|
d to Germany
and spent his latter years in the city of Koeln on the Rhine.
In 1888 I spent a memorable week in Koeln. The history of the city
antedates the Christian era. Its cathedral is a fane of wonderful
beauty. In the Reformation Koeln joined the Lutheran forces and for
eighty years two of its archbishops were Lutheran pastors. The
"Consultation" of Archbishop Hermann is one of the liturgies of the
Lutheran Church. It played a prominent part in the construction of the
Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Owing to political jealousies among the
Protestants, the fortunes of war restored the city and the cathedral to
the Catholics. Until recent times Protestantism was an almost negligible
force in Koeln. At the time of my visit the Protestant Churches were
very efficient in all kinds of religious and social work and had an
influence in the City Council out of all proportion to their numbers.
Inquiring into the reason of this change I was told that it was largely
owing to the labors of a man by the name of Jacob Goedel who had come to
them from America and had introduced American methods of church work
into Koeln.
[illustration: "Gottlob Frederick Krotel, D.D., LL.D."]
In 1867 another synodical split took place. The New York Ministerium
separated from the General Synod on confessional grounds and took part
in the organization of the General Council. Thereupon most of the
English-speaking members, occupying a milder confessional basis, left
the Ministerium, formed the Synod of New York and united with the
General Synod.*
*The author's connection with the work in New York began about this
time. After graduation at Yale College in 1865, he found employment in a
New York library, and soon after matriculated as a student in Union
Theological Seminary. The needs of Protestant Germans on the East Side
attracted him into mission work which resulted in the formation of a
congregation of which he took pastoral charge upon his ordination by the
Synod of New York, October 19th, 1868.
The lines of three synodical bodies, General Council. [sic] General
Synod and Synodical Conference, that is "Missouri," were now distinctly
drawn and for the rest of the century the relations of Lutheran
ministers and churches were sharply defined. Ministers were kept busy
in explaining the differences, but it is to be feared that some of the
laymen did not always understand.
In 1868 members of St. James Church, who sympathized with the att
|