Four higher schools connected with the churches of New York have endeared themselves to the hearts of their friends and are giving promise of growing usefulness.

Concordia College originated in St. Matthew’s Academy, in 1881.  After years of struggle and sacrifice it was moved to Bronxville in 1908, where it occupies a valuable property.  It has 110 students.

Wagner College was called into being in 1883 in Rochester.  It belongs to the New York Ministerium.  Numerous pastors in this city are alumni of Wagner College.  In 1916 it was decided to move the college to New York.  A splendid property of 38 acres was purchased on Grymes Hill near Stapleton, Staten Island, and in the Fall of 1918 it will take up its work within the precincts of Greater New York.

Upsala College began as an academy in Brooklyn in 1893.  It belongs to the Swedish Augustana Synod.  It was moved to Kenilworth, N. J., in 1898, and became a college in 1904.  Within ten years it has contributed more than forty pastors, missionaries and teachers to the work of the church.

Hartwick Seminary is on the headwaters of the Susquehanna in Otsego County.  It is a product of the eighteenth century and not of the twentieth.  But since Johann Christopher Kunze, pastor of the Old Swamp Church, was one of its founders, and since it still contributes pastors to the work of the churches in New York, in spite of its distance from the city it must not be overlooked in our mention of the schools of New York.

Under the auspices of the Inner Mission Society Pastor Buermeyer has developed a much-needed work among our brothers and sisters who in their old age or by reason of sickness, loneliness or poverty are not reached by the ordinary ministrations of the congregation.  It is known its the City Mission and it will doubtless receive the continued support of all who read carefully the 25th chapter of St. Matthew.

The Hospice for Young Men is another form of Inner Mission work in which a good beginning has been made.

The Lutheran Society was organized in 1914.  “Its object is to promote the general interests of the Lutheran Church by encouraging a friendly intercourse among its members.”  At this writing, in 1918, it numbers over four hundred members.  By bringing together in friendly intercourse active churchmen of otherwise widely separately congregations and synods it has contributed materially to a better understanding of the aims and the tasks of our entire communion.

Under its auspices the quadricentennial anniversary of the Reformation was celebrated in this city in a manner worthy of the occasion.  The executive secretary of the committee, Pastor O. H. Pannkoke, reports as follows on the general results of the celebration: 

“Two facts are of considerable interest, such as to class them as worthy of recording as a permanent accomplishment.  In the first place we have had the cooperation in this undertaking of every Lutheran synod represented in New York, and I believe we have succeeded in carrying through the undertaking without violating the confidence placed in us by any section of the Lutheran Church.