On this doctrine our church differs not only in theory but also in practice from many of our Protestant brethren.  In some of their original confessional statements the Reformed churches declared that the Spirit of God required no means of grace, since He worked immediately and directly.  They claimed that the corporeal could not carry the spiritual, and that the finite could not be made the bearer of the infinite.  Over against these hyperspiritual views our Church believes that through the word and the sacraments the Holy Ghost effectively offers to the sinner the gifts of salvation.

There are other marks of our Church, but these are its main characteristics, and they suffice to indicate our general position in relation to Christian thought.

If, now, we should be called upon to define in a single sentence the distinctive features of Lutheranism, it might be done in these words of an unknown writer: 

“Lutheranism is that form of Protestant Christianity which makes Christ the only foundation, faith the only condition, and the word of God the only means of salvation.”

THEIR STORY

In the Seventeenth Century 1648-1700

Under the administration of the Dutch West India Company the Reformed Church was established in New Amsterdam in 1628.  The policy of the Company was to maintain the Reformed religion to the exclusion of all other churches.  But the cosmopolitan character of the future metropolis was evident even in its earliest history.  In 1643 the Jesuit missionary Jogues reports that besides the Calvinists, Lutherans and Anabaptists were to be found in the colony.  In 1644 eighteen languages were spoken by its inhabitants.

In 1648 the Lutheran community in the New Netherlands appealed to the Consistory of Amsterdam for a minister, but nothing was done for them.  In 1653 the request was renewed.  When the Reformed ministers heard of it, they strenuously objected to the admission of a Lutheran minister; they said this would open the door for all manner of sects and would disturb the province in the enjoyment of its religion.  Their attitude was supported by Governor Stuyvesant, who indeed went to great lengths in the enforcement of these views? [sic] Even the reading services, which the Lutherans held among themselves in anticipation of the coming of a minister, were forbidden, and fines and imprisonment were inflicted upon those who disobeyed.

Candor compels us to admit that this was the spirit of the age.  The Thirty Years’ War was going on at this time, and in a time of war ruthless methods are the vogue.

In 1657, to the joy of the Lutherans and the consternation of the Reformed, Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser (or Goetwater, as his name is often printed) arrived from Amsterdam to minister to the waiting congregation.  But Governor Stuyvesant had no use for a Lutheran minister and Gutwasser was ordered to return forthwith to the place from which he had come.  However, he succeeded in delaying his departure for nearly two years.