om
Russia, Austro-Hungary and other countries of South Eastern Europe, are
the descendants of German Lutherans who in the eighteenth century
accepted the invitation of Katharine the Second and Marie Theresia to
settle in their dominions. Others are members of various races from the
Baltic Provlnces.

That is, the estimated number of Lutherans of foreign origin, counting
only the chief countries from which they emigrate to America, is
507,708.

But we also have Lutherans here who are not of foreign origin. Lutherans
have lived in New York from the beginning of its history. Its first
houses were built by Heinrich Christiansen, who certainly had a Lutheran
name. The Lutherans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is
true, left no descendants to be enrolled in our church books. These are
to be found in goodly numbers in the Protestant Episcopal and other
churches where they occupy the seats of the mighty. It is too late to
get them back.

But in the nineteenth century we collected new congregations. There are
many Lutherans whose grandparents at least were born in New York.
Besides, there has been a large influx from the Hudson and Mohawk
valleys, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, the South and the West. A moderate
estimate of these immigrants from the country and of those who under the
grandfather clause claim to be unhyphenated Americans, members or
non-members of our churches, is 40,000.

Add to these the Lutherans of foreign origin and we have in round
numbers a Lutheran population of more than 547,000 souls.

Turning now to the statistical tables in the Appendix we find that the
number of souls reported in our churches is 140,957. Subtract these from
the total Lutheran population and we have a deficit of over 400,000
souls, lapsed Lutherans, the subject of the present chapter. _Quod erat
demonstrandum_. While this is a large number, it is a moderate estimate.
An addition of 20 per cent. would not be excessive.

How shall we account for this deficit?

Of the Americans a large number are the children of our New York
churches, the product of our superficial catechetical system. No study
of the subject is complete that does not take account of this serious
defect. No cure will be effective until we have learned to take better
care of our children.

Native Americans from the country, members of Lutheran churches in their
former homes, have no excuse if they do not find a Lutheran church when
they come to New Yor