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

ed in race and constitution, 24 to judge by their family names, among other things. According to our evidence, Dutch, Austrian, and Swiss elements have come together to make up this congregation. m) In 1711, when fierce persecutions prevailed in the cantons of Bern and Zurich, Swiss Mennonites (Anabaptists) came to the first king of Prussia, Frederick I, and asked him for homes, which were granted them in East Prussia (Prussian-Lithuania). n) Thus, according to spirit and blood, we Mennonites are the heirs of the Waldensians, the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren, the South German, Swiss and (according to blood line) predominantly the heirs of the Dutch Anabaptists, who were the first to be called Mennonites. It also undoubtedly proves our relationship to the “Renewed (Zinzendorf- Hermhuter) Brotherhood” and to those English Baptists who descend- ed from the Dutch Anabaptists between 1611 and 1640 (partially from the strict Mennonites of Amsterdam, partially from the more liberal Anabaptists, the Rhynsburger brothers, 25 who “walked in the paths of Menno,” or Collegiants, also known as Dompelaars, i.e., Dunckers). Members of the English Baptists^included John Milton, 27 author of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained; John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress; William Carey, the great missionary and equally great linguist (the father of Sanskrit studies); Anna and Adoniram Judson (American) and C. H. Spurgeon. Essentially through Zinzen- dorf’s 28 songs and Spurgeon’s sermons and writings streams of blessings have come to us. And is it necessary to mention Oncken, Kobner, and August Liebig? By reaching back with courage and humility to that “which was from the beginning,” Menno Simons erected this wonderfully simple yet comfortable house in which we live, “on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, of whom Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.” The above, together with the evangelical Pietists like Philipp Hiller, Gerhard Tersteegen, Ludwig Hofacker, Friedrich W. Krummacher as well as many others through their writings, and Pastor Wuest personally, have all brought us new light, new warmth and new food into the once very good, but now nearly empty, cold, and barren 48 DUTCH-PRUSSIAN ANABAPTISTS house of Menno. What a holy spiritual ancestry! “What a noble people, what a chosen multitude!”— decendants of that multitude portrayed for us in Hebrews 11, and precursors of those two glorious multitudes which appear to us in Revelation 7. But— “do not think that you can say to yourselves: We have Abraham for a father!” Rather: “Remember your teachers who taught you the Word of God; observe their end and follow their faith!” But in such a manner that “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the head of the Church, have the preeminence in all things” and that He remain our only and decisive “Master” (Matt. 3:9; Heb. 13:7-8; Col. 1:18; Matt. 23:9). 3. Vicissitudes of the Mennonites in Prussia (According to Reis