John Caspar Stoever, a relative of Pastor J. C. Stoever, Sr., in Spottsylvania, Va., and placed him in charge of his congregations. Stoever, Jr., had studied theology in Germany, and after his arrival in America, 1728, had been active in mission-work among the Lutherans in Pennsylvania, a labor which he zealously continued till his sudden death in 1779, while confirming a class at Lebanon. Stoever's aversion to Pietism at first kept him from uniting with Muhlenberg. It was 1763, fifteen years after its organization, before he became a member of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. Concerning Stoever and the Agenda of 1748, Muhlenberg relates the following: "We were minded to employ the very words of our Lord Jesus: Take and eat; this is the body of Jesus Christ, etc. Take and drink, this cup is the New Testament in the blood of Christ, etc. At the baptism of children it was our intention to ask the sponsors, or godparents: Do you renounce in the name of this child, etc.? To this the opponents [Stoever, Wagner, and their adherents] objected strenuously before we had finished. We therefore made a change immediately and used the words which their terrified consciences desired, _viz_.: This is the _true body_, etc.; this is the _true blood_, etc., and in the formula of baptism: Peter, Paul, or Maria, dost thou renounce, etc.?" Graebner comments as follows: "If the Wagners and Stoevers [whom Muhlenberg severely censured in 1748] had committed no other crimes but that of compelling the 'united preachers' [from Halle] to take a decided Lutheran position, one might wish that their influence had extended still farther." In the following year, 1749, however, the Pennsylvania Synod changed the formula of baptism so that the sponsors were asked, "Do you renounce (believe) in the name of this child, etc.?" (Graebner, 327.) HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG.