de
open, for the spirit of lies [rationalism] to enter and destroy the
vineyard of the Lord. You will learn from the report from Halle how the
swine are uprooting the garden of Christ in Germany. . . . Another
thing, dearest brethren, how shall we in the future supply our
congregations with pastors? Where shall we find ministers to meet our
need, which will increase from time to time! From Germany? Possibly a
secret Arian, Socinian, or Deist? For over there everything is full of
this vermin. God forbid! Under present circumstances, no one from
Germany! We ourselves must put our hands to the plow. God will call us
to account for it, and will let our children suffer for it, if we do not
wake up, and hazard something for the weal of immortal souls."--And
how did they now seek to provide help? Franklin College was founded in
conjunction with the German Reformed and other sects! Helmuth and other
Lutheran pastors were among the trustees of the institution. In an
appeal to the Lutheran congregations they say: "Where will you at last
find pastors and teachers if you do not send your children to college?
. . . Think you that your churches and schools can exist without them?
Either your children will have to content themselves with the poorest
kind of men, or else surrender language and religion, for which you have
laid the foundation, thus loading a great guilt upon yourselves. Dear
friends, German church-life can impossibly continue to exist as it has
hitherto existed in many places. In a few years the churches you already
have will be deserted. And what will then become of the increased number
of Germans dwelling in your midst? Are there not already a great number
of localities where the inhabitants hear no sermon for six to eight
weeks, and where the young grow up like the savages?" (515. 530.) The
Synod of 1818 also staked its hopes on Franklin College, which, however,
was eking out a pitiable existence, and finally became the exclusive
property of the Reformed. The dire need was apparent to all; the true
way out of the difficulty, however, no one saw nor wanted to see. And
the reason? Avarice on the part of the congregations, and a lack of
initiative and Lutheran earnestness and determination on the part of the
pastors. Nor did the seminaries founded in the first part of the
nineteenth century (Hartwick Seminary, established in 1815; Gettysburg
Seminary, in 1825; and the seminary of the South Carolina Synod, in
1829, at Lex