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

z wrote of "a slow stagnation that crept into the intellectual and spiritual life of the group." When missionary David Schatter visited the colonies in 1835 he reported that the church had "lost its salt," but the spiritual life would sink even lower during the next two decades.14 The diary of David Epp, minister in Chortitza, reflected a deep anxiety over the loss of ethical and moral val- ues among the Mennonites. His entries in 1837 and 1838 pointed to a breakdown in morality in the church community.15 Jacob P. Bekker, one of the signers of the Men- nonite Brethren secession document, reported in his memoirs that taverns existed in virtually every village. The ministers were struck with blindness and did not real- ize that the establishment of distilleries and saloons within the colonies would be harmful to the entire church com- munity. At times some of the drunkards would lie in a drunken stupor and nearly unclothed, in the streets, caus- ing the horses of passing vehicles to shy away from them. Several persons died as the result of liquor burns to their throats. The ministers were aware of these drunkards, yet the offenders were allowed to remain members of the church and were admitted to partake of the Lord's Supper.16 The spiritual poverty of the Mennonite church by I860 was further reflected in the diary of a minister in the Ohrloff church, quoted by Peter M. Friesen: I pondered the condition of the Mennonite brethren [he means all Mennonites here]; and behold, it is even worse than the departed brethren describe it [in the secession document of the Brethren]. There is no fear of God, no 5 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH faithfulness or honesty in the land, everyone must beware of his fellow man, his own brother, and those who still re- pent of anything repent the fact that they cannot cheat their fellow man any worse than they already do. And those who boast, boast of their roguery and revelry, as a hero of drunkenness, as a ruffian and the like. The keep- ers of Zion see it and remain silent. Or should they not be able to see? Are all the keepers blind? And are they what the prophet describes further on? Do they hate dis- cipline and order? Then it says: "Why do you take my covenant in your mouth?" The most chilling threats of God's Word then apply to them, and it may have occurred to those who left: "Let them go their way, for they are blind leaders!"17 The condition of the Mennonite church in Russia during this time cannot be isolated from the spiritual poverty of the mother church in Prussia. P.M.