Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

titza dissidents shortly after their secession. He judged them harshly. In a letter to Elder Hildebrand dated September 28, 1854, he addressed the errors of the new movement. I have come to the conclusion, dear [friend], that the poor Kronsweide villagers, though I believe they have been awakened by God from death to life, have been permeated by a Satanic poison of false teaching and basic heresy. They themselves as well as the entire congregation [have become subject to this] because through their desperate, anti- Christian and blasphemous behavior, conversion generally and their own in particular has become suspect and the charge of the [spiritually] dead masses that conversion leads to insanity has some semblance of truth. You could hear references in my [Sunday] sermon to the blasphemous talk which I personally heard among the newly converted last Saturday. On Saturday Klassen opposed me with unmitigated gall and claimed that God cannot blame or condemn the individual. I heard similar teachings and expressions from Jakob Janzen and Loewen here in 32 Schoenwiese; as far as I know, the heresy, which has apparently been taken from Bohemian writings, emanates from Janzen. 30 In his account Cornelius Hildebrand refers to "several human weaknesses" which the dissidents manifested "during their initial exuberant feelings of happiness." 31 Apparently there were those who "advanced the notion that the sins of the flesh were not imputed to a child of God." 32 This explicit reference to the idea that a person in a state of grace cannot sin probably explains Wuest's statement "that God cannot blame or condemn the individual." Wuest identified a Jakob Janzen as the originator of this unwholesome viewpoint so often associated with religious revival. Janzen was a minister in elder Hildebrand's congregation. Because of his heretical ideas he was forbidden to preach as early as 1852 and subsequently deposed. Cornelius Hildebrand still knew him as an honest if embittered Schoenwiese businessman in the early 1880s. 33 Wuest's letter points to a second problem plaguing the young movement. He claimed they separated "the Spirit and the Word" for "behind the literal words of the Scriptures, they first seek the spiritual sense through the [Holy] Spirit dwelling in them. 34 Such an appeal to inner feeling and special enlighten- ment over and above the revealed Word contributed significantly to the instability of the non-conformists. Meanwhile in the Molotschna settlement Wuest himself, thanks to his revivalist inclinations, was contributing to the beginnings of another religious secession. Some Mennonites from the city of Berdyansk were converted during Wuest's early ministry in that region. The shelling of Berdyansk during the Crimean War brought them to the Gnadenfeld region. A number of these had attended the so-called "brotherhood conferences" conducted by Wuest in his own parish and were also familiar