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

so and so.” They justified themselves, made demands and scolded. (During the 1880s and 1890s most of these became Adventists, to the benefit of the M.B. Church. We are not saying that all Adventists are unsound in spiritual and ethical perspective. Especially do we t hink more highly of those who have been part of that body since childhood days. A few erroneous religious concepts do not necessarily have a lethal effect on the ethical dynamic of biblical teaching in the case of honest members. Nor do we say of any honest Adventist that he is not saved, as they say of us. But certainly the author would rather fellowship with a believing, tolerant Lutheran The M.B. Church 1873-1885 507 Christian than with a believing Adventist, because the latter makes his salvation dependent on subordinate doctrines.) Elder Huebert was old and very weary and Elder Fast bore the burden with heavy sighing and prayer. Many of the faithful stood with him and made their lament to God. The Kuban Church was especially blessed with vital and pious praying sisters. Here the fire of the Holy of Holies was never extinguished. Day and night, one could undoubtedly say, there was always a “priest in the holy place, watching before the Lord,” even though it was a priestess according to the New Testament pattern: “There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). And He heard their supplications. Help did come. The account of that will be presented in our final summary. N.B.! The Kuban M.B. Church had about 150 members on January 6, 1885, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the church. D. The Mennonite Brethren Church in Friedensfeld and Tiege-Sagradovka to 1885 1. a) The following survey of the Friedensfeld M.B. Church up to January 6, 1885, the church’s twenty-fifth anniversary, is a report written by the now deceased Deacon Bernhard Dyck on behalf of the congregation. (We quote freely with supplementary comments.): In the autumn of 1867 several brethren from the Molotschna, in the Province of Ekaterinoslav, bought two thousand dessiatines of land for settlement forty -five versts from Nikopol on the Dnieper. These were members of the so-called “Kleine Gemeinde.” Three families belonging to the M.B. Church, the Jakob Jantzes (Fuerstenau), Bernhard Dycks (Schoenau), and Peter (brother of Daniel) Fast agreed, in the spirit of trust in the Lord, to settle on the land along with the others. In the early summer of 1866 they moved to their new destination and, together with the others, founded the village of Friedensfeld (now called “Miropol”). Among the settlers were several f amili es who felt a close kinship with the “Brethren." Every Sunday and Wednesday prayer meetings were held in the “semlianka” (earthen hut), with a part below and a part above the ground, of the Jantzes. The Lord blessed the Word preached by Brother Jantz to the extent that two young women were baptized in the aut umn