A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

ge-Glaubens- stimme-Frohe Botschaft. Both collections are of non-Mennonite Brethren origin. 242 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH After the migrations to North America had started, additional German hymnals were published by the Mennonite Brethren Publishing House at Hillsboro, Kansas. The two collections, Zions-Klaenge and Neue Zions Lieder are of interest since they were compiled by a Mennonite Brethren, J. J. Franz, and by D. B. Towner, Music Director at Moody Bible Institute. In addition to translating numerous texts, J. J. Franz wrote many of the tunes in these collections. A slightly dif- ferent type of publication was the Saenger-Bote. It was a periodical pub- lished by the Mennonite Brethren Association of Singers [Christlicher Saengerbund der Mennoniten Bruedergemeinde von Nord Amerika) and edited by Aron G. Sawatzky, beginning in 1912. The Lieder-Quelle was a publication by Aron G. Sawatzky which appeared quarterly in 1929 and 1930. He wrote many of the songs in the latter two publications. These songbooks were basically of the gospel song type and were used extensively as inspirational literature for both worship services and Christian Endeavor (Jugendverein) meetings. Probably the most popular of all German hymnals was Evangeliums-Lieder 1 und 2 (1897) compiled by Walter Rauschenbusch and Ira D. Sankey. Because of its greater selections of gospel songs, this collection took the place of Glaubensstimme and Glaubens-Harfe.'" It became the standard German hymnal used in the United States churches until their transition to the English language. Evangeliums-Lieder was also in common usage in the Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conference until they published their own German hymnal, the Gesangbuch in 1952. In 1945, F. C. Thiessen, Dietrich Esau, and C. D. Toews were assigned the task of compiling the hymnal. After F. C. Thiessen died in 1950, the work was completed by the committee with the addition of the following members: Jacob Wedel, H. P. Neufeldt, Cornelius Klassen, Ben Horch, Peter Dick, and Dietrich Friesen." The book was primarily intended as a tool to perpetuate the use of Kernlieder that had proved a spiritual inspiration to German-speaking Mennonite Brethren churches in Russia, Canada, United States and South America. The Gesangbuch went through several printings and was also used by some non-Mennonite Brethren congregations. It does reflect the influence of the Evangeliums-Lieder in that 30 percent of its hymns are from that source. The Krimmer Mennonite Brethren published a German hymnal entitled Die Geistreiche Lieder, Auswahl fuer Familien und Oeffentliche Erbauungen mit Sorgfalt gesammelt von der Krimmer Mennoniten- Brueder Gemeinde (Elkhart, Ind., 1884). The K.M.B. evangelist- missionary, F. V. Wiebe, published a small German songbook in 1915 entitled Erweckungs-Lieder designed for use in his evangelistic meetings. SINGING THE NEW SONG 243 With the