chmucker made a similar tour in America,
collecting from Congregationalists and others $14,917 for the Seminary
Fund. Only if Gettysburg will nourish, said I. Oswald in the Seminary
Report of 1837, "we can expect that the Gospel-trumpet will be blown
from the Wittenberg in America with the result that the Germans who have
settled in the various States and are scattered in our extended
countries (some of whom are famishing for lack of knowledge, and by
reason of circumstances are outcasts of the church) will hear and come
to adore the Lord in His holy mountain." (1837, 61.) In every direction
the General Synod developed a lively activity. In 1842, the year of the
Muhlenberg centennial jubilee, the General Synod made strenuous efforts
to raise a fund of $150,000 for its charitable institutions. (1841, 53
ff.) "What is this sum," it was said, "for a church numbering 100,000
members and more than 25,000 families? It amounts to only $1.50 for each
member, and not even $10 for every family!" In 1857 the General Synod
resolved: "That the churches in connection with the General Synod be
recommended to observe our regular ecclesiastical festivals in
commemoration of the fundamental facts of our religion, _viz._:
Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday, in the
hope and persuasion that by the divine blessing they will be found to
be, as they have often proved, occasions of reviving to our
congregations." (32.) In 1866 the resolution was added: "That it be
recommended to the ministers and churches in our connection to celebrate
the thirty-first of October in each year in commemoration of the
commencement of the Reformation." (42.) In 1879, the three hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Luther's Catechism, the
General Synod resolved that we "reaffirm our appreciation of Luther's
Smaller Catechism as the best manual of instruction preparatory to
church-membership." (39.) In the same year the resolution was adopted:
"That in view of the fact that 1880 will be the semicentennial of the
Augsburg Confession, every pastor of the General Synod be requested to
preach on that subject on or near the twenty-fifth of June in that
year." (40.) The General Synod organized the "Parent Educational
Society" for assisting ministerial students; the "Central Missionary
Society" for domestic missions; the "Foreign Mission Society" for work
in India; and established a "Pastors' Fund," a book company, etc. The
Genera