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

its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows over it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” In this hour, as I step into your midst as your minister for the first time, I experience what the prophet of old did. From all sides I hear, “Preach!” From above comes the voice of Him who has called me here: “Preach!” You require it of me: “Preach!” I ask with the prophet, "What shall I preach?” The answer returns: “All flesh is grass; the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand for ever.” My beloved, I must proclaim this eternally-abiding word of the Lord to you. 2. Here before me lies the Bible. It is this Word, filled with holy truths, which I must proclaim to you. It is required of me by the voice from above. You require this of me. But, beloved, where shall I begin and where shall I end? Where shall I begin today and where right now, in this hour, in which you are waiting with your attention fixed with such §76(2) 214 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH a) Pastor Eduard Wnest (1817-1859). b) Minister August Liebig, (born in 1836 in Bernstein /Neumark) . great anticipation upon your new pastor. Where do I find the center, the focal point of the Holy Scriptures, concerning which just now, in this momentous hour, I desire to speak to you? I find it, praise God, upon every page of this sacred document, Jesus Christ, the crucified, 16 my and your Lord and Savior, the One who has borne and blotted out my sins and your sins, who is my peace and your peace, our rest, salvation, life and happiness! For this reason, in this my first sermon that I am preaching to you, I join in the words of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 2:2: ‘‘For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 3. I desire to speak somewhat more to you concerning this Word, and to show you from the same how I intend to administer my office, which I have just now entered into. From my course of life, 17 with which, my beloved, I have acquainted you, you can gather this much, that you will not have in me an especially learned pastor. But one thing I know, one thing I have learned in a school, a school in which a person Pastor Wuest 215 can learn more in a few days than in all higher schools put together in many years; in the school of the Holy Spirit I have learned that a man without a living faith in Jesus Christ, the crucified, is eternally lost and damned, and that this Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, and I am the foremost of sinners (I Tim. 1:15); in that school I have learned that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); and not only the empty name have I learned in this school, no, the power, the life, the conso