ence is composed of 59 churches in the Eastern States and Canada, and they were all represented either by delegates or by letter. The churches had been requested to give in their letters a short sketch of the church, and it was very interesting to hear how God had so wonderfully blessed His work. We would like to make extracts from some of these letters, but space forbids. Let it suffice to say that it must have been clear to every one hearing the letters that God had given signal success to this German work.

Three new churches were elected to membership in the Conference, which are all mission stations of the Home Mission Society.

Thursday evening was devoted to a Jubilee meeting conducted in the English language, and held in the First Baptist Church of Williamsport. It was presided over by Rev. J. C. Grimmell, General Secretary of German Missions. The principal address was delivered by Rev. H. L. Morehouse, D.D., Corresponding Secretary of the Ameriican Baptist Home Mission Society. It will be found in full in this number of the MONTHLY, SO it is only necessary to say that it created great enthusiasm and was listened to with rapt attention. Addresses were also delivered by Rev. A. Henrich, of Nebraska, and Rev. Dr. E. A. Woods, the pastor of the church. The pastors of the other Baptist churches in the city were present and took part in the exercises.

Friday was devoted to the cause of home missions. The Mission Secretary presented his report, which showed that sixteen missionaries had labored within the bounds of the Conference, in co-operation with the Home Mission Society, who had all done successful work. It was unanimously voted to recommend to all German Baptist churches to take a special collection for the general work of the Home Mission Society. Interesting papers were read and ably discussed. Missionaries reported of the work on their respective fields, and a report of the Canadian Mission, which is in co-operation with the Conference, was presented.

In the evening a soul-stirring sermon was preached by Rev. P. Ritter, of Rochester, N. Y., from the text, "God is love."

The Committee on Obituaries reported Saturday morning, mentioning those who had departed during the year. The report called forth many tender and feeling re

marks. The Committee on Important Subjects in the Letters reported that 450 persons had been baptized during the year, against 370 the previous year; 351 had been received by letter and experience. Loss by death, letters, etc., 523, making a total membership of 6,233, and a net gain of 256 during the year.

The collections for home missions amounted to $3,104, and for foreign missions, $1,261.15. One hundred and forty-five scholars from the Sunday-schools had been baptized during the year.

The afternoon session was devoted to educational matters. Reports on the school at Rochester, N. Y., were presented and discussed. The question of the establishment of a German Baptist Academy in the West was considered, and resolutions adopted approving the establishment of such an academy and wishing the brethren of the West God-speed in their undertaking. An interesting sketch of the First German Baptist Church of Philadelphia, Pa., which Rev. Mr. Fleischmann organized and where he labored very successfully for about twenty-five years, was read.

Saturday evening was devoted to Sundayschool work. Mr. Gregor Speck, of New York, spoke of the Sunday-school work of the past. An extract from his interesting address is given in this number of the MONTHLY. Rev. C. A. Daniel, of New York, spoke of the work of the present day, and Rev. F. Meyer, of New Haven, Conn., of the work of the future.

Sunday morning the doctrinal sermon was preached by Rev. E. Anschütz, of West Hoboken, N. J., on "The Trinity." In the afternoon the Conference met with the church to celebrate the Lord's Supper. At night the church was packed to listen to the historical sermon by Rev. J. C. Grimmell, of Brooklyn, N. Y., which will also be found in this number of the MONTHLY. A collection was taken for home missions, which amounted to about $1,700.

This closed the sessions at Williamsport, and early Monday morning the delegates and visitors met and journeyed in a body to Anthony Township, where the first German Baptist church was organized. It was a very pleasant trip, and by no means the least interesting part being the last four miles into the country by means of twenty large farm-wagons.

Here the real Jubilee was held. A large tent had been erected, as no building in the neighborhood could accommodate the crowds, and dinner and supper was served on the grounds. Surrounded by dense forests, and a clear sky overhead, the Conference enjoyed "a real picnic," as some expressed it. But it must not be inferred that the time was all spent in jollification. Far from it.

Retrospective addresses were delivered and plans for the future laid. Sermons were preached, and many prayers of thanksgiving ascended to the Throne of Grace for the blessings upon the work in the past and imploring a continuance of the Divine favor. To adequately report the meetings would be impossible in the space at our command. There were so many good things said and done that justice could not be done.

The Conference and Jubilee closed Tues

day evening, all having had a most profitable and enjoyable time. They were favored with the most beautiful weather, and the interesting surroundings helped to make this a series of the meetings that will live in the minds of all who participated.

