The Lutherans of New York | Page 9

in 1751 and again in 1752 on the ground, he was for two years pastor of the mother church. His was a fruitful ministry. He succeeded to a considerable extent in reconciling the warring elements in the congregation, not only by his gifts as a preacher and spiritual leader, but also by his ability to preach in Dutch and in English as well as in German.
The Episcopalians, who worshipped in the Trinity Church on the opposite corner, complained of the stentorian tones in which he delivered his sermons.
Upon Muehlenberg's recommendation, Mr. Weygand of Raritan, was chosen pastor of Trinity Church in 1753. In the furtherance of his ministry, Weygand performed some literary work. He prepared an English translation of the Augsburg Confession, which was printed as a supplement to a quarto volume of 414 pages published by one of the elders of his church, entitled "The Articles of Faith of the Holy Evangelical Church According to the Word of God and the Augsburg Confession. A Translation from the Danish. New York, MDCCLIV."
The congregation continued to be Dutch, although Weygand preached also in German and in English as occasion required. For the use of his English congregations he published in 1756 a translation of German hymns that had appeared in England under the title, "Psalmodia Germanica."
From 1750 to the time of the American Revolution we had two Lutheran churches in New York, the German Christ church, popularly known as "The Old Swamp Church," on Frankfort Street, and the Dutch Trinity church on Broadway and Rector Street.
In the Swamp church the first preacher, Ries, remained for a year. He was followed in quick succession by Rapp, Wiessner, Schaeffer, Kurz, Bager and Gerock. Only the last named served long enough to identify himself with local history. He was followed by Frederick Muehlenberg, a son of Henry Melchior, an ardent patriot, who had expressed himself so freely in regard to English rule that when the British army marched into New York in 1776 he found it expedient to retire as quickly as possible to Pennsylvania. Here he labored in several congregations; as supply or as pastor, until 1779, when the exigencies of the times compelled him to take an active part in the political affairs of the country.
[illustration: "The Old Swamp Church"]
The partial reconciliation that had been brought about by Muehlenberg between the Dutch and the German congregations was occasionally disturbed by a pamphletary warfare conducted by their respective pastors, Weygand and Gerock.
Weygand died in 1770. He was succeeded by Hausihl (or Houseal, as he spelled his name in later years), a native of Heilbronn, who had served congregations in Maryland and in eastern Pennsylvania. Tradition reports that he was a brilliant preacher of distinguished appearance and of courtly manners. He succeeded in maintaining a large congregation.
But a serious change was going on in the church in the matter of language. In spite of the secession in 1750 other Germans kept coming into the Broadway church to such an extent that they outnumbered the Dutch eight to one, and finally the use of the Dutch language in the Lutheran Church of New York came to an end. Houseal had the distinction of conducting the obsequies at the preparatory service on Saturday, November 30, 1771, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper on the following day.
But the death of the Dutch language by no means put an end to the language difficulties of our Lutheran ancestors. In the midst of the original contestants a new set of combatants had sprung up in the persons of the children of both parties. These spoke neither Dutch nor German. They understood English only and demanded larger consideration of their needs.
Events, however, were impending which soon gave the people something else to think about and caused a postponement of actual hostilities for another generation.
The church on Broadway was destroyed by fire in 1776, and was never rebuilt. The congregation worshipped for a time in the Scotch Presbyterian Church on Cedar Street.
The American Revolution broke out. On political questions our ancestors differed almost as widely as do their successors on synodical questions. Some of them were for George the Third, others were for George Washington. In this respect, however, they were not unlike other inhabitants of New York.
Frederick Muehlenberg, the pastor of the Swamp Church, was an ardent patriot. At the beginning of the war, as we have seen, he fled to Pennsylvania.
During the war the services were conducted by the chaplains of the Hessian troops. The Hessians were good church-goers and also generous contributors, so that the financial condition of the congregation at this time was greatly improved.
Houseal, the pastor of Trinity Church, was a tory, and when in 1783 the American troops marched into New York, he with a goodly number of his adherents removed to Nova