504 



LUTHERANS. 



52 at the other stations. The pupils in the 

 various districts number 525. There were 

 baptized during the year, 235 ; the number of 

 Christians is 2,037. The receipts for the year 

 amounted to $10,288.20; the expenditures 

 were $10,307.89. The Rev. I. K. Poulsen, who 

 had been laboring in India since January, 1871, 

 returned to his home in Denmark, on account 

 of impaired health. The missionary operations 

 are extending so widely and rapidly that mis- 

 sionaries are needed at once. The mission now 

 has a printing-press, which is doing excellent 

 work in disseminating religious tracts and 

 books. A Telugu edition of "Bible History," 

 with illustrations, is shortly to be issued. 



Immigrant Mission. The annual reports of the 

 Rev. W. Berkenraeyer and Mr. A. B. Lilja, the 

 German and Swedish missionaries at New 

 York, showed that 59,248 Swedish and 11,771 

 German emigrants passed through the Emi- 

 grant House, at 26 State Street, New York. Of 

 Germans, 1,192 were aided out of the benevo- 

 lent funds of the mission. The receipts for the 

 year were $17,285.11 ; the expenditures, $16,- 

 034.66 ; and for the chaplain on Ward's Island, 

 $408.50. The money deposited for emigrants 

 amounted to $84,612.94. 



Church-Hook Committee. The committee's re- 

 port embraced : 1. The remainder of ministerial 

 acts not completed last year, i. e., forms for the 

 visitation of the sick, communion of the sick, 

 commendation of the dying, and burial of the 

 dead. 2. The common service for the use of 

 all English-speaking Lutherans, prepared by 

 the joint committee of the General Council, the 

 General Synod, the United Synod of the South. 

 It has already been published by the latter two 

 bodies, and the edition of the Council is to be 

 published as soon as possible. 3. The stand- 

 ard English translation of the " Augsburg Con- 

 fession," and Luther's " Small Catechism." For 

 the former, the Latin editio princeps of 1530 

 has been made the basis, and Richard Tavern- 

 er's English translation of 1535 the standard 

 of the English edition. For the use of the com- 

 mittee, the English edition of 1536 has been 

 republished by the Lutheran Publication So- 

 ciety, Philadelphia, under the title " The Augs- 

 burg Confession, translated from the Latin, 

 in 1536, by Richard Taverner, edited by Henry 

 E. Jacobs, D. D." Richard Taverner, the trans- 

 lator, was a celebrated lawyer and classical 

 scholar, educated at Oxford and Cambridge. 

 He was chief clerk to Thomas Cromwell, the 

 distinguished minister of Henry VIII, who 

 was a faithful and zealous Lutheran. All of 

 Taverner's fine attainments were devoted to 

 the cause of the restored Gospel. In 1552 he 

 was licensed to preach, and in this capacity did 

 good service. He will always be remembered 

 for his excellent and idiomatic translation of 

 the Bible in 1539. He also supplied the people 

 with "postils" or sermons to be used in 

 churches where no other provision could be 

 made for the preaching of the Gospel, and in 

 many ways rendered efficient service in bring- 



ing before the people the writings of the re- 

 formers. For the standard English translation 

 of the catechism, Luther's last edition of 1542 

 has been adopted, and Dr. Philip F. Mayer's 

 translation has been made the basis of the new 

 translation. In addition to the three general 

 bodies uniting in securing a uniform English 

 edition of these Lutheran standards, the Joint 

 Synod of Ohio has decided to take part. Closely 

 allied to the Church-book Committee are the 

 Committee on Sunday-School Work, who pre- 

 sented an elaborate schedule for a seven years' 

 course of lessons, covering the infant, inter- 

 mediate, and advanced departments in Sunday- 

 schools, and furnishing lessons from the Old 

 and New Testaments, from the latter for the 

 festival, and from the former for the non-festi- 

 val portion of the Church year. The commit- 

 tee was instructed to issue a graded series of 

 lessons for the schools, and have it ready for 

 use as soon as possible. During this conven- 

 tion, services were held in the interest of home 

 and foreign missions, education, benevolent 

 operations, and the work of deaconesses, be- 

 sides a special service, in the Exposition Build- 

 ings, on Friday, Sept. 14, in honor of the 

 quarto-millennial anniversary of the settlement 

 (in 1638) of the Swedes on Delaware river. 

 The next convention of this body will be held 

 in Pittsburg, Pa., Oct. 12. 1889. 



Synodical Conference. This general body, or- 

 ganized in 1872, embraces the following four, 

 exclusively German, district synods: Joint 

 Synod of Missouri and other States, Wisconsin 

 Synod, Minnesota Synod, and English Confer- 

 ence of Missouri numbering 1,238 clergymen, 

 1,740 congregations, and 341,337 members. 

 There are within its bounds 3 theological semi- 

 naries, 3 colleges, 7 academies, and 14 orphans' 

 homes, hospitals, and immigrant missions. This 

 general body held its twelfth convention in 

 Trinity (German) Lutheran Church, Milwau- 

 kee, Wis. The opening sermon was delivered 

 by the Rev. A. Ernst, Professor in the North- 

 western University, based on Eph. iv, 3-6. 

 Nine sessions were held, of which five were 

 devoted to the discussion of the doctrinal sub- 

 ject unity of faith, and four to the transaction 

 of business. The following officers were 

 elected: President, Rev. John Bading; Vice- 

 president, Rev. -M. Tirmenstein; Secretary, 

 Rev. C. Gausewitz; Treasurer, II. A. Christian- 

 sen. The home missionary work of the body 

 is carried on by the district synods. Mission- 

 ary work is carried on by the conference among 

 the colored people of the South, seven mission- 

 aries being located in Arkansas, Louisiana, 

 Virginia, and Illinois. The contributions for 

 this work for two years amounted to $21,- 

 308.02, and the expenditures to $20,722.21. 

 The next convention will be held in St. Paul, 

 Minn., in 1890. 



United Synod in the South. This general body, 

 organized in 1886, held its second convention 

 in Savannah, Ga., Nov. 24-29, 1887. (See 

 "Annual Cyclopedia" for 1887, p. 449.) It 



