disposition of the present Romish Church calls loudly for a
reformation, we must not omit the pleasing fact that many of her worthy
members are conscientiously alive to the cause of truth and enlightened
Christianity." (G., 654.) But, instead of more firmly establishing the
Lutheran Church, the indifferentism and unionism introduced into New
York by the Halle Pietists soon opened wide her gates to a flood of
rationalism.

NEW YORK MINISTERIUM.

29. Eliminating Confession.--In 1786 the New York Ministerium was
organized in Albany, N. Y., by Pastors Kunze, of New York City, H.
Moeller, of Albany, and J. S. Schwerdfeger, of Fellstown, and two lay
delegates, one from New York, the other from Albany. Eight of the eleven
pastors in this district took no part in the organization. Six years
elapsed before another meeting convened. The minutes of the first
convention state: "In view of the fact that only three pastors and two
delegates appeared, those present considered it advisable to look upon
themselves only as a committee of the Lutheran Church in the State of
New York." The _Lutheran Cyclopaedia_ says: "Though no records prior
to the meeting at Albany are extant, Dr. Kunze stated in 1795, and
again in 1800, that the New York Ministerium, revived in 1786, had been
organized as early as 1773 by F. A. C. Muhlenberg, then pastor in New
York." (490.) _Dr. Jacobs:_ "Concerning the fact that any meeting was
actually held, we are in ignorance; but Dr. Kunze, who ought to be most
competent authority, declares: 'To the late Dr. Henry Muhlenberg
belongs the immortal honor of having formed in Pennsylvania a regular
ministry, and, what is somewhat remarkable, to one of his sons, who
officiated as Lutheran minister from the year 1773 to 1776 in the city
of New York, that of having formed the Evangelical Ministry of New York
State.' The thought was carried out in 1786." (300.) In a letter to his
father, then visiting in Georgia, F. A. C. Muhlenberg mentions a
meeting of the Lutheran ministers in the Province of New York, planned
for April, 1774. (Graebner, 450.) The Ministerium organized at Albany
was a duplicate of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. According to the
Minutes a resolution was adopted to regard "the constitution of the Ev.
Luth. Church of Pennsylvania as their law." (469.) In 1792 the New York
Ministerium adopted the new constitution of the Pennsylvania Synod,
which contained no reference to the Lutheran Confessions whatever