nfluence. Its chief value was
in its efeet [sic] upon the young people. Hitherto they hardly
comprehended the significance of their church. Its services were
conducted in a language which they understood with difficulty. As they
grew up and established new homes in the suburbs where there were few
churches of their faith, they easily drifted out of their communion. A
great change came over them at this time. They began to take an active
interest in church questions and in church extension. As they followed
the inevitable trend to the suburbs they connected themselves with
churches of their faith or organized new ones and became active workers
in them. The remarkable increase of congregations in the entire
Metropolitan District was to a large extent owing to the impulse derived
from the quadricentennial of 1883.

When Lutherans of various churches and synods were thus brought together
there was one thing that puzzled them. They could not understand why
there should be so many kinds of Lutherans and why they should have so
little to do with one another. This feeling soon found expression in the
organization of societies of men interested in the larger mission of the
Church.

In 1883 the Martin Luther Society was organized by such laymen as Arnold
J. D. Wedemeyer, Jacob F. Miller, John H. Tietjen, Jacob A.
Geissenhainer, George P. Ockerhausen, Charles A. Schieren, John H.
Boschen and others, originally for the purpose of preparing a suitable
celebration of the Luther Quadricentennial. In this effort they were
successful. In addition to their local work in the interest of the
celebration they secured the erection of a bronze statue of Luther in
Washington.

But the chief reason for the organization of the Society was indicated
in a letter sent to the pastors and church councils of the Lutheran
churches of New York and vicinity which read in part as follows:

"In view of the efforts made all around us to bring about a closer and
more harmonious relation between the various Protestant denominations,
the Martin Luther Society of the City of New York respectfully begs you
to consider whether the time has not come to make an effort to bring
about, if not a union, at least a better understanding and more
fraternal intercourse between the Lutherans themselves. We all deplore
the divisions that separate us; we believe that the reasons for these
divisions are more imaginary than real, and we are persuaded that a free
and frank