| Show A MISSION AMONG THE aien AX AN interesting description OF A PECULIAR PEOPLE THEY TEACH THEIR OWN CHILDREN on the loth of last may brother samuel from santa clara and myself left salt lake city fer for our field of labors as missionaries to a people eople called mennonites we arrived in in mountain lake cottonwood co minnesota on the I 1 s th and at once commenced our labors labor s we found tile the mennonites to br be a mood good good and very hospitable people pilling to administer to the wants ot of the stranger that comes among them but otherwise the they y hold themselves aloof from all that do not believe as they do as much as possible so much so that they do not send their children to the common district school which they must help to support by beins being taxed for the maintenance thereof and rather employ private teachers who teach in their own the german language they are also aiso much DEVOTED TO THEIR RELIGION and seem to have unbounded confidence in their elders the iii allt highest hest authority in the church for the less intelligent tell igent amongst them will not talk on the subject of religion unless one comes recommended reco amended by bv the elders while the others will give but little chance to any one but will diligently advocate their own doctrines and all are alre possessed of a great amount of self seif righteousness not being able t to 0 reach the people by th the e medium of meetings meeting swe we traveled from aror q house to house and found many who had already heard the gospel through gh elders fisher and loutensock but none that seemed to care anything about it they like nearly all the rest reat of the christian denominations deny revelation gifts and blessings as something no 10 longer nger ne needed eded but claim that the ne new w testament is all that is nee needed med aed or ever will be given for the salvation of the human famil family still they are not filled with the spir spirit t of hatred against us as most all the rest perhaps i a few items in regard to the ORIGIN TRAVELS AND principles of this thi church may be interesting to your readers 1 awill will therefore i elate relate what a t have ve learned from the people a and d their books in regard to it in the century centary the roman Cath catholic Ilic church had almost universal sway throughout the then known world still there were some people in holland who did not believe in her doctrines and practices ami antl consequently did not connect themselves with that church but were to be found scattered through the country without an organization or leader they believed in the baptism of adults by sprinkling but not in a the ba baptism q in of infants and were ere therefore carieli caned anabaptists in 1529 a catholic priest by the name of meno mono simon also albo commenced to preach openly against the baptism of infants to him these people sent a delegation of seven men to ask him to be their leader I 1 meno simon did not at first comply with their request but told them to go 0 and make this a matter 0 of 91 prayer for a certain len ien lenth length th of time and promised that he too would as ask k the lord if it was ills his will that he should be their leader after the set time had bad expired the seven men came again and this time meno mono consented heat he at once in the year 1530 severed his connection with the E mother church and commenced to organize some of these people into a church of which he now was the leader and which was called after him THE NITE ile he was at the time 31 34 years of age persecution now commenced to rage rape and the catholic church tort tortured nied ana and and killed hundreds of the mennonites in a most horrible manner in 1543 meno was declare I 1 an outcast and a large price offered for his head he was forced to flee and left holland with his followers and went to 1 and holstein and died on the ol 01 of january Jau uary 1561 1501 in prussia his followers found a home because there the power of the catholic church was to a teat te decree broken through the labors gorsof of martin Lut luther herand and opherre other reformers fhe king of prussia requested them to perform military duty which they rel rei refused used and about 90 years a ago catharina Cathar lna ina the empress of russia ago being ein eln g desirous of havin having the mennonites settle in her domain and teach the russians the art of agriculture which they well understood offered them laud and the privilege to serve god unmolested according to their belief this offer they accepted and REMOVED TO RUSSIA where they enjoyed the promised priva eriv elees elemes and grew grev very rich until in 1872 when F emperor alexander annulled the promises made by catherina and required that the mennonites should should furnish their quota of men for the russian army and in all respects be treated the same as other subjects of the empire alexander alekander however gave waye thern them ten tell years e ln in which time the they i should either e emigrate emi rate crate or at the end thereof submit to h his bis request many thousands sold their homes at a great sacrifice and immigrated to the united states and canada while the majority remained I 1 A f few ew have e settled in Jn mountain la lake bake minnesota n n t some in dakota and a large larb ge colony ln in kansas Kai esl isas but the greater pa r of them are in canada the ane following are arc some af the S SUIN POINTS or OF THEIR RELIGION wherein they differ from most 0 of f the other denominations they believe as before stated in the baptism ot of adults by sprinkling but two or three of their branches now believe in and andt practice immersion immersi oll oil hey consider it a great sin to bear arms or make use L of any weapon even in self defence or any other way also to take an oath of a any u kind or sit in judgment upon a fil fellow liow being as juryman jurymen jury