A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

bers misinterpreted Wuest's "joyous justifica- tion-doctrine" (Froehliche Rechtfertigungslehre) and began to express FAITH IN FERMENT 59 their new joy and freedom in an unbecoming manner. When Wuest took a firm stand against the noisy and disorderly behavior of these enthusiasts, they accused him of being a pharisee and denying his own gospel. Leader of the group was a schoolteacher by the name of Kappes. According to Friesen, he was "richly endowed with a keen memory, eloquent speech, imagination and wit, and a good singer." 21 At a missions festival in 1858, Kappes and his followers left the church meeting singing and shouting in an open protest to Wuest's more moderate position. Strongly influenced by Kappes was Wilhelm Bartel, a member of the Gnadenfeld Church at the time. 28 It was through Bartel that the views and practices of the "happy brethren" were propagated among the Molotschna Brethren. Even such well-balanced and sober-minded brethren as Johann Claassen and Jacob Reimer were at first slightly influenced by this movement. Claassen's initial tolerance of these "enthusiasts" can be partly explained by his prolonged absences from the colony, and his reluctance to part company with brethren with whom he had enjoyed intimate fellowship. It must be said to their credit, that as soon as they discerned its dangerous and unscriptural features, Claassen and Reimer became the sharpest critics and most outspoken opponents of the movement. 2. InChortitza As pointed out earlier (in chapter three), a revival movement took place in the village of Kronsweide in 1853. The young converts in this group, however, were led astray by an expelled minister of the Mennonite Church. A wrong interpretation of Scripture led to Antinomian tendencies and excessive emotionalism among its members — tendencies which later characterized the Froehliche Richtung. This movement, which was suppressed in 1855 by a ban on all participating members, preceded a similar movement in the early Mennonite Brethren Church by some seven years. The ideas of the Froehliche Richtung were brought into the Chortitza Mennonite Brethren Church by Gerhard Wieler and Benjamin Becker. Wieler, a "charismatic leader," succeeded in winning H. Neufeld, the assistant minister in Einlage, to his position. Together they indoctrinated the majority of the members with their extreme teachings, at least temporarily. After all his efforts to combat this false movement had failed, Abraham Unger resigned as leader and withdrew with a smaller group in late 1864. A closer analysis of the nature and manifestations of this movement seems necessary at this point. Special Manifestations In discussing an earlier episode in Anabaptist history Smith makes the observation that the "union of intense enthusiasm with ignorance is 60 HISTORY OF THE MENNON1TE BRETHREN CHURCH almost sure to bear evil fruit. . . . Even knowledge of the Bible, if not ba