CHAPTER  XXVII

THE MODERN PILGRIM FATHERS

The one institution surviving from New Neth¬
erland, the depository of its authentic history
and the incarnation of its spirit, is " the Reformed
Church in America." It comprises about half a
million people in seven hundred congregations,
chiefly in eastern New York and northern New
Jersey, in the Hudson, Mohawk, and Raritan val¬
leys, and in Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska, with
its chief seats of education at New Brunswick,
New Jersey, and Holland, Michigan.

Reviewing the history of the Church from 1628
to 1792, we note the successive steps: (1) emi¬
gration from Holland (1628-64); (2) resist¬
ance to English attempts to establish the church
of a small minority upon a vast majority (1664-
1708); (3) the conflict within, between dead
formulas and a higher moral life (1708-54) ;
and (4) finally, the struggle to harmonize Old
World ideas and New World necessities, including
the change of language from Dutch to English
(1754-71), resulting in the mastery of the Eng¬
lish language and the establishment of a college
and school of theology.

Hardly had the strife of tongues ceased and the