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

15 if otherwise one believes that Christ’s Word is true and His unblamable, holy life and example infallible. Thus have I, a miserable sinner, been enlightened by the Lord, converted to a new mind, fled from Babel and entered into Jerusalem, and finally been called to this high and arduous service. y) “When the above-mentioned persons persisted in their suppli- cations and my own conscience, though quite weak, burdened me because I saw the great hunger and need referred to above, I surrendered myself body and soul to the Lord, commended myself to His gracious care and, in due time [1537], began to teach 16 in accordance with His holy Word, to baptize, to labor in the vineyard of the Lord with my limited talents, to build up His temple and holy city, and to repair the dilapidated walls. The great and mighty God has made known and revealed the true word of repentance, the word of His grace and power together with the salutary use of His holy sacraments through our humble service, doctrine and unlearned writings as well as through the faithful service, labor and co-operation of our faithful fellow brothers in many cities and countries. 17 He has made the form of His church so glorious and endowed it with such insuperable power that many haughty and proud hearts have been humbled ; the impure have been purified; the drunkards made sober; the stingy, charitable; 18 the cruel, loving; the godless, God-fearing; but they have also faithfully sacrificed property and blood, body and life, as is still daily apparent, for the glorious witness which they bear. These, indeed, cannot be the fruits and evidence of a false doctrine with which God will have nothing to do ; nor could it [this doctrine] have survived for so long under such a heavy cross and dire distress were it not through the words of the Most High and His power. What is more, they [the confessors of this doctrine] are endowed with such great grace and wisdom in their trials as Christ has promised to all His children (Luke 21:16), that all the worldly-wise and famous teachers [learned theologians], together with all the blood-guilty tyrants (who, O God, boast that they are Christians), have been vanquished and put to shame by these invincible heroes and pious witnesses of Christ. As a result, these tyrants, unable to find any other weapons, take recourse to banishment, arrest, torture, burning, and Menno Simons 9 murder, as was the practice and custom of the old serpent from the very beginning, and as may still, alas, be witnessed daily in many places in our Netherlands. z) "Behold, this is our calling and doctrine, this the fruit of our labors for which we are so horribly slandered and hatefully persecuted. Whether or not all the prophets, apostles and faithful servants of God have generated similar fruits through their service, we gladly leave to the judgment of all the pious. a ) "But as far as my own poor, weak and imperfect life is conc