ed. We go on to describe the gradual formation, under Muehlenberg
and the Halle Missionaries, of the constitution, afterwards accepted
generally by the American congregations.

HENRY MELCHIOR MUEHLENBERG.

In 1742 H. M. Muehlenberg arrived in Pennsylvania, where he not only
ministered to several congregations, but soon became virtual
superintendent of all the congregations. He brought the troubled
affairs of his own pastorate into order. He gradually guided and was
guided to a complete organization of his congregations. He prepared and
introduced the well ordered constitutions by which their affairs have
been regulated ever since, and which now forms the Order of Government
throughout the body of older congregations. His labors and counsels
were sought for, in ever-widening districts, until his oversight
extended from the middle of New York to Georgia. He gathered the
pastors and representatives of the congregations together and formed
the United Evangelical Lutheran Ministry, of which union he became
Senior; and he prepared the Order of Worship used throughout the
churches. Whether authority from the Fathers at Halle and London at the
beginning formally charged him with the oversight of the churches, I do
not know; but the common consent of all concerned, and their urgent
demand of such labor from him, actually made him Senior of the Ministry
and Superintendent of the Churches, as well as missionary in chief to
the scattered Lutherans in this land. He was called of God to this high
office, and the call came through the churches, formally perhaps,
certainly really.

And he was admirably fitted for this great work by natural talents and
character, by liberal culture with severe formative trials in the
attainment of it, and also by the peculiar circumstances and influences
which surrounded him before coming to America.

His large mental powers, his force and energy of purpose, his
self-forgetfulness and power of endurance, his consuming zeal and
devotion of his whole faculties to his work, his tender sympathy and
ardent love of souls, together with his admirable judgment and prudence,
made him a born ruler of men.

There is one characteristic of the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in
America which is of such importance to his own times and which, after a
century has passed, continues to have so great significance, that it
claims attention; it is his fidelity to the confessions of the Lutheran
Church. The founda