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

nd the musical antics of the early Brethren? In their radicalism they not only rejected Franz's hymnal but borrowed three foreign ones — Glaubensstimme, Frohe Botschaft and Heimatklaenge. Then, utilizing the infinite capacity of the German language for combination, fused these into one — the Dreiband. After examining the 1,079 hymns in the Dreiband collection 71 one scholar concluded that only two were of "Anabaptist derivation." 16 In his estimation the majority of the other songs were "subjective and experiential." 17 These new songs with their emphasis on sin, atonement and the new life experience easily integrated into the informal Brethren meetings with their alternating testimonies, prayers, Scripture readings and brief sermons. They enhanced the emotional, inward-looking content of such gatherings. Here were words and melodies which became important components of an ongoing lay theology. This type of religious practice not only spoke of the experiential but regularly recreated it as well. Jakob Reimer, commenting on monthly Saturday meetings conducted by the early Brethren, spoke of "selige Nachmit- tagsstunden (blessed afternoon hours), during which our hearts were filled with Jesus' love." 18 Songs were an integral part of such celebration. Can such a holy and sacred setting endure a moment of cynicism? Was it possible that the new songs with their vivid imagery and stirring melodies actually constituted an accumulative danger? Could they not create a religious sentiment so strongly emotional in character that it circumscribed the study and preaching of the Word? Did the song writer subtly generate an emotionally oriented theology which resisted any knowledge of divine truth not capable of eliciting familiar feelings? If so, the resulting interdependency of faith and feeling forced a narrow tradition upon the Brethren. The cycle of private and public assemblies evoked familiar pious emotions which in turn became the measure of spiritual progress. The piety which nourished and delighted the soul was often restricted to a recounting of the penitential agony and the salvation process. Practiced for decades it stultified Christian maturation. It inconspicuously reinforced the inclination towards the narrow and restrictive even in a setting saturated with special conferences, periodic festivals, weekly worship services and frequent Bible studies. Though they would not have known what the term meant the post-1865 Brethren practiced an existential theology. They tried to apply the Gospel to the varying circumstances of life. The shift back to the experiential was subtle. There was no shouting, jumping or drumbeating — only the quiet, dignified cultivation of heartfelt emotion. How could one suspect feelings of well-being? Yet how readily such sensitivities promoted the status quo, since they were self-authenticating. They were also self-vindicating, since they easily silenced criticism