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

tement about Claassen’s and Forchhammer’s report about how the Gospel has affected their hearts]. Your brother, Jakob Becker.” d) Claassen to his wife. “St. Petersburg, October 19, 1861. I did not want to ask the governmental authorities [this is the reproach of the brethren against him] whether we might believe and baptize, but only whether it is possible that we might be protected against deliberate attack, as Paul was protected against death by the Jews .... Paul did not want to ask the emperor whether he could believe, any more than I want to ask the authorities this. Furthermore, my dear little wife, you must distinguish between what the law says and what has been promised. [The question is whether he was willing to promise not to do this and that in return for the retention of received privileges, as some brethren feared. This, however, he denies.] ... In the end, God’s law stands highest .... It is God's grace that during the time I have been away it has pleased Him to give you His Spirit in even greater measure. 149 And we do not know what may yet happen in the future. May our gracious and good Savior be merciful to you and strengthen and comfort you to do His will! Amen.” e) “Sunday, October 22, we had a first meeting at the home of Br. Plonus. [Of him Forchhammer writes to Mrs. Gertrude Reimer on October 6: ‘Plonus, the Baptist brother, has drawn much closer to us and now wants to have co mmuni on with us’— although neither Claassen nor Forchhammer had been ‘baptized’] . . . We had urged German tradesmen to meet with us and now we preached the Gospel to them. . . . They promised to come again and to bring others with them. To begin with, the Lord sent us four of them [at first, social conversation, then singing, reading of the Scriptures] . . . and we discussed these quite informally .... We told them, too, that we were not pastors but that we had experienced the grace of God in our hearts, and this we hoped for them, too. 150 . . . Johann Claassen.” f) Claassen to his brothers and sisters. “St. Petersburg, January 3, 1862. . . . Sunday, the thirty-first, I visited the Duchess Dettloff [an elderly lady who introduced him to Mr. Mueller, a Prussian gentleman travelling to the Caucasus. He was on a land-purchasing mission for the Prussian Prince Albert and came to seek advice from Claassen]. I was with her from one to three o’clock, had breakfast, and talked of many things. [Thus, in Claassen’s circle of friends the ‘old wives of generals’ of St. Petersburg, the well-known, influential ‘Staruschki,’ could not be absent either. The latter were kind and always ready to help, and formerly, so it was said, nothing could be done in St. Petersburg without Documentary Supplements 371 them . . . .] From there I went to Brim 151 where I met another gentleman and we had fellowship around the Word of God .... New Year [1862], Before noon I read Job and that strengthened me ... . After twelve no