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

in this manner.” [Although this did not proceed as smoothly as it would appear from the authors of the “History”.] b) Jakob Reimer (Gnadenfeld) writes thus in 1884: 1) “As early as 1860, the biblical baptism became clear to the seceding brethren.” It had already become clear to Reimer in 1837, when he was an 18-year-old youth, through the reading of the biography of Anne Judson. Even before his baptism by pouring in the church, he felt the urge to be baptized by immersion. Pointing out the section about baptism in the biography, he asked his father whether there were still people who baptized by this mode. His father answered in the affirmative, but suggested he would have to travel to Prussia to meet them. In 1835 he had become acquainted with people there who had been baptized in this way [for Baptists had lived in Germany since 1834]. At that time a journey to Prussia was still very cumbersome, however. 2) What the deceased thought of the spiritual significance of baptism, as a 25-year- old young man, and what the teaching of the Gnadenfeld Church, to which he belonged at that time, was, is evident from a letter he wrote to his sister, later Mrs. Claassen of Liebenau. “To Katharina Reimer of Felsental .... Dear sister: Do not think: how can Jesus be in me and I in Him, as Paul says in Gal. 3:27, for as many of you as are baptized, have put on Christ, and I am not yet baptized. No, just as the Galatians Baptism by Immersion 287 had put on Christ before baptism and received baptism as a seal thereof, Paul says: As many of you as are baptized .... Believe assuredly that now many are being baptized of whom Paul would never say: As many .... But you, dear sister . . . put on Christ before you are baptized, and then, the Lord willing, be baptized as a seal of your faith and as a sign that you have put on Christ and now want to live for Him .... Yes, let this time, especially when you go for instruction, not be lost to you; for it is like Christmas, the best time in your whole life. . . . This blessed time never returns, for it is really a blessed time when, from the mouth of a true teacher, 89 one hears words of the Savior that refresh the soul .... At that time, as well as at home, utter a prayer to the Lord, that He may cleanse your heart. Spend much time alone, kneel before Him who blots out sins and confess how closely sin clings to you, that He may wash you in the blood He shed for us. And then if your sin be red as scarlet, you will become clean as white wool .... Your loving brother, Jacob Reimer. Gnadenfeld, December 20, 1844.” 3) Around 1860 Reimer received the Friedensglocke, published by Philipp Paulus, in which proof was given from the Word of God that everyone had to see to his own salvation and could not leave it to another. During this time he also received a tract, published by the Evangelical Free Church in St. Gallen, Switzerland, from his friend, Goertzen in Mariental [Molotschn