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

residence, and furniture etc., complete the profile of this new church. Aside from these peculiarities, its members later became well-known— some even notorious— for their excessive diligence and thrift. (“They manage then- affairs very well,” was their reputation when we were still children.) An attempt to have their elder ordained by Elder Janzen of the Kronsweide Frisian church in Schoenwiese proved unsuccessful, for Janzen did not dare to defy the threats of the “large” congregation (as the largest Flemish contingent was often called) of the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies. The Kleine Gemeinde, therefore, had its Elder Klaas Reimer installed by one of the fellow-secessionist ministers. In later years even this church was unreservedly recognized by the other churches. After Klaas Reimer’s death in 1838, the Kleine Gemeinde once more, through its minister Abraham Friesen, sought ordination from Elder Bernhard Fast in Ohrloff, though once more unsuccessfully (see #58,k,l,m). We possess no documentary evidence with regard to any further matters in the question of ordination. The Kleine Gemeinde was a messenger calling the Molotschna Mennonites to repentance, but, it would appear to us, because it was too narrow-minded, too frightened, too isolationist and opposed to education, it never made a profound impact. “Kleengemendsch”— all those attitudes associated with the Kleine Gemeinde— had very definite connotations for the Molotschna Mennonites. The attempt by two elders of the Frisian Church, who had immigrated in 1819/20— Franz Goerz (Rudnerweide) and the “old Flemish” (Ukowallian) Peter Wedel ( Alexanderwohl), both of whom possessed a vital Christianity and rejoiced in their state of grace— to win Klaas Reimer to their views failed. The fact that they conceded salvation to people of other faiths, read books written by men of other faiths, and believed in the millennium, filled that very pious soul with such alarm that any approach was made impossible. We must, at this point, mention a peculiar occurrence 94 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 (according to Klaas Reimer’s own notes, which we are following in all essentials) that took place in the Kleine Gemeinde. Some of their ministers as well as members, because of their zeal against apostasy and the spirit of Antichrist, became extremely emotionally agitated during their penitential sermons and practices (such as prayer, fasting and self-castigation). Thus Reimer recounts that they would, in the dead of winter, lie in snow-filled ditches reciting long penitential prayers, as a consequence of which one young man died. In addition, they had dreams and saw visions of the impending wrath, further frightening the dreamers and their brothers and sisters. And yet they never arrived at a joyous understanding of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. Finally, according to Reimer’s notes, the over-excited state of some (the natural consequence of hyper-nervo