ense of Pietism against B. Mentzer.
In the same year he accepted the call to the congregations in
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Providence, and New Hanover. September 23,
1742, he landed at Charleston, visited Bolzius and the Salzburgers in
Ebenezer, and arrived in Philadelphia, November 25, 1742. From the very
beginning Muhlenberg was successful in his opposition to Zinzendorf,
who had come to America in 1741 to convert the Indians and to merge the
pious of all churches in the _Unitas Fratrum_. Pretending to be a
Lutheran, he had wormed his way into the Lutheran congregation at
Philadelphia, assuming the title and functions of Inspector-General of
all the Lutheran churches in America. However, unmasked by Muhlenberg,
he now, January, 1743, returned to Germany in disgrace. In spite of
many other difficulties, Muhlenberg rapidly won recognition from all
the congregations. In 1745 he dedicated his first church in
Philadelphia. The _Hallesche Nachrichten_ contain vivid pictures, from
the pens of Muhlenberg and his assistants, of their untiring,
self-sacrificing, blessed, and constantly increasing missionary
activity, which at the same time served the purpose of encouraging Halle
to send additional laborers. The close of January, 1745, saw the arrival
of Peter Brunnholtz (who took charge of Philadelphia and Germantown) and
of the two catechists Nicholaus Kurtz and J. H. Schaum, who at first
served as assistants and were later on ordained as pastors. Muhlenberg
wrote to Halle: "To be brief: the church which must be planted here is
at a very critical juncture (Hier ist ecclesia plantanda in einer recht
kritischen junctura). Hence we ought to have experienced and strong men,
able to stand in the breach and to dare with patience and self-denial.
You, highly venerable fathers, know full well that I am not the man. But
I regard my dear colleague Brunnholtz as such a man, and wish that he
had two or three colaborers like himself; that would help us. God would
easily direct me to some smaller corner." (290.) In 1743 Muhlenberg sent
Tobias Wagner to the Palatines in Tulpehocken Creek, where Gerhard
Henkel had already preached, and where, in 1745, Wagner solemnized the
marriage of Muhlenberg and the daughter of J. C. Weiser. Services were
conducted at this time also in Ohly, Cohenzi, Indianfield, Chester, and
Reading (where the Lutherans and the Reformed had erected a church
together). In 1745 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation at Raritan