The celebration gave a marked impulse to our church work. Our congregations increased in numbers and in influence. Its chief value was in its efeet [sic] upon the young people. Hitherto they hardly comprehended the significance of their church. Its services were conducted in a language which they understood with difficulty. As they grew up and established new homes in the suburbs where there were few churches of their faith, they easily drifted out of their communion. A great change came over them at this time. They began to take an active interest in church questions and in church extension. As they followed the inevitable trend to the suburbs they connected themselves with churches of their faith or organized new ones and became active workers in them. The remarkable increase of congregations in the entire Metropolitan District was to a large extent owing to the impulse derived from the quadricentennial of 1883. When Lutherans of various churches and synods were thus brought together there was one thing that puzzled them. They could not understand why there should be so many kinds of Lutherans and why they should have so little to do with one another. This feeling soon found expression in the organization of societies of men interested in the larger mission of the Church. In 1883 the Martin Luther Society was organized by such laymen as Arnold J. D. Wedemeyer, Jacob F. Miller, John H. Tietjen, Jacob A. Geissenhainer, George P. Ockerhausen, Charles A. Schieren, John H. Boschen and others, originally for the purpose of preparing a suitable celebration of the Luther Quadricentennial. In this effort they were successful. In addition to their local work in the interest of the celebration they secured the erection of a bronze statue of Luther in Washington. But the chief reason for the organization of the Society was indicated in a letter sent to the pastors and church councils of the Lutheran churches of New York and vicinity which read in part as follows: "In view of the efforts made all around us to bring about a closer and more harmonious relation between the various Protestant denominations, the Martin Luther Society of the City of New York respectfully begs you to consider whether the time has not come to make an effort to bring about, if not a union, at least a better understanding and more fraternal intercourse between the Lutherans themselves. We all deplore the divisions that separate us; we believe that the reasons for these divisions are more imaginary than real, and we are persuaded that a free and frank interchange of opinions will materially help to remove whatever obstacles may be in the way.