan Methodist. The statis- it held the doctrines of the original Quatics of twenty of these churches show about 2640 kers.* One party is called the Orthodox, communicants, 8050 members of congregations, and the other the Hicksites, from the name of from 630 to 1030 dollars contributed annually to their leader, or, rather, founder. Their relspread the knowledge of the Gospel. With the ex-ative numbers are not exactly known, but ception of the Calvinistic Methodists and the Presbyterians, the Welsh churches are included in the the Orthodox are supposed to be fully three

estimate which is made of the denominations whose name they bear. For instance, the Welsh Baptists come in under the head of the Regular Baptists; the Welsh Congregationalists are included in the statement which I have made respecting the Congregational body. Of the names of forty-one of the pastors of the churches mentioned in the statement furnished by Mr. Jones, seven are Jones, seven are Williams, three are Powells, three are Evans; and among the others we find those of Griffiths, Roberts, Lewis, Morris, Edwards, Richards, Powell, Davis, Morgan, Owen, Philips, Jenkins, and others which are purely Welsh.

* The highest law court in New-Jersey decided a few years ago, in a suit respecting property held by one of the "Quarterly Meetings" in that state, that the so-called Orthodox Quakers are the true successors of the founders of the denomination; in other words, hold the true doctrines of the people called Friends. This decision was formed after a long and very thorough investigation of the subject, conducted by a master in chancery, who was employed during several months in taking the testimony of distinguished Friends as to what were the doctrines of the society.

The peculiarities of the Friends, in respect to plainness of dress, refusing to un-loving people are the same in the United cover the head as a mark of respect to their fellow-men, whatever be their station, rank, or office, the use of the singular thou and thee instead of the plural you in all cases where custom has sanctioned the superseding of the former by the latter, their refusing to take an oath, and to bear arms, are too well known to require remark.

* See remarks in chapter iv. of this book for the grounds on which the ordained ministers in the Regular Baptist com-munion are estimated at 4036.