A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

Friesen described the rural congregations as "left with an ecclesiastical, doctrinally cor- rect, moral formalism (always, however, with the exception of 'Elijah's 70000« Correct doctrine and morality had replaced true faith. The good house of Menno had become practically desolate and empty and was about to collapse."19 A major factor in the spiritual decline of the church in Russia was lack of adequate leadership. For the most part, the educated leaders in the Prussian Mennonite community did not migrate to Russia. Of their unwillingness to move with the pioneer settlements John B. Toews, historian of the Russian experience, wrote: "They knew that the practice of their art was not an option- They could not expose their modest treasures to the cross winds of a new language and new culture. The intellectual had too much to lose."19 As a result, the cultural leadership became largely the responsibility of the church elders, most of whom were uneducated and ill equipped for the task. Peter M. Friesen likened their incom- 6 A PHENOMENON OF RENEWAL petent leadership to "a blind leader of the blind, void of any apparent education or theological knowledge as well as any spiritual life emanating from God."20 Mennonites in Russia-geographically isolated, intellectual- ly anemic and spiritually impoverished-"had become a society to themselves. Religion and politics had intermingled, church and state had become one."21 The church had become spiri- tually impotent. When the light that is in the church is dark- ness, then how great is that darkness. Historian John A. Toews aptly stated the issue: WA river cannot rise higher than its source. But for the grace of God, a people can rise no higher than their heritage and their leader- ship.*122 In the midst of the generally incompetent leadership were exceptions like Bernhard Harder (1832-1884). Cornelius Krahn described him as following an "independent, warmly evangelistic course within the entire brotherhood, aiming to lift its spiritual and cultural aspects, thus making a singular contribution comparable to that of Johann Cornies in the eco- nomic realm."23 In a letter to the periodical Mennonitische Blatter, dated July 28, 1862, he expressed deep pain about the conditions of the church of which he was a part: Friend! brother! father! or whatever else you wish to be to me who am as yet a very inexperienced person in the ser- vice of the Word and the ways of God, I cast myself on your breast and weep, for things look very sad in our midst and yet I love our people with the passion of a first