ork
and New Jersey were certainly moulded by that of Amsterdam and London,
as well as by the surrounding Dutch Reformed Churches. And these all
had some influence in shaping the form of the Philadelphia Constitution.
And then, too, our Churches here were in close relation to the German
Reformed Churches in the same section, and they greatly influenced, not
so much the ministers as the people, to whose demands the constitution
was in part a concession. But, nevertheless, the resemblance is more in
outward form than inner spirit. There are elders, but the whole spirit
which creates and pervades the office of Ruling Elder in the Ordonnances
Ecclesiastiques de l'Eglise de Geneve, the KOO. of the Netherlands, even
of the Lutheran Churches in Mark Brandenberg, is entirely wanting. The
elders and Vorsteher are so much alike that the care of the purity of
the church is attributed more to the one, and that of the poor more to
the other, but it is a distinction with little difference. The trustees
were required by the law of that time and are no integral part of the
plan. The elders and deacons are the representatives and agents of the
congregation and their office rests only on the right of the
congregation to act, and its ability to deputize some to act for all.
The needs of the church's affairs call for some such deputies and they
are provided. The American representative and elective mode of
government had perhaps as much influence as anything else in forming the
views of the people; and the adaptation of this constitution to these
sentiments and wants and modes of thought and action has been the chief
reason for its general acceptance and permanent endurance.

Beale M. Schmucker

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGREGATION
IN THE EARLY LUTHERAN CHURCHES IN AMERICA***

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