ion, to live and die by this doctrine of our Church. In the
doctrine of our Church we have our joy, our brightest joy; we prize it
the more highly since, in our opinion, it agrees most with the doctrine
of the faithful and true witness of our Savior Jesus Christ. We wish
nothing more than that we and our children and our children's children
and all our posterity may remain faithful to this doctrine." (284.)
Among the friends of Peter Muhlenberg at Woodstock were George
Washington and the orator of the Revolution, Patrick Henry. The story is
well known how, after preaching a sermon on the seriousness of the times
and pronouncing the benediction, he cast off his clerical robe,
appearing before his congregation in the glittering uniform of a colonel.
During the long vacancy which followed Wildbahn, Goering, and J. D.
Kurtz preached occasionally in the old church at Woodstock. In 1805 John
Nicholas Schmucker took charge of the field. He was a popular preacher,
using, almost exclusively, also in the pulpit, the Pennsylvania German.
"Zu so Kinner," he said, "muss mer so preddige." (G., 608.)

81. Patriotic Activity of Peter Muhlenberg.--Peter was the oldest son
of H. M. Muhlenberg. He was sent to the University of Halle for his
theological training, where his independent spirit soon brought him into
trouble. At one occasion he resented an insult on the part of his
instructor with a blow. Forestalling expulsion, the young man enlisted
in a German regiment, in which he was known as "Teufel Piet." After two
years of military training he returned to America, and consented to
study theology under his father. After a short pastorate in New Jersey
he was transferred to Woodstock. He traveled extensively through the
Shenandoah Valley and the mountains to the west, preaching wherever
Lutherans could be found. When the Revolution began, Peter Muhlenberg
roused the patriotism of his fellow-Germans in Virginia, who were much
better established and in closer touch with their English neighbors than
those in North Carolina, many of them being acquainted with Lord Fairfax
and George Washington and holding civil offices in their communities.
Muhlenberg brought about, and was chairman of, the Woodstock Convention,
June 16, 1774, at which the Germans united with their Scotch-Irish
neighbors in a declaration against British tyranny, nearly a year before
the famous Mecklenburg Declaration in May, 1775. The resolutions adopted
at Woodstock were pre