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

ondition, which if persisted in, leads inevitably to eternal death or damnation. Therefore, dear friend, seek to love Jesus Christ above all else and to obtain the forgiveness of sins through the merit of His blood. Pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who grounds your heart in God, and seek to order your whole life in accordance with your calling. We will not lay a good foundation if we rely too heavily upon the advice of others since it is only of the letter; for St. Paul says: It is good that the heart Documentary Supplement 127 be firmly established. Avoid becoming too concerned about how best to approach this or that, for you will never do things perfectly. Just take everything that depresses and weighs down upon you as best you can to God in prayer, then all your endeavors will eventually turn out well for you, even though it may appear otherwise. You will become rich in experience. Neither bare your heart to everyone who appears pious to you: it can only cause unrest. I seek everything in Jesus and strive to become more enlightened and constantly more alive in Him who is the true light and life. Outside of him I am a sinner worthy of condemnation, capable only of stumbling and straying. If I desire or indeed accomplish any good, it is the Lord Christ who does it in me. Submit yourselves whole-heartedly to Him! We shall not regret it in heaven even though tribulation may prick us as we follow Him here. If we endure, we shall reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us. The grace of our Lord Jesus, the Love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you! Jakob Dyk. Neu-Osterwick, October 23, 1847.” May we remember these letters when we read the chapter concerning the founding of the M.B. Church in Chortitza later on in order to hear "both sides!” VI. The Development of the Church in the Midst of the Molotschna Mennonite Brotherhood to 1860 (Supplement to 035 ff) A. The Reason for the Founding of the Kleine Gemeinde. (Supple- ment to 035 & 36). The reasons for the creation of this fellowship, its aims and characteristics, can be discerned from the following autobiography of Klaas Reimer, its founder and first elder. This document not only describes the Kleine Gemeinde but also the general conditions among the South Russian Mennonites during and after the immigration, and also, retrospectively, of the Prussian Mennonites. The document at our disposal is a very poor copy which has come to us from the Kleine Gemeinde. Here it is given in condensed form using current orthography. a) Reimer writes: “In 1798 at the age of twenty -eight, because of my marriage, I moved from Petershagen [in Prussia], near Danzig, to the village of Neuenhuben, approximately forty kilometers from my birthplace. It was the late Elder Peter Epp’s daughter that I married. Three years after her father’s death, the rural members of the congregation separated themselves from those in the