454 AUTHENTIC HISTOEY 



Thus disappointed iu its hopes, the Church continued vacant till January, 1750, when 

 the Bev. Ludicig Ferdinand Vock, became the pastor. His ministry, however, was short. 

 Owing to some dissatisfaction, the relation between him and the congregation was dis- 

 solved at the end of the year. 



He was succeeded by the Bev. William Otterbein, a native of Dillenburg, in Nassau, 

 Germany, who was induced by Schlatter to become a missionary to the destitute Gemian 

 Churches in America. Full of vigor and holy zeal, he entered upon his pastoral duties 

 in August, 1752. "Under his ministry, the old small wooden church, which stood in the 

 back part of the graveyard, was superseded by a massive stone church, at the street, 

 which was built in 1753 and only taken down in 1852, having stood almost a century. 

 Internally, the congregation greatly i^rospered. Evidences of his order and zeal look 

 out iipon us from the records in many ways; and enterprises, started in his time, have 

 extended their results, in the permanent features of the congregation, down to this 

 day." He resigned his charge at the close of 1758, with the intention of visiting his 

 native land.l The congregation then extended a call to the Bev. Dr. William Stay, 

 who was one of the six ministers brought by Schlatter to this country in 1752. He 

 began his ministry at Lancaster iu October, 1758, and continued his labors with consid- 

 erable vigor and enterprise till January, 1763. In January, 1765, the Bev. William- 

 Hendel, D. D., became pastor of the congregation, and served it with zeal, piety and 

 faithfulness till September, 1769. He was followed by the Bev. Charles Lewis BoeJime, 

 whose ministry at Lancaster ended July, 1775. After a vacancy of six months, the 

 Bev. John Albert Helfenstein became the pastor. Mr. Helfenstein sprang from a family 

 in which the ministry has had an uninterrupted succession from the Keformation to the 

 present time. He was born in the Palatinate, Germany, 1748. Having finished his 

 studies at the University of Heidelberg, and resolved to devote himself as a missionary 

 among his brethren in the New World, he came to America in 1772, under the care of 

 the Synod of Holland, and settled as pastor of the Germantown charge, near Philadel- 

 phia. After laboring here with marked success for about three years, he received a call 

 from the congregation at Liincaster, which, after due consideration, he resolved to accept. 

 In January, 1776, he entered upon the duties of his new charge, in which he continued 

 till July, 1779. "During his ministry at Lancaster, the captive Hessians of Trenton 

 were barracked in that town, and it became his duty frequently to preach to them. ' ' 



After Mr. Helfenstein resigned, the Bev. John Theobald Faber was called to the 

 charge, in which he continued from September 1779 to September 1782. It appeal's 

 that his ministry was successful, and the records of baptisms and confirmations show 

 that he performed a large amount of ministerial duty. In September 1782, the same 

 month in which Mr. Faber left. Dr. Hendel, iu answer to a second call, removed again 

 to Lancaster, returning with his former learning, eloquence, zeal and piety. The 

 second term of his ministry in the congregation continued twelve years, and they were 

 years of unusual spiritual prosperity to the Church. Dr. Hendel was succeeded by 

 the Bev. Dr. Christian Becker, who entered ui:>on his pastoral duties in March 1795 and 

 continued in the discharge of them till June 1806, when he removed to Baltimore. He 

 was a man of extensive learning and great dignity of character, and commanded the 

 universal respect of the community. The Ber>. John Henry Hoffmeier, born at Anhalt- 

 Koethen, Germany, and educated at Halle, came to America in 1793 and became the 

 pastor of the Lancaster congregation in 1806. His ministry extended through a quarter 

 of a century. It was during this jjeriod that the question of English preaching was 

 first agitated. Previously the Church ministrations were all conducted in the Gemran 

 language; but the congregation, rapidly becoming English, demanded that part of the 



1 William Otterbein, in conjunction with Martin Boehm, is said to have founded the sect called the 

 United Brethren in Christ, or Vereinigte Brueder, but I am assured by the present pastor of the First 

 Eeformed Church that he never seceded, but died in the communion of the German Keformed Church. 



J. I. IMOMBERT. 



