d one
coworker after another began to labor at his side. Before long his
activity had exceeded the sphere of his three congregations. On request
he visited the scattered Lutherans in Germantown, Tulpehocken,
Lancaster, York, Raritan, Frederick. He was the counselor of poorly
served congregations, the judge in their quarrels. Confidence was
everywhere reposed in him. "By reason of his talent for organizing, his
erudition, but, above all, his unselfishness, his modesty, dignity, and
piety, he was in universal demand, and was compelled to take the lead,
which he also kept till his blessed departure from this world."
(_Lebensbilder_, 694.) Dr. H. E. Jacobs sketches Muhlenberg's character
as follows: "Depth of religious conviction, extraordinary inwardness of
character, apostolic zeal for the spiritual welfare of individuals,
absorbing devotion to his calling and all its details, were among his
most marked characteristics. These were combined with an intuitive
penetration and extended width of view, a statesmanlike grasp of every
situation in which he was placed, an almost prophetic foresight,
coolness, and discrimination of judgment, and peculiar gifts for
organization and administration." Dr. A. Graebner writes: "The task
which Muhlenberg found set before him when he entered upon the wild and
disordered field which had been allotted to him here, was such that, if
any one in Halle had been able to tell him and had told him what was
awaiting him in America, he would hardly have found the necessary
courage and cheerfulness to lay his hand to the plow which was to
convert this wild bramblepatch into an arable field. Still, where could
a second man have been found at that time who would have proven equal
to the task in the same measure as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg? Richly
endowed with a robust physique and a pious mind, with faithfulness in
matters great and small, with cheerful, but firm courage, with restless
activity and a spirit of progressive enterprise, with wisdom and
prudence, with the ability to inform himself quickly and to accommodate
himself to the circumstances, and, in addition to this, with the
necessary independence of volition and action,--characteristics
seldom found combined in one and the same person,--Muhlenberg was
splendidly equipped, both as to degree and variety, with the gifts
which a missionary and an organizer has need of. And from the very
first day of his planting and watering God gave a rich increa