The Organization of the Congregation in the Early Lutheran Churches in America by Beale M. Schmucker The Lutheran Church in this country has had an opportunity, as never before in its history, to determine for itself the whole form of its organization, uncontrolled by any external forces. In the old world the intimate and organic union of the church with the State left little liberty in this respect. When, therefore, the early Lutheran immigrants in this country were disposed to form themselves into congregations, to adopt regulations for their own government, to settle their relations to other Lutheran congregations, to determine the order of worship to be observed, they had to feel their way in the dark. No little time passed before all these matters became settled on a permanent basis. To follow them in their efforts to obtain a satisfactory organization of the congregation, is what I propose now to do. There is grave reason to doubt whether, prior to the arrival in Pennsylvania of Henry Melchior Muehlenberg, any of the German Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania had a well-developed, clearly defined, written constitution. I have carefully examined all the written records of nearly all the congregations which were in existence at that time, and have failed to find evidence of any such constitution. The first known written constitution of the church at Philadelphia was introduced in 1746 by Brunnholtz and Muehlenberg, and it was brief and rudimentary. The congregation at the Swamp, New Hanover, was the earliest German congregation in America, begun in 1703 by Justus Falckner, but whatever the form of organization which it may have received from him, or his immediate successor, no record of it is known to exist, and the first written constitution now known is in the hand-writing Muehlenberg. The Tulpehocken congregations were established by Palatinates from the Hudson and Mohawk, who came to Pennsylvania in 1723 and 1729. They were familiar with the congregational organizations in New York under Kocherthal and Falckner, which were formed under the counsel of Court Preacher Boehm, probably after the similitude of the Savoy Church in London, and under the influence of the long established Dutch Lutheran constitution in New York, based on that at Amsterdam. But no written constitution is now known in Tulpehocken earlier than that introduced by Muehlenberg. In all the old congregations the case is the same, so far as any known evidence proves. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.