men they be lieve that it is against the teachings V of the lord to take part in earthle earthly governments bv holding office the fi fifth th chapter of st Mat matthew iliew or the teachings of jesus therein contained are interpreted by them to mean that it is wron wrong to hinder a man from stealing from you or the murderer from accomplishing his devilish designs signs or aid in anyway any way to bring a criminal to justice the changing of faith or being again baptized after ope opo has once onee been te sprinkled crinkled by the elder Is considered to be the sin against the holy ghost which never can be f forgiven or it is also consid considered gred pred wrong to marry any one outside of the church chuich therefore if a man desires to become a citizen and takes the oath of alle glence or otherwise mingles with or acts like an american he is considered as in bad standing and not allowed to partake of the lords supper having said so mu much h upon these points I 1 will now 0 give a description of their MODE OF LIVING the thoi homes of the mennonites are very plain rial as also are their dress and food cleanliness does not seem to form a part of their religion the houses are nearly all built alk aik alike ike under one large roof covered grass or straw these will be found the thee dwelling in place far for man and beast bed beci and dining rooms parlor and kitchen pigpens pl cow ind and horse korse stables aie ale are all ali it connected with each other by doorways ivans the furniture is all very plain and nearly alike in every house no pictures adorned the walls as that is considered a sin no music is heard for the same reason in the family devotions the 3 mennonites lenno ienno ultes alq are ver ter strict mornings and evenings the family is called together then the la father t h er or in hs his absence the mother r reads ad a hymn after one verse istead is read all join in singing it regardless of time and so on until all the hymn is finished then a chapter is read from the bible and afterwards all kneel down for prayer which in some branches is offered loud by the father andin others each offers a silent prayer no bustness business or the presence of strangers I 1 is allowed to interfere with the these so dev devotions 0 we have now traveled for FIVE MONTHS nio iio AMONGST AM THIS PE orix have worked with them ahem in the harves nield neld and have never heard either young or old make use of any oath or an unbecoming expression The phildren up to 2 i years yeara of age yield strict obedience to their parents as also the younger ouner oun er ones to those that are older we ve glave flave have hase never seen a switch or a 6 strap or any rod used by cithey parent upon a child nor heard of any of 0 those threats uttered that ar ure are re so common in others to make children mind the women have to work wark very hard it is not uncommon to see them follow the plough or do do some other severe work still they seem to be contented and happy in the midst of their very often i numerous families I 1 do not think that the mennonites have yet learned the damnable practice letice of restricting natural birth to only a limited number of children which is so common in the world 1 1 ly X MANITOBA they live in villages like they used to in russia these are from one to five miles apart and contain from five to twenty five houses which are all built ina lna in a row on one or sometimes both sides of a street with gable toward the street and a garden between it and thel the louse house we visited all ali but fouron four of those villages sixty six in number and also the ge leading men and many others in them asking them all to give us either a public or a private roem room in which to hold hoid meetings but were refused in every instance in the first village we visited we were told that this would be our unvarying lot ui uness aness ess recommended by isair elders we visited these elders and them to molts aid ald Us in the discharge of gur our our duty as servants of god but of course asked in vain they a all ail told us to 0 go ro home and save ourselves th the e trouble of going to any of their people we lie lle however wever did not think so n nor were we ready to so go home but as above ove stated and although unable to hold hoid public meetings ye we distributed a great many tracts and bore hore testimony wife wherever rever we could from manitoba we went to marlon marion county kansas and again did dia the same as in the other colonies labors the same result attending our labors though thong h itma it may y s seem eem that our MISSION TO THE mennonites has been useless yet do not r regret pdt the means we used in hunting huntin j 0 them thein tip up nor the time wo we have spen spent ja amon amongst st them for we sincerely believe bellev e that there must be some of the blood of israel adoli amongst ast this people and although at pre present sent both priest and I 1 people teo reo completely re act the gospel message believe belleve asage we still believe that some day when the cover of self righteousness is torn from them and the chains of tradition brouen broken andly and when heil hell lil iii in the coming coining evel events evenly tit eveny I 1 very every man that will not take take tabe up lis ills lils sword against his neighbor or must dec flee to zion for safety many pany of f wn f i J rf i i t them may remember our testimony and when all else eise fails them seek refuge f u ge in the kingdom of god our gur labors amongst them are now ended as we are called to another field we leave them in the hands of god goci and pray that he in whose ser vice we are engaged may bless them for the good thy they hav eldone edone us while traveling in their midst and cause that the seed we have sown in faith and humility may some day grow and ripen into a rich harvest of many souls your brother in ia the gospel THEO BRANDLEY |
