INDEPENDENT CONGREGATIONS.

Besides the independent synods there are a number of independent Lutheran congregations—that is, congregations which do not belong to any synod. In most cases the reason is not doctrinal, but simply a love of independence. Not infrequently the pastor of an independent congregation is himself a member of some synod. They are found in most of the States and Territories. They aggregate 231 organizations, 188 church edifices, with a seating capacity of 62,334, and valued at $1,249,745, and 41,953 communicants.

SUMMARY BY STATES OF ALL LUTHERANS.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE MENNONITES.

THE Mennonites take their name from Menno Simons, born in Witmarsum, Holland, in 1492. He entered the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1524 was appointed chaplain in Pingium. Two years later he began to read the Scriptures, which he had hitherto ignored. Becoming a close student of them, his views on various doctrines soon changed, and he was known as an evangelical preacher. Upon hearing of the decapitation of a devout Christian because he had renewed his baptism, Menno Simons began to examine into the Scriptural teaching on that subject, and was convinced that there was no Scriptural warrant for infant baptism. He remained in connection with the Church of Rome for several years, during which he wrote a book against the Münsterites. He renounced Catholicism early in 1536, and was baptized at Leeuwarden. In the course of the following year he was ordained a minister in what was then known as the Old Evangelical or Waldensian Church. From this time on to his death, in 1559, he was active in the cause of evangelical truth, traveling through northern Germany, and preaching everywhere. The churches which he organized as a result of his labors rejected infant baptism and held to the principle of non-resistance. A severe persecution began

to make itself felt against his followers, the Mennonites; and, having heard accounts of the colony established in the New World by William Penn, they began to emigrate to Pennsylvania near the close of the seventeenth century, that they might have opportunity to worship in peace.

The first Mennonite church in this country was established in Germantown. Upon the site occupied by that church a plain stone meeting-house, erected in 1770, now stands. The colony of Germantown, which had secured a tract of about six thousand acres of land, was increased from time to time by immigration from Europe. In 1688 the Mennonite meeting at Germantown adopted a protest against traffic in slaves, said to have been the first ever made on this continent. In this protest they say that many negroes are brought hither against their will, and though they are black "we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves than it is to have other white ones." The protest, which was sent to the Friends, asserted that "those who steal or rob men and those who buy or purchase them" are all alike. The protest was finally sent up to the Yearly Meeting of Friends, where, after some consideration, it was voted not to be proper for the meeting to give a positive judgment in the case. The minute of the Yearly Meeting refers to the Mennonites as "German Friends."

Successive immigrations from Holland, Switzerland Germany, and, in the last twenty-five years, from southern Russia, have resulted in placing the great majority of Mennonites in the world on American soil, in the United States and Canada. According to the census reports for 1890, the number of members in this country, exclusive of Canada, is less than 42,000. This is the first complete

statistical statement that has been made of the Mennonites, and the number of members returned is much smaller than was expected. In 1860 there was a general meeting of Mennonites in Iowa, and the minutes of that conference estimated the number of Mennonites in the United States at 128,000. That estimate must have been a great deal too high, or the denomination has suffered extraordinary losses since.

The doctrines held by the Mennonites are set forth in eighteen articles of faith, which were adopted at a conference held in Dordrecht, Holland, in 1632. The first article treats of the Trinity and of God's work in creation; the second of the fall of man through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, who were "separated and estranged from God, that neither they themselves, nor any of their posterity, nor angel, nor man, nor any other creature in heaven or on earth, could help them, redeem them, or reconcile them to God." They would have been eternally lost had not God interposed in their behalf with love and mercy. The third article shows how the first man and his posterity are restored through the sacrifice of the Son of God. The next ten articles set forth the doctrines of salvation, the ordinances, and treat of marriage and the magistracy. The fourteenth article declares one of the prominent principles of the Mennonites, namely, non-resistance. It enjoins believers not to provoke or do violence to any man, but to promote the welfare and happiness of all; to flee when necessary for the Lord's sake from one country to another, "take patiently the spoiling of our goods," and "when we are smitten on one cheek to turn the other, rather than take revenge or resent evil." Enemies are to be prayed