r marks of our Church, but these are its main
characteristics, and they suffice to indicate our general position in
relation to Christian thought.

If, now, we should be called upon to define in a single sentence the
distinctive features of Lutheranism, it might be done in these words of
an unknown writer:

"Lutheranism is that form of Protestant Christianity which makes Christ
the only foundation, faith the only condition, and the word of God the
only means of salvation."

THEIR STORY

In the Seventeenth Century
1648-1700

Under the administration of the Dutch West India Company the Reformed
Church was established in New Amsterdam in 1628. The policy of the
Company was to maintain the Reformed religion to the exclusion of all
other churches. But the cosmopolitan character of the future metropolis
was evident even in its earliest history. In 1643 the Jesuit missionary
Jogues reports that besides the Calvinists, Lutherans and Anabaptists
were to be found in the colony. In 1644 eighteen languages were spoken
by its inhabitants.

In 1648 the Lutheran community in the New Netherlands appealed to the
Consistory of Amsterdam for a minister, but nothing was done for them.
In 1653 the request was renewed. When the Reformed ministers heard of
it, they strenuously objected to the admission of a Lutheran minister;
they said this would open the door for all manner of sects and would
disturb the province in the enjoyment of its religion. Their attitude
was supported by Governor Stuyvesant, who indeed went to great lengths
in the enforcement of these views? [sic] Even the reading services,
which the Lutherans held among themselves in anticipation of the coming
of a minister, were forbidden, and fines and imprisonment were inflicted
upon those who disobeyed.

Candor compels us to admit that this was the spirit of the age. The
Thirty Years' War was going on at this time, and in a time of war
ruthless methods are the vogue.

In 1657, to the joy of the Lutherans and the consternation of the
Reformed, Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser (or Goetwater, as his name is often
printed) arrived from Amsterdam to minister to the waiting congregation.
But Governor Stuyvesant had no use for a Lutheran minister and Gutwasser
was ordered to return forthwith to the place from which he had come.
However, he succeeded in delaying his departure for nearly two years.

The congregation, unmindful of Stuyvesant's fulminations against all
who taug