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

cause and place it into the service of Christ just as Moses and Daniel utilized the "wisdom of the Egyptians and Chaldeans" for the service of Jehovah. Let us inspire our youth in our area of influence for education and ait, but let us teach them to know Jesus as "most glorious of all" and as the "fullness of all that is; in whom all fullness dwells."5 The concern for education in the context of Christian faith has remained a priority for Mennonite Brethren at home and in their mission abroad.6 At the beginning of the twentieth century the Mennonite communities in Russia maintained some four hundred schools, including a school of commerce, thirteen secondary schools, which met the academic standards of the Russian university, intermediate educational institutes for men and women, village schools and estate schools. Village and es- tate schools were co-educational, staffed by more than five hundred teachers required to be proficient in both Russian and German and qualified to give religious instruction as a central part of the curriculum. An impressive roster of teachers provided the soul for ed- ucational progress. From the 1830s to the 1850s the most no- table were Tobias Voth, Heinrich Heese and Heinrich Franz. By the turn of the century the educational giants were such men as Peter Hoizricter, Franz Peter Isaak, Johann Braeul, Ko- melius Unruh, Abram Goertz, David G. Duerksen and Hein- rich P. Unruh. The code for education prescribed by the legendary Jo- hann Cornies in the mid-nineteenth century remained the stan- dard for Mennonite schools until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The central emphasis was on culture and morals based on intensive instruction in biblical history and catechism. This center, plus strong academic requirements in basic general ed- 117 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH ucation, art, memorization and languages, provided a unique character-building discipline. The influence of this system on the emerging Mennonite Brethren was considerable in that many of the leaders, especially the ministers, came from the ranks of Mennonite teachers. Publications By the turn of the century Mennonites in Russia were pro- ducing numerous publications, most of them related to faith, life and history. Collections of published sermons and poetry from this period were noteworthy, though much of this litera- ture was lost in the turmoil of the revolution and the decades that followed, Mennonite Brethren provided important leadership in the area of publications. The Christttcfoer Famtiien-Kalender, which appeared in 1897, was the vision of Abram