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

se for the present life and also for the life to come. Blessed is he who has found grace and forgiveness of his sins through the dear Savior, and who remains in Him; he will be inexpressibly blessed, and will have 432 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH joy and peace which no one can take from him. Whatever heightens this blessedness must be exercised. And this is the child-like walk in the Spirit with the Savior and the [exercising of] love toward the brethren. He who, in experiencing his blessedness, seeks to share this joy with others and brings them to this fountain, will become even more blessed, since now the joy of others will increase his own. The representatives of the [misunderstood] blessed life among the brethren, however, teach, on the basis of the Old Testament: joyfulness, that is, dancing, including waltzing, as is done in the Old Colony, jumping, shouting, making music, beating the drums, is blessedness. Yet, according to our understanding, the exhortations to joy found in Jeremiah 31 and other passages in the prophets apply to the Jews in that time when Satan will have no more power, and there will be only jubilation and celebration of triumph. Until that time, our work remains: self-denying, believing, struggling, suffering. The passages in Luke: Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy when men hate you, etc., we recognize as always applicable, especially in those instances listed there, when we are rejected by the world. But this is not always the case when we meet. To base the dancing on the parable of the prodigal son is to misinterpret the parable, for it teaches us only how a lost sinner needs to stop on the road of error, come to himself and return to his father, and how the whole heaven rejoices at this. During all the congregational meetings in the times of the apostles we find nothing of such action. We do find how they met at night, when Paul was preaching, or how the places shook during prayer— but they did not shake because of the actions of those assembled. We are all the more doubtful when today faith is being evaluated on the basis of external expressions of joy, whereas the Holy Scriptures depict love as the mark of the children of God. Such things, which are read out of the law, are like those described in Titus 3:9: Avoid dissensions and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. If those rigorous brethren are going to insist that we must keep those points of the Old Testament which are not forbidden in the New, then we should still make sacrifices, for we do not find that this is forbidden. We know very well that Christ is the complete sacrifice, but we also know that Christ is the end of the law. Christ is all and in till! That is our motto, and with His spirit and purpose we wish to build ourselves and gain souls for the Lamb; then we shall understand what Paul says in I Cor. 9:19, 20, 21 and also in chapter 10:32, 33. 5) “In this sense, dear bret