National Republican., 1883-10-15
OUR GERMAN PEOPLE.


REV. DIR. BuTLER's PLEA FOR GERMAN I'M
MIGRATION AT THE MEMORIAL LUTHERAN
CHURCH.
The pastor Of the Memorial Lutheran church,
Rev. J. g. Butler, yesterday morning preached
from the toxt: God is no rospecter of per-
sons. but in every nation he that feareth Him
and worketh righteousness is accepted with
Him." The sermon was an earnest plea for
our large German immigration. in which the
preacher, himself of Germanic descent. and
the Lutheran church, are especially inter-
ested. The bicentennial, which has just been
celebrated in this city and in most of the
cities of tho land, commomorates che coming
of small colony of Germans under Daniel
Francis Pastorius rs their leader, and the
settlement of Germantown, Pa. This immi-
grafton was the outgrowth of the piotistic
revival in Germany under Spencer, and these
worthy immigrants, like the pilgrim fathers,
came not to escape religious Observance, but
to enjoy religious liberty. They were godly
people; and in Philadelphia the bicentennial
was properly observed, not by concert on
the Lords day, but by religious service in tho
churches, the concert on Saturday previous,
and the procession on the Monday following.
The irreligious element do not properly re.
present the immigrants who came to Ger
mantown in 1858.
iThe earliest Lutheran immigration to this
new world was from Holland in 1921 by the
people who founded New Amsterdam. In
1886 a colony of Swedes settled on the Della
ware river, where their picturesqe and
ANTIQUE churches yet stand. Some seventy
years later there was largo immigration,
settling along the banks of the Hudson.
Others of them settled in Pennsylvania, and
Maryland, and Virginia. Still later in 1873,
a colony settled in Georgia, where the town
nfI hnn Unf lie a In
faith in the Lord Jehovah. 1t was not until
1742, when Henry Melchior Muhlenberg,
who is regarded as the great patriarch of
American Lutheranism, came to Pennsyl-
vania and was followed soon after by such
men as Brunnhaltz, Handschuh, Hartwig,
Hentzelman, Schiltz, and Others The
substantial churches that fill the
rich belt of land running from
Philadelphia through Lancaster, Har-
risburg, Allentown, Lebanon, York, Cham
bersburg, Hagerstown, Frederick, Winches-
ter, and other towns in the valley of Virginia
tell the character of our German fathers.
They brought their Bibles and prayer books
and catechisms, their teachers and pastors
with them. They built school houses and
churches, and their descendants to-day are
among the most substantial of our American
people. This early immigration continued
and multiplied until now probably one
eighth of our whole population is from the
land of Luther, and still they come by thou
sands and tens of thousands. We have no
class of immigrants superior to our friends
who come from Germania and Scandinavia,
Whilst multitudes of them are found in
the great cities of the land, many more of
them dot tho prairies of the west with evil
dences of their thrift whilstwell nigh in every
valley and upon every hill side we find the
German, the Swede or the Norwegian. These
men come to us with skilled labor. They are
among our best farmers and mechanics, mer-
chants and professional men. Their industry,
trugality, and integrity are proverbial. Soon
they will acquire large part of the material
wealth Of the land. That they should love
their beer and wine is not strange, for in their
own land everybody indulges in the social
glass. Under the influences of their new
home many of them deplore the demoralizing
effects of the saloon as heartily as do we. 1t
is noteworthy fact that in the
late fight in Iowa against the
liquor power some of the heaviest
majorities for prohibition, it is said
were in counties inhabited by Germans and
Scandinavians under Lutheran pastors. The
habits and convictions Of a nation cannot be
changed in day. The friends of this great
and needed reform must ask the wisdom of
the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.
God gives these. That there is much skepti-
cism and irreligion among these people there
can be no doubt, as there is among our own
people. Hear the venerable emperor, who
stood like rock with upshaken faith in God,
the ruler of nations, at the unveiling of the
Germania the other day, the monument to
commemorate the victory of the empire over
France. Hear His noble words:
The Almighty conducted these arms after san
culinary conflicts from victory to victory, and
United Germany takes its place in the history o.
the world, Millions of hearts have raised tneiI
prayers to God, and given him humble thanks
praising Him for esteeming us worthy of accom-
desires TO give constant expression 10 this feeling
ofgratitudc. In this sense the monument stand
al the laying of the foundation stones, words
which my late father, after the wars of liberation
Of 1873 to lsl5 bcqueathea In iron to ,posterity,
dedicate this monument: ITO the fallen. me
mortal; TO the living, an acknowledgment; tc
coming generations source OF emulation. May
God vOuchsHfe it,"
There is much faith and piety among these
strangers from the fatherland Whilst many
of them neglect Gods house, yet many thous
ands of them are gathered into Christian
churches, with faithful and self-sacrificine
pastors pastors and churches that deplore as
heartily as do you and i saloon suppers and
balls in the name of Christ. Very many OF
them are with us in our scriptural views OF
tho Lords day and its proper observance
Gathered into our churches the faithful pastor
will Join mo in my testimony as to the con
sstency and steadfastness of their piety.
wish this church were filled with them fol
their own and their children's sake. They
will do well as soon as they can understand
our language to identify them selves with our
English speaking churches. The policy that
excludes our language from German churches
is enthusiastically suicidal. That the
German should love his rich ant
grand tongue is not strange, but We arr
in America and not in Germany. Gu
children necessarily become Anglicized, and
tho wise policy is that which trains them il
our American churches in which many o
them have already become pillars. He bad
them all welcome to this Memorial church
and said that both he and his people would
do what in them lies to make our bretherI
from the fatherland feel that God is no re
specter of persons, aud in every nation h.
that feareth him and and worketh righteous
ness is accepted with him.
In closing the pastor commended TO tn
German people the church of the fatherland
"a mission of this Memorial church. of whicl
tho Rev. Mr.. Homrighaus is the excellen
pastor. He also announced that upon mex
Sunday morning he would preach upo
Luther and the Sabbath keeping.
MORALITY BOUND UP WITH CHRIS
TIANlTY.
ELOQUENT SERMON by REV. DIR. LOCKE, o
CHICAGO. AT EPIPHANY CHURCH,