A series of conferences was held from month to month, in which men of the various German sects took counsel together over the dissensions of their people, and over the question how the ruinous effects of these dissensions could be avoided.

The plan was, not to attempt a merger of the sects, nor to alienate men from their habitual affiliations, but to draw together in cooeperation and common worship the German Christians, of whatever sect, in a fellowship to be called, in imitation of a Pauline phrase (Eph.ii.

22), "the Congregation of God in the Spirit." The plan seemed so right and reasonable and promising of beneficent results as to win general approval.

It was in a fair way to draw together the whole miserably divided German population.[191:1] At once the "drum ecclesiastic" beat to arms.

In view of the impending danger that their scattered fellow-countrymen might come into mutual fellowship on the basis of their common faith in Christ, the Lutheran leaders at Halle, who for years had been dawdling and haggling over the imploring entreaties of the shepherdless Lutheran populations in America, promptly reconsidered their _non possumus_, and found and sent a man admirably qualified for the desired work, Henry Melchior Muehlenberg, a man of eminent ability and judgment, of faith, devotion, and untiring diligence, not illiberal, but a conscientious sectarian.