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

reaking wheels of our machinery? Will not the “Master” one day say to them: “Mary, you have not quite understood me; the bridegroom has been taken from you. Now it is necessary to fast at times (Matt. 9:15) and go into all the world (Matt. 28:19, 20); and the world is full of dust and storm, heat and cold, dirt, thorns and tears, full of seeking, faltering and sinking people, even among my Father's children, your brothers and sisters! Mary, get up occasionally and help Martha! and you, Martha, occasionally sit down with Mary and rest quietly a while!” Gichtel and his followers are ably characterized in the Calwer Kirchenlexikon, I, 625: “Johann Georg Gichtel, a theosophist ['theo- sophy' means: wisdom of God], according to Jakob Boehme was born in Regensburg, 1638, the son of a senator, well endowed and well educated, who, from his youth, led an active prayer life and later studied law. A number of times he turned down lucrative offers. He quickly turned down every opportunity to marry. He gave away all his goods. When he later came into financial difficulties he was often helped in marvellous Documentary Supplement 159 ways. After having frequently moved, during which time he was often persecuted, even imprisoned and pilloried, he finally settled in Amster- dam in 1668 and died there in 1710. In his lifetime he was frequently transported into a state of ecstasy, during which the eternal Word by means of God’s wisdom permeated his being and transformed him into a priestly instrument. He never deviated from that wisdom. It was in its light that he viewed and understood the Scriptures, the creation as well as history. He did not exactly forbid marriage, but considered it to stand in contradiction to the life of the regenerate. His followers formed a special theosophic fellowship, which, without any outward forms of doctrine, ritual or constitution, sought to lead a life in Christ-like and brotherly love without detracting in the least from the civic life. In 1682 Gichtel published a complete edition of Jakob Boehme’s works. . . .” (Further extensive documentary supplements, which often go back to the period before 1860, are to be found under XXV.) Appendix (Supplement to #15, 1) A. Elder Cornelius Warkentin a) (Taken from the Mennonitische Rundschau, No. 4, 1897, Elkhart, Indiana): "... I am turning the following letters over to the public . . . documents, as I have them, yellowed with age . . . confirmation of their genuineness. G. G. Wiens. Because of them [the organization of church affairs of the Chortitza Mennonites] he [Warkentin] . . . was awarded a gold medal by Tsar Alexander I, containing a half-length portrait of the Tsar and the following inscription: ‘Alexander I, by the grace of God Emperor and Autocrat, etc.’ The other side bears the words: ‘For that which is profitable. To Warkentin, the elder of the Mennonites.’ This medal was given the honorable Warkentin together with the