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

emissaries also succeeded in winning a not insignificant number of followers for their views and tearing them from the church. Pastor Doenhoff of the Gololubovka Church, as a result, felt obligated to write a series of pastoral letters which appeared in the 1861 and 1862 issues of the Sonntagsblatt, published in St. Petersburg by Bertholdi, formerly by Pastor Sieberg. These letters described the false teachings that had spread there and refuted them in a truly apostolic mann er in accordance with Scripture. 164 The Saratov office for foreign Documentary Supplements 381 settlers on the Volga complained to our Supervisory Commission in Odessa about the mischief which the two apostles had created there and requested the latter to give strict orders to the Area Administrative Office of the Molotschna Mennonite District not to issue passes in future to persons of such character for that type of activity, r) After one of the two apostles had secretly led an immoral life for a period of time, one of his partners in sin eventually became mother of a child. Since Easter, 1862, they publicly live together as a married couple, having been joined in matrimony by their bishop. 165 s) The above-named Johann Claassen, the most decisive and fanatical representative of the sect, knowing that their disobedience and resistance to our government must eventually result in legal censure, suddenly went off to St. Petersburg in order to save his skin. There he knew of friends also in favor of establishing free churches. He hoped with their help to contact the highest authorities on behalf of his associates. The church elders and the Area Administrative Office did not thwart them in any way except that the Area Office, because of the instructions received from the Supervisory Commission, did not send him a monthly pass until receipt of specific permission to do so. t) Hopefully, from this presentation of the truth it will be clear to every unprejudiced reader that those members who have left us have no valid reason to complain about coercive measures and persecutions because of their faith and Christian living. And even if they should be punished according to law by the Russian government for successfully proselytizing a considerable number of members from the Russian state church, they could not boast of any religious persecution but would be suffering only the due reward of their deeds according to state and church laws and the Holy Scriptures, Romans 13:1-6 and I Peter 2:13-17. 166 No government, no church administration, and no law hinders us from believing and living a true Christian life here in Russia, according to God’s Word and our privileged church constitution, as the ‘quiet of the land’ and we can be as happy here as is possible anywhere on earth. The only limitations set for us by the state and church laws concern the forming of new sects and proselytizing, which we undertook to observe as good and faithful R