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

diansk. For a time this led to the development of an intimate relationship between the two churches. Many Mennonites had already gone to hear Wuest 's inaugural sermon. The religious life described above— mission conferences and festivals, singspirations, temperance movements, etc.— received a new impetus through him. This continued until 1848. At that point lamentable rumors began to circulate regarding Lange’s personal life, rumors which, although monstrously exaggerated by his enemies, proved to be basically true (according to the Gnadenfeld “chronicle”). This proved to be a sad chapter in the history of the congregation. In October of 1849 Lange stepped down from office, moved away, and returned to the Lutheran Church. According to reports, he was very successfully active as teacher and substitute pastor in the Swedish Lutheran colony of Schlangendorf near the Dnieper River. No other incident has had a more damaging impact upon the development of Christianity in the Molotschna area than Lange’s moral-spiritual misfortune. To this day it saddens our heart. The Saviour’s serious words: "What I say to you, I say to all: be vigilant!” and: “God . . . gives grace to the humble,” stand as a warning sign at this spiritual grave, especially to the more gifted and those entrusted with greater responsibilities. A wise and mighty man of Israel had fallen, mortally wounding a whole system, a whole intellectual and spiritual way of life, for a long time. Let that be enough on this matter. Let others pharisaically sound the bells of self-righteous indignation over the moral failures of those of different persuasions. (Cf. further XXV, the letter of March 16, 1863.) 16. Bernhard Fast (later, in his last years, the very friendly protector of the M.B. Church), at the head of the other elders, intervened ruthlessly in the internal affairs of the almost lifeless, independent congregation, pouring wine but no oil into her wounds. All her ministers (Wilhelm and Unrest and Reform 103 Benjamin Lange, relatives of the Elder Wilhelm and F. W. Lange, among others) were declared to be “deposed” because they had “defended Lange” (before they had been forced to believe in his guilt!) and thus “they shared in his sins!” And the perplexed congregation tolerated this un-Mennonite and unevangelical intervention in her internal affairs: a sign of inner spiritual weakness on her part one would not have expected. From the point of view of Bernhard Fast and those who sided with him, this action was an indication that no clarity had as yet been reached regarding the separation of civil and ecclesiastical matters, regarding the community of interests in the major issues of Mennonite life, and the individual congregation’s inviolable rights of self-determination in all matters spiritual over against all those caught in the new situation where civil authorities and the Mennonite Church formed two overlapping entities. While in thei