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

mmodation was perhaps illustrated by the visit of Franz Wiens, an American missionary to China, who had come to solicit support among the Mennonites in South Russia. His preaching and singing "made a deep impression" on his listeners. At the close of his dramatic sermons he asked those wishing to decide for Christ to stand up or raise their hands. The results were spectacular. Within one week 120 persons were converted while some 60 testified in a single meeting. Neufeld reported that although the brethren did not "understand his style," they made no request for a less rigorous style of evangelism. 14 How could all this preaching, singing and learning slow 70 down spiritual growth and incline the Brethren soul to the narrow and the insular? Was there some impure residue which became a slow-growing cancer and eventually crippled a vibrant organism? Had the delicate tension between inner experience and discipleship, successfully maintained since 1865, shifted in favor of feeling rather than following? Were the Brethren succumbing to the classic dangers confronting pietism whereby the celebration of the inner life became such a consuming passion that it blocked the spontaneous expression of goodness in everyday life? Had discipleship, deprived of nourishment, withered and degenerated into a separatistic loveless legalism? Had inner experience, unable to sustain feeling and emotion indefinitely, resorted to cliches and comforting words in order to mistakenly create the ongoing illusion of vitality? Brethren reality was probably never that categorical. One realm never excluded the other. Yet if Friesen was right in his observations there were elements of the crippling and debilitating. How amid all the constraining and balancing forces could the shift towards the experiential occur? Some elements in the style of Brethren piety may have contributed. Brethren services were much given to short sermons, testifying and singing. In the early 1860s joy expressed itself through flutes, triangles, tambourines and drums. Both the content and tempo of the songs represented a radical departure from the typical old church setting with its Vorsaenger (song leader) and his often capricious treatment of traditional melodies. Heinrich Franz attempted to bring order and harmony to Mennonite hymn singing with his compilation of a Choralbuch begun in 1837 and finally published in a four-part edition in 1860. Notated in ciphers (Ziffern) it was used first in village schools and only gradually adopted in the churches. A new hymnal did not always mean new singing. Opposition to Zifferngesang (cipher singing) was widespread. The large Chortitza church only adopted it in 1865. According to Jacob Epp's diary there were those who stormed out of the church whenever the new melodies were sung, or boycotted services for months on end. 15 How could a society which had difficulty accepting Franz's hymnal ever hope to understa