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

ment was nominal at best. Both sensitivities probably formed the background of a private communion held in Elisabethal during 34 the fall of 1859. It was not an impetuous or rebellious act. In their quest for inner peace they had endured an agonizing struggle for the assurance of salvation. They were also deeply convinced of the need for a Christian walk in which faith was expressed in everyday life. The 1859 communicants had also concluded that the Lord's Supper must not be shared with those of nominal faith or those lacking in serious discipleship. On the one hand their action stemmed from a strong inner conviction, on the other it was necessitated by Elder August Lenzmann, who, had earlier refused to serve communion separately or more frequently. By rejecting the old piety the dissidents found themselves in a religious, cultural and intellectual vacuum. Celebrating communion proved to be a dangerous, destabilizing move. The blueprint for a new religious direction now depended on the vitality of the inner journey or upon outside models. Wuest's ministry provided a good measure of both. Initially he advocated the new life experience as the only measure of true spirituality. Then, after 1850, he promoted the need for sanctification with equal vigor. The Molotschna nonconformists advocated both extremes of the Wuestian formula: the vigorous pursuit of discipleship with its demand for a pure, separated church and the equally vigorous celebration of the ecstacy of the inner life. The resulting extremes of severity and frivolity, sobriety and intemperance, moderation and excess made their subsequent story both distasteful and exciting. NOTES 1 David Epp Diary (Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitobal, December 31, 1841 2 Jacob Epp Diary (Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba), June 18, 1868. a Ibid., July 18,1868 4 September?, 1868 5 September 22, 1868 6 September 25, 1868 7 December 26, 1868 8 David Epp Diary, July 15, 1837 9 Jacob Epp Diary, January 18, 1860 10 February 23, 1860 11 December 28, 1865 12 The original account was preserved thanks to publication in a Russian Mennonite periodical. See Cornelius Hildebrand, "Aus der Kronsweider Erweckungszeit," Der Botschafter, VIII (1913), nos. 6, 8-19. It and other 35 documents are translated in John B. Toews, "The Early Mennonite Brethren: Some Outside Views," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. LVIII, no. 2 (April, 1984), 83-124. 13 Toews, 96 14 Ibid. is Ibid., 98 »6 Ibid. " Ibid., 99 i» Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid., 100 21 rtirf., 107-109 22 76id., 110 23 Ibid., Ill 24 76/d., 98 25 Victor G. Doerksen, "Kirchliche Verwuestung? Eduard Hugo Otto Wuest in Wuerttemberg, 1844/45" (Paper presented to the Symposium on Russian Mennonite History, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1977). Doerksen discovered some primary material in the Landeskirchliches Archiv (Stuttgart) under Akte A27, Volume 3632. The material fi