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

d taking up of arms. You believe that (even though indirectly) you are still thereby acknowledging war as justifiable. No more, actually, and no Military Service and Emigration 599 more directly than when you pay for your personal duty with a recruitment tax, which apparently does not cause you anxiety as is evidenced by the conditions ('Privilegien') under which you settled in Russia. “One thing I wish not to overlook, however. It gives you a deep concern to see your young men (exactly in those years which often are so determinative for the rest of life) torn from your midst and submitted to a totally strange influence in a very mixed environment. This concern I share with you also on behalf of our own young men from Sarepta. In the face of this, however, I must declare to you and myself: 1) That our trust in the fatherly protection of God will not deceive us if it moves us to earnest prayer for our youth. 2) That a much greater blessing is gained precisely in the disciplined cultivation of ethical-religious principles (which we are trying to impress upon our children) than in external protection and in an exclusion from every source of temptation. 3) That a momentary and temporary straying from the path of godliness (painful as it may be) does not necessarily imply a continuous apostasy from the spiritual heritage of our fathers. 4) That precisely the consciousness that our young men will need to be exposed to alien influences must necessarily have a lasting and sanctifying effect upon our training methods from earliest youth. I cannot maintain that these considerations will be able to allay all our fears but they will serve to quieten us by God’s grace (since the necessity has arisen that our personal wishes must be sacrificed). I cannot help, dear brothers, seriously to ask you to consider, that perhaps in the gracious considerations which our government has allowed regarding your point of view, there is to be recognized the hand of God for your people. This hand may be pointing in the direction that you should not automatically decline all government service assignments and that you should not take advantage of the right to emigrate. “I know that concerning the latter there is presently, in your circles, a great deal of serious and urgent promotion but it is not being done in the proper way— in the Spirit of God and to His gloiy. A number of domestic as well as foreign newspapers are reporting more and more concerning this agitation. Much of this agitation seems to me to be tainted with carnal zeal and servitude of man. Such things are very unbecoming in a religious community such as you are; they do not stand you in good stead. Cherished brothers, oppose such dangerous promotions (which taint your calling before God and mankind) in the Spirit of Christ and in the discipline of solemn, sensible deliberation 600 THE STATE before God. Don’t be taken in by the deception of such