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

petitioning Him for His gracious protection who has also made us the following promise: ‘I am with you to the end of the world’ (Matt. 28:20). “Humbly signed by: Heinrich Huebert, minister, Wilhelm Bartel, Jakob Reimer, August Strauss, Jakob Giesbrecht. Berdiansk, December 27, I860.’’ §99(2) 4. We are convinced that this petition made a strong impression upon the Supervisory Commission. The threatening and deprecatory tone, which pervaded the Commission’s paper of November 29, from now on gave place to an impartial and conciliatory manner of speech in the orders to the local colonial authorities. Meanwhile, those cool rays may already have begun, which Privy Councillor Hahn (during Comies’ time president of the Supervisory Commission), Claassen’s fatherly friend, advisor and protector, from time to time directed toward the Commis- sion. (Compare XXV.: “Documentary Supplement.”) The words: "to give our life,” may sound like empty phrases today— they were not. For Huebert, like Jung Stilling, Auberle, Philipp Paulus, Hof fmann and others, was completely captivated by the Daniel-like apocalyptic expectation of the immin ent end of the world and its mighty battles. And although Huebert may not have sacrificed his life, he did sacrifice his vigor and his all-too-frail health during the ten months he was imprisoned in a mouldy, cold and wretched place. And Brother Abraham Difficulties and Victory 247 Comelssen was driven out of the school in Elizabethtal and the colony during the winter and was forced to live in a damp and chilly sod hut on the Nogai steppes. Abraham Braun 47 of Grossweide, a “brother of the Mennonite Church,” then a respected man and member of the Gnadenfeld congregation, saved him and his family from fever and death in that he dared to take the fugitives under his protection. The others who wanted to move away in order to earn their bread in peace were denied passes so that, as Reimer of Gnadenfeld wrote, “they would be squeezed back into the church.” 5. To the above-mentioned order of the Supervisory Commission of §100 November 29, by way of the Area Administrative Office, to “the honorable church Elder Johann Harder of Blumenstein,” the latter answered in as courageous and manly a manner as had the “brethren” (even though he was only one against five bishops and was opposed by the five and all the powerful civil authorities): “To the Area Administrative Office in Halbstadt: After I have drawn in information regarding those Mennonites who have seceded from our decadent [!] churches as a consequence of the letter from the Area Administrative Office of the 14th of this month, I report to it that only Heinrich Huebert of Liebenau from our congregation belongs to them; as far as an answer to the second point is concerned, I am, at this point, unable to say with any certainty who currently exercises the greatest influence upon them. As far as the third point is concerned, I be