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

rom the ranks of those intellectual and spiritual incompetents among the “Ohms” of our earlier Russian Mennonite congregations, who read their poorly-spelled and ill-understood sermons, borrowed and copied from others, inserting so many errors in the process as to make them virtually incoherent. 41 Because of this, and to a certain extent because of their own awareness of the heavy responsibility which their position placed on them and their own total incompetence to meet these responsibilites, they often broke out in sighs and outright weeping, inducing the same in their audience. As a result, the latter believed themselves to have been moved and uplifted! And take the "zealot” who, in order to care for the souls and improve church discipline, reached for very tangible aids! We possess as good .historical evidence 42 for the latter as for the life of Cornelius Warkentin. Warkentin, as well as the sad cases in the early years of our sojourn in Russia, portrayed above, were offspring of the Prussian Mennonite brotherhood. The mean is easily found. But it must be said here as well, on the basis of our (not very extensive) evidence, personal observations, and the oral communi- cation of eye witnesses in the Prussian rural congregations even of today, that, aside from these very inadequately prepared spiritual workers, there was no lack of worthy followers of Cornelius Warkentin. This is proven, among other things, by the 1895 edition of the new “Confession of Faith,” a combination of the old Frisian and Flemish confessions. k) The rural Prussian Mennonite congregations of the last 200 years could be characterized as religiously orthodox, though lacking in inner spiritual warmth (cf. above, “Dutch Mennonites,” Rationalism). The religious disparity between the clergy and the rank and file membership was more apparent here than among the contemporary Russian Mennonite Church: in the clergy nearly universally, at least outwardly, an honorable Christian life and relatively sound knowledge, amongst the members extraordinarily superficial liberality and conformity with the world in matters relating to thought, speech and lifestyle (always, of course, with exceptions). Little remained of Menno’s original congre- gational ideals in the life of most congregations except for teachings and constitution. A certain intellectual and spiritual inflexibility and barren coldness seem also to have been characteristic of these rural congre- gations. 43 (The less numerous Swiss and South German Mennonite congregations appear to have been much warmer and more pious.) This inflexibility is perhaps best portrayed by the uninterrupted emigration of their most energetic and flexible (as well as, simultaneously, of the most unstable) elements. Nevertheless, and in spite of all the bad times, the Prussian Mennonite congregations have managed to retain, with remarkable energy, the essential teachings and constitutions of our heritage