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

on could be the only possible response to their efforts. XVIII. THE “FREE AND EXUBERANT MOVEMENT” IN THE ORGANIZED M.B. CHURCH AND ITS FINAL CONQUEST 1. We must devote the following chapter on the internal conflicts of the Molotschna M.B. Church to the “free and exuberant” movement. For a “brother,” it will prove to be less pleasant reading than the preceding one. In their official documents— a remarkable guidance of God— the “brethren” have been kept from enunciating any kind of Free and Exuberant Movement 263 religious nonsense. As childish as their more intimate church life may manif est itself to be from time to time, as soon as they act in the name of the church their written documents are nearly invariably couched in a sober tod manly tone. 2. Letters concerning the “exuberant movement.” We learned to know the “joyous brethren,” or the "false movement,” as Heinrich Huebert described it, already in the section on Pastor Wuest. It was during Claassen's second absence in St. Petersburg that this movement noticeably began to express itself in the organized M.B. Church. For the sake of the truth we must also write this chapter, which, unlike the preceding one, is not a credit to the young church. We shall describe these aberrations by means of a few letters which, like photographs, accurately portray those times and come from brethren of differing persuasions, such as Wilhelm Bartel, who, of all the important early Mennonite brethren, adhered the longest and most closely to Kappes, later falling into the opposite extreme and finally being strongly drawn toward the Hoffmanite Temple Church. W. Bartel was a very talented person— though not educated enough for his talents nor sanctified deeply enough by his Christianity— altogether honest, with a marvelous memory, vivid imagination and great eloquence, especially captivating in his prayers, and enormously talented musically. The first letter that we have from him already reveals the exaggerations and imbalance in his Christianity. a) Wilhelm Bartel’s letters. He writes to Johann Claassen of Liebenau in 1854, that is at a time when all of the disciples of Wuest (#51 &52), among whom Bartel was an important member, were still, without exception, gathered around the “pastor”: 1) “Dear Brother Claassen! Greetings in God’s name. How are you? Does Jesus still live? I mean, in you. Well, if so, then let things be as they may; I have heard enough. We rejoice with one another in the living Savior who reveals His life in the hearts of poor sinners; I, too, dear brother, can rejoice openly. O, how sweet the sound: Savior, Jesus, Immanuel, Father, Christ; all names fit for a poor, lost, depraved mankind and generation of sinners, that is, even for me, as hand to glove! And how precious that we may read this in the eternal Word of Truth. Only for such lost, depraved and tom souls, who can neither be restored nor patched up, only for these are they avail