THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

der Wilhelm Lange of Brenkenhofswalde”; the second consists of thirty articles and “was drawn from the Bible in 1787 by the honorable elder and minister Jakob Wedell of Przechovka near Schwetz [cf. above V, 5 "Elder Wiebe”] and copied by Wilhelm Lange (the same as the above) in 1815.” One is amazed at the theological education and the classic doctrinal insights which these simple farmer-bishops, contemporaries of such men as Cornelius Warkentin and Gerhard Wiebe, all trained within the bosom of the church, developed. The following tendencies should be noted in these confessions (the last of which, as we were informed, was used until recently in a somewhat abbreviated form in Gnadenfeld, when a joint confession of the Flemish and Frisian Mennonites in Russia was issued): the weighty doctrine of election through grace and free will which, in the old Flemish confession, had been framed from a somewhat one-sided Arminian point of view (with the stress upon free will), and which the Frisian confessions passed over in silence, received a cautious, middle-of- the-road treatment. Footwashing was taught as being a worshipful church function and was practiced after (later before) the communion service. The confession also speaks of “correct evangelical fasting in accordance with the Scriptures,” and a conscious laying hold of the forgiveness of sins in Christ through a profound faith, as well as the explicitly stressed necessity for vigilance in regard to the doctrine of the firm security of the true believer. 13. The proven cordial relations between the Brenkenhofswalde- Franztal congregations and the Moravian Brethren are also of consider- able interest. Indeed, from 1812 until the emigration of 1835, the congregation stood, to a certain extent, under the protection and supervision of these Moravian Brethren! This came about in the following manner. Around 1812 various political organizations with Unrest and Reform 101 religious names and forms appeared in Prussia. As a consequence, all private assemblies of a religious nature were prohibited with the exception of those of the Moravian Brethren, who had the confidence of Frederick William III, and those under their control. The police became suspicious of the private Bible studies of the Neumark Mennonite congregation (Brenkenhofswalde-Franztal) and refused to concede that the Mennonites possessed a unique church organization, or indeed that this organization was based on specific ecclesiastical rights. Whether due to a deficient knowledge of political affairs, moral weakness in the face of police chicanery, or the fact that Elder W. Lange favored the Moravian Brethren— the Neumark Mennonite congregation (now "Gnadenfeld”) placed itself under the care and protection— and supervision of the Moravian Church with regard to its private gatherings. It nonetheless remained Mennonite and derived a great blessing from this relationship. This account is taken f