Baptists in the U.S.S.R. Some Facts and Hopes, J. H. RUSHBROOKE, 1943

the Biblical knowledge and instruction which they themselves were incompetent to offer. The question was to them far more serious than to members of the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox stress on sacerdotal and sacra- mentarian elements left the essential matters in the hands of the ordained priesthood, and indeed made the ordinary church adherent little more than a passive recipient of the grace ministered through priestly rites. The Baptists, on the other hand, though setting high value on the preaching and pastoral service of whole-time ministers, did not look upon these as members of an indispensable order. They regarded the church as a brotherhood of believers ; preaching, the administration of baptism or the Lord’s Supper, the leadership of worship, could all be undertaken by any member possessing the confidence of the brotherhood. Evidently, such a stand- jx)int demands a high level of religious intelligence and life among the members, and the effective training of children in “ the nurture and admonition of the Lord ” is all-important for the maintenance of the ideal. It should nevertheless be added that even this limitation of freedom was cheerfully faced, and after a time largely over¬ come. Special services were arranged for children, including 9 prayers and hymns, the reading of the Scriptures, and their exposition in terras adapted to the young. No school was organised, no class formed or register kept, and no teacher appointed; and for several years such gatherings remained within the letter of the law. There were, further difficulties, such as the rigid censorship of all printed matter, heavy burdens in the maintenance of buildings, the requisitioning of premises set apart for worship, and the assignment of inconvenient or awkwardly located sub¬ stitutes, and so forth. On the whole, nevertheless, the rela¬ tions with the Soviet authorities were not unhappy except in respect of one major issue, in regard to which it cannot reasonably be supposed that any attack on religion was intended by the Government. Pacifism a This concerned the bearing of arms. The Serious Issue. war which opened in 1914 had, under the tottering and inefficient Tsarist regime, sacri¬ ficed in millions the manhood of Russia, and brought the country into a state of misery unsurpassed in Europe. By 1917 fierce resentment, the offspring of weariness and disgust, dominated the population. It found expression in mutiny, and in the revolutionary outbreaks that culminated in the establishment of the Soviet authority. It found also another expression : long-cheris