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

ready corresponding with Oncken in 1858-1860. Br. Jakob Becker writes to Johann Claassen in St. Petersburg regarding this question: ‘‘Rudnerweide, December 3, 1861 .... Benjamin says the brethren in the Old Colony [from which he returned on November 24] are always coming closer, also want to secede, but do not want to observe the Lord’s Supper before they are baptized. They think we should get to the place where we will not permit (believers) to partake of the Lord’s Supper before they are baptized.” [This had not been thought of at the Molotschna until this time, the end of the second year of the existence of the M.B. Church. Whether one knew himself to be baptized or not was a matter of personal understanding and conscience and was left to the decision of the individual, whether he was a Mennonite baptized on his confession of faith or a Wuerttemberger, baptized as an infant and then confirmed. These repeatedly partook of communion with the seceded Mennonite Brethren.] 2. As far as the manner of baptism (immersion) is concerned, the 1861 correspondence of Br. Jakob Becker and Jakob Reimer with the late Br. Alf, the senior minister of the German Baptists in Russia, indicates considerable variation. Immersing the kneeling candidate forward, or the standing one backward: both modes were practiced. Then it was decided to use the latter because the former was more difficult to perform, the latter more appropriately representing the imagery of being- buried-with-Christ. This question certainly seems unimportant to the §130 286 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH author (although he practices this mode of baptism), because there is no clear biblical passage to support it. All else that is inveighed in this regard is nothing but the "tradition of the elders.” Millions of people have, according to the custom of their people, been “seated” into the grave, etc. etc. §131 3. The origin of the understanding of immersion and the actual beginning of its use. a) In the “History of Our M.B. Church” Johann Wieler and Johann J. Fast write: “One traditional erroneous idea after another was discovered, and thus the brethren also came upon the doctrine of baptism and its utilization. They realized that baptism was not handled correctly in the church for two reasons. First of all, it was administered to the unconverted [that is, only in most cases. Among the first members of the Mennonite Brethren Church there were not a few who, according to their own testimony, were baptized on confession of a living faith]. Secondly, the form which was practiced could not be called a baptism because it was performed through pouring. As a result, the brethren and sisters admitted that none of them had received holy baptism in its original meaning and form, and that it was therefore necessary to carry it out. Therefore this act was performed according to God’s Word, in that one brother first baptized the other, and then continued