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

nced learning institutions. An orphanage, a school for mutes, a deaconess home, hospitals — all demanded a broad-based community involvement. Isolation and withdrawal from the common task was out of the question. Their very origins had forced a special kind of openness upon the Brethren. The radicals among them rejected the old framework of piety. When the moderates regained control, the movement stood alone and isolated. If it was to survive, outside help was essential. This quest was not without its inconsis- tencies. In language, custom and economics the Brethren still belonged to the older Mennonite peoplehood. In their search for vital religion, however, they rejected virtually all aspects of their past. A successful pilgrimage amid such tensions meant accom- modating compatible religious traditions wherever possible. 55 Wuest's legacy, while crucial in fomenting spiritual renewal, ultimately did not supply adequate sustenance for long-term discipleship. The Mennonites were never completely cut off from other Christian groups during their Russian sojourn. Diverse religious influences periodically penetrated their communities at least two decades prior to 1860. The Quakers, William Allen and Stephen Grellet, travelled through the Mennonite settlements and preached to large gatherings as early as 1819. 1 Almost simultaneously the Russian Bible Society, founded in 1812 and patterned after the British and Foreign Bible Society, began to distribute Testaments and Bibles in the Molotschna settlement. Shortly after Tobias Voth began teaching at the Ohrloff school a late candidate for the position, Daniel Schlatter from Basel, arrived on the scene. Undeterred, he began to work among the Nogai of the region and frequently interacted with elder Bernhard Fast and others. David Epp of Chortitza met the British Bible Society representative John Melville in 1842 and accepted six chests of Bibles and New Testaments for distribution. 2 Another Quaker, John Yeardley, was in contact with the Russian Mennonites in 1853. 3 Then, too, printed sermons and devotional literature began to penetrate their ethno- centric world during the 1840s and 1850s. In a sense the Brethren-Baptist flirtation marked a continuation of the earlier openness. There were special mitigat- ing circumstances during the 1860s. A wilful, lonely orphan needed a big brother. Timing was of the essence if the association was to be successful. In the main it was the Baptists who provided a model for a movement which found itself in an organizational and theological vacuum. Brethren radicalism needed something new and stable. Baptist church polity, preaching and theology were not that different from the dissident's aspirations. Here was a pattern into which they could fit much of their new life experience. The Baptist, Johann Oncken, for example, provided a new line of religious authority by ordaining Abraham Unger as elder in 1868. 4 Likew