With thanksgiving to God for all His blessings in the past, the Conference adjourned, all feeling that with His gracious blessing they would press on to still greater conquests during the next fifty years. There is a great work yet before them, but why should they be discouraged? God will help them to bring their countrymen to Christ..

S.

The German Department of Rochester Theological Seminary.

BY REV. J. S. GUBELMANN, D.D.,
ROCHESTER, N. Y.

The work of the Baptists among the Germans of this country commenced fifty years ago, when a number of Germans in Lycoming County, Pa., were converted and baptized. In the year 1851 the number of German Baptist churches and ministers had so far increased that a German Baptist Conference or Association was formed. At the very first meeting of this Conference the need of a theological school for the training of an educated ministry was discussed. But how

could such a work be undertaken, the churches being as yet so few and feeble? At this juncture God inclined the Board of the New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Education to offer their assistance in founding such a school. The offer was gladly accepted, and, in 1852, the German Department of Rochester Theological Seminary was opened with three students; two of that number, Rev. C. Bodenbender of Buffalo, N. Y., and Rev. A. Hausler in Texas, are still on the field. Under God, much of the subsequent success of the German work in this couniry may be attributed to this timely action of the Board at Rochester.

At the beginning the facilities offered in the newly formed German Department were quite limited, but matters soon improved when some of the German students who came were able to be benefited by English instruction, and when other students came whose previous training in Germany enabled them to guide the studies of their less

favored brethren.

A decided advance was made when, in 1858, Rev. A. Rauschenbusch, D.D., a pupil of Neander, and a graduate of the University of Berlin, Germany, who had providentially been led to embrace Baptist principles, was called to assume the theological chair in the German Department. God gave this man to the churches at the right time. Under the administration and teaching of Prof. Rauschenbusch, the German Department, which had such a small beginning, prospered and increased visibly. Prof. Rauschenbusch may, in a true sense, be called the maker of this department. Under his faithful labors a constantly increasing number went forth from this institution to proclaim the Gospel to their countrymen.

With increasing numbers and demands, an increase in the teaching force became a necessity, and in 1872, Rev. H. M. Shäffer, then pastor of the First German Church in New York City, was called to the chair of New Testament Exegesis. Through his activity a students' dormitory was purchased at a cost of $20,000, and a preparatory department was organized in which candidates for the German ministry who needed preparatory training before entering upon their theological studies might receive the same. In 1882, the faculty was still further enlarged by the appointment of Rev. J. S. Gubelmann, then pastor of the First German

Church, Philadelphia, Pa., to the chair of Systematic Theology and of Homiletics.

Since 1890, when Prof. Rauschenbusch, on account of advancing years, relinquished his chair of Church History and Old Testament Interpretation, Prof. A. J. Ramaker, Principal of the Academy, serves as acting Professor of Church History, and Prof. L. Kaiser as Acting Professor of Old Testament Interpretation.

The old students' dormitory having long since ceased adequately to meet the demands of the institution, in 1890, largely through the exertions of Prof. Shäffer, and the munificence of Mr. John D. Rockefeller and many other generous givers, a new and and very commodious building has been erected at a cost of $40,000, which serves as a dormitory, and is supplied with lecture

rooms for the different classes, with a beautiful chapel, so that the needs of the institution in this direction are supplied for many years to come. The grounds and buildings of the German Department may now be valued at about $70,000.

The present condition of the German Department is highly encouraging. There are, at present, in the different departments fiftyfive students. The course of study in the Preparatory Department is more thorough than it has ever been before, and in the theological course, comprising three years, a thorough theological preparation is aimed at.

It may be truly said that the influence of this German Department for good has been marked. Over 150 have gone forth from it to labor as ordained ministers and mission

aries. Its graduates may be found doing work for the Master among the Germans in this land from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific; a large proportion of the German Baptist ministry in the land is composed of those who have gone forth from these walls, and, if we compute that about 25,000 Germans have been converted through our German Baptist ministry in this land (counting also the many who have drifted into English speaking churches), it may be safely said that this harvest of souls is, to a very large extent, the fruit of the earnest labor performed by the graduates of the German Department. They toil mostly in silence and oblivion. Little is said concerning them in public prints, but God witnesses and blesses their labors. Many of these graduates are doing a work that is highly prized by all who have had occasion to become acquainted with it. Rev. J. C. Haselhuhn, D.D., the Editor of the German Baptist Publication Society, exerts a wide influence both by his pen and his powerful preaching; Rev. J. C. Grimmell, the gifted preacher, is the indefatigable General Secretary of the German Home Mission work. Rev. G. A. Schulte has for years been occupying a position of great usefulness as the successful pastor of the First German Church in New York. All the members of the present faculty of the German Department were formerly students in that department.

