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

ion of joy because I do not retract the statement that I will no longer tolerate such bedlam in my home as took place last Sunday, May 28, in my shed. I leave it to God; He shall accomplish what I and other dear brothers and sisters cannot. I do not attend any of the large meetings because I am uneasy there and am firmly convinced that it is not the pharisee within that warns and chastises me and holds me back from such pagan conduct, but the Spirit of God .... Jakob Reimer.” d) Mrs. Katherina Claassen, nee Reimer, sister of the former, writes to her husband in St. Petersburg: “Liebenau, June 15, 1861 .... [On Free and Exuberant Movement 267 Pentecost Monday, in a vacant Nogai mosque in the former Nogai village of Kakbas 75 ] several leaped and danced, some played and sang, and then almost all of them shouted for joy. Occasionally someone prayed, but the rest did not become quiet; hardly anything could be understood; . . . this appears sinful to me ... . Katherina Claassen.” e) Abram Unger of Einlage, mentioned above, who had, according to Reimer’s letter, made his first visit to the Molotschna brethren, wrote to Jakob Reimer of Gnadenfeld after this visit: “Einlage, June 15, 1862. Dear brother in Christ! In accordance with your request, I am sending you Wallfahrt nach Zionstal (Pilgrimage to the Valley of Zion) and another book in which the history of the [Moravian] Brethren Church is described. You should take page 70 to heart, for these had fallen into the same emotional fanaticism as you. Dear brethren! become sober for a change! Is there not a wise person among you? Do not approach the Word of God from such a one-sided perspective! Indeed, if the Bible were to contain nothing more than to say that one could dance, then one could quite frankly not reprove you; but it is also written: Let us walk respectably, or carefully before them who are without, or: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling! and many similar passages. You yourselves know the Holy Scriptures, and if you wish to use the whole of it with prayer and supplication to God, that He might lead you into all truth, then a sober, manly and at the same time lovely and happy Christianity will result, which will be pleasing before God and man. When I think of the kind of dear souls there are among you, who love their Savior most fervently, I am obliged to weep that you are leading them into such an immoral, insipid way of life, in conflict with all orderliness. Do open your eyes for a change! Should the dear Savior Jesus Christ have achieved the kind of thing that is found among you through his indescribably severe suffering? Were you to take the entire Scriptures, you could not prove such a thing; for you would have to take it out of context, and that is not permissible. Dear brother, please do not think that I am advocating a sad and morose Christianity— not at all! On the contrary, we can be heartily happy in Christ who redee