The fruit and influence of this department is extending to Germany. Rev. P. W. Bickel, D.D., a former student at Rochester, exerts a wide influence among the Baptists in Germany, being at the head of the German publication work; Rev. G. Fetzer is Professor in the Baptist Theological Seminary at Hamburg, and some of the most successful laborers in Germany have received their theological training in the Seminary at Rochester.

In other lands brethren from this German Department are at work for the Master; among the Germans in Saratow, Russia, Brother H. H. Husmann is lifting up the banner of the Cross, and among the Germans in Williamstown, British Cafraria, Brother P. Riemer.

In heathen lands, Brother G. N. Thomssen is again successfully at work in India; Brother J. Heinrichs stands as a laborer in Ongole, having charge of that vast field dur

ing Dr. Clough's absence in this country; Brother A. Steffens has just laid himself upon the altar by going to Kameroon, West Africa, to take up again the missionary work abandoned by the English Baptists.

May that which under God has been accomplished through this institution be simply the harbinger of still greater blessings.

Publication Work Among the German Baptists.

BY REV. G. A. SCHULTE, NEW YORK, N. Y.

A very important instrumentality for the advancement of our cause among the Germans was the organization of the German Baptist Publication Society in 1866. The power of the printing press and the need of a religious paper for our church membership was fully recognized by the brethren at the first Conference of German Baptist churches in 1851. But how to accomplish the object was beyond their comprehension. There were only five ministers present at that Conference, representing about 412 members.

However, two years later, Rev. K. A. Fleischmann, with the promised aid of his fellow-laborers, issued the first number of a paper called Der Sendbote des Evangeliums, (The Gospel Messenger). It was a small, monthly, four-page sheet, and for the first years did not pay expenses. In 1858 Rev. Philip W. Bickel ventured out with a Sundayschool monthly called Der Muntere Säemann (The Cheerful Sower), and also with a little singing-book for Sunday-schools called "Das Singvögelein" (The Singing Bird). Both of these publications met with much favor, not only among our own Sunday-schools, but also in many schools of other denominations. Literature for German Sunday-schools was scarce at that time.

In 1859 a new Conference was organized in the West, where a number of churches had been organized. This Western Conference, although primarily not organized for publication work, urged Mr. Bickel, who was then preaching in Cincinnati, Ohio, to publish a paper in the interest of mission work in the West. He complied with the request, and in the same year Die Biene auf dem Missionsfelde (The Bee on the Mission Field) appeared.

The Eastern brethren were not favorable to this new enterprise, fearing that a divided interest and support might injure the paper already started. For a time it looked as if the German Baptist ranks were to be divided on this question; but wise counsels prevailed, and a General Conference to consider publication interests was called, which was held in September, 1866, in Wilmot, Ontario. At this Conference the first steps towards the organization of our German Baptist Publication Society were taken, as no organized effort had thus far been made to use the press fully in our cause. The headquarters of the Society were to be at Cincinnati, Ohio, and Rev. P. W. Bickel was elected Editor and Manager.

The Society thus organized had no means whatever-no capital to draw upon; but it did have a debt of several hundred dollars to commence with, owing to the purchase of some private enterprises, which were necessary to secure unity and harmony in the work.

Twenty-five years have now passed. What has God wrought? We cannot enter into detail, but we venture to say that the twentyfive years of German Baptist publication work compare favorably with those of that now formidable American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia. The Society, which in 1872 removed its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio, has a building valued at $15,000, containing a well equipped printing establishment, and has property in all amounting to more than $53,000. It publishes an eightpage weekly, and several Sunday-school papers and lesson helps. It has also published a large number of denominational books, as well as a large selection of tracts.

In 1873 Mr. II. Schulte was appointed Business Manager, while Mr. Bickel continued to act as Editor. The latter was, in 1877, called to assume charge of a similar and possibly larger work for our cause in Hamburg, Germany, as the successor of the eminent and distinguished Dr. J. G. Oncken, where he has since labored with much success.