Stundists
Mrs. Charlotte Anne Wellesley
Table of Contents
The Stundists
It is good for us in this land of liberty to look back on less favored times, that we may learn our responsibilities in the present. It is well also to remember that if we are called upon to suffer, others have endured a vast deal more. Throughout the history of Christianity in this world, men, women and children have suffered and bled for the peerless name of Jesus.
The first followers of Christ were hated because they refused to worship idols and found their delight in the true God; therefore, the rage of the heathen vented itself on them. But the days changed when persecution came not from the self-righteous Jew, nor from the pagan Gentile, but from that which was called the church of God.
The history of the Stundists in southern Russia is the age old story of the struggle between darkness and light, of the opposition of cold, formal, lifeless religion to the warm vivifying power of the gospel. It is the story of the suppression of the poor despised followers of Christ by the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian government.
The picture of a poor Russian peasant family gathered in the dim candlelight of their dwelling, spelling slowly, verse by verse, through the sublime gospel stories, and committing to memory entire chapters, is indeed precious to contemplate. Never did the hart pant more eagerly for the waterbrooks than these spirit-quickened men and women pant for the Water of Life. “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?” James 2:5.
Reprinted from an old periodical, circa 1897, it was thought that these articles on the Stundists, their sufferings and their sorrows, would prove deeply interesting to Christians today. We may not be called upon to die for Christ, but let us be able to say from the heart, like Paul, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21.)
Chapter 1: Faithful Unto Death, Rev. 2:10
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” 2 Tim. 2:12.
Persecution and martyrdom are not as common today as in former times. Christians are no longer stretched on the rack, burned at the stake, nor delivered to wild beasts. Yet scenes somewhat similar have been enacted in a country within a few days’ journey from where most of us live. I allude to Russia, where hundreds of Christians, called “Stundists,” have undergone some form of persecution for Christ’s sake, and because they would not conform to the errors of the Greek Church.
The Apostle Paul wrote of those who took “joyfully the spoiling of their goods” (Heb. 10:34), and of others who “wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth,” adding the beautiful eulogium, “Of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:38).
History, too, has given us the record of many more, such as the Waldensians, who were driven from their homes, and forced to hide where they could, to elude their persecutors. But in the present day we are less familiar with suffering of this kind, and in countries where religious liberty is the adopted policy, the utmost that a follower of Christ has to undergo, is the indifference and scorn of the world. In spite of this, we hear of Stundists in their gloomy cells, whose faces shone with joy; we read of martyrs who “entered the flames with a smile upon their faces; and if they smiled when they entered the flames, how much more when they passed in at the eternal gates!” We read of others, like Stephen, who in the supreme moment of agony could pray for their persecutors.
Now what was the secret of their serenity and joy? Why did even their enemies mark the lustre in their eye, and the peace on their brow? And why is it that so many of us, when called to pass through trial and suffering of so minor a character that it cannot be classed in the same category as theirs, hang our heads, and go mournfully on our way? Let us ask ourselves the reason.
In the next chapters I propose giving a short history of the Stundists up to the present date, for which we shall be mainly indebted to the author of a pamphlet entitled, “The Stundists; the story of a great religious revolt.”
The following poem, though not directly bearing on the subject, is worthy of attention, as showing that the early martyrs were animated by the same spirit as their Master, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). Doubtless they had often read the words, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matt. 5:12). And we are confident that the poor persecuted Stundists find comfort in these and similar passages of God’s Word: ―
The Martyrdom of Marius
(from Aunt Jane’s Verses)
“Give the Christian to the lion!”
Wildly cry the Roman throng;
“Yes! to Afric’s tawny lion!”
Shout the warriors, bold and strong.
“Let the hungry lion tear him!”
Echoed glad the laughing crowd:
“Fling him, fling him to the lion!”
Shrieked the noble matron loud.
“Do not spare him―let him tear him!”
Cried the fair patrician girls,
With their dark hair softly braided
Underneath a band of pearls,
With their small feet purple-sanded,
And their arms with bracelets delight,
And their robes of Indian Tissue,
And their black eyes flashing light.
“Date illum, ad Leonem!”
Spake in accents grave and slow,
From their curule seats of honour,
Senators in goodly row:
Then, from flight to flight, redouble
Shout, and cheer, and laughter-peal,
Till the giant Coliseum,
`Neath the tumult seemed to reel:
And the clamours of the people
Through the arch of Titus roll,
All adown the Roman Forum,
To the towering Capitol.
Then a pause;―but hush and listen!
Whence that loud and savage yell?
―’Tis the lion of Sahara,
Raging in his grated cell!―
Fierce with famine and with fetter,
Shaketh he his tawny mane,
For his living prey impatient,
Struggling ‘gainst his bar and chain!―
―But a voice is stealing faintly,
From the next cell, chill and dim―
‘Tis the death-doom’d Christian, chanting,
Soft and low, his dying hymn.
With uplifted hands he prayeth
For the men that ask his blood;
With a holy faith he pleadeth
For that shouting multitude.
They are waiting! Lift the grating!
―Comes he forth, serene, to die;
With a radiance round his forehead,
And a lustre in his eye:
Never, when amidst Rome’s legions,
With the helmet on his brow,
Prest he to the front of battle,
With a firmer step than now.
Lift the grating! he is waiting!
Let the savage lion come!
He can only rend a passage
For the soul to reach her home!
“Brother, thou art gone before us!”
Sung the martyr’s funeral band,
Pacing slowly,―pacing slowly,
(With the torch-lights in their hand)
Through the dark and winding chambers
Of the ancient catacomb.
Where the children of the Saviour
Had their hiding-place and tomb.
Little knew they as they whispered,
Low and sad, the burial psalm.
And as Christ’s dear name was graven,
And a little branch of palm,
That this tombstone, rude and rugged,
Should be deemed a precious gem,
Ages hence,―when crushed and shivered
Is the Caesar’s diadem:
When the wild vine weaves her tendrils
Over palace, fane, and hall,
O’er the “Golden House” of Nero,
And the Coliseum’s wall!
Chapter 2: How the Seed Was Sown
“The Word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.” Acts 13:49
“And a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.” Acts 11:21
It was between the years 1762 and 1780 that the province of Kherson, in Southern Russia, was colonized with Suabian peasants. It came about this way.
The Empress Catharine, taking advantage of the discontent caused by the tyrannical rule of the then king of Wurtemberg, who wished to legislate a certain form of religion for all his subjects, sent them an invitation to come and settle in her dominions. She offered them rich allotments of land along the fertile banks of the Dnieper, and many other privileges, with the one prohibition, that they were not to proselytize among her Russian subjects.
As might be expected, these German peasants brought with them the religion and customs of their fatherland. They brought their pastors too, many of whom were earnest Christians, and very soon churches and schools had sprung up in these little colonies on the Russian steppe.
The state of the Russian peasantry at that time might be described as that of brutes rather than men, and it was quite natural when they looked on their German neighbors, and saw their clean and tidy homesteads, pervaded with an atmosphere of peace, piety and order, that they should have drawn a favorable contrast between them and the domains of their own priests, where dirt, drunkenness, and discord invariably reigned. These God-fearing Teutons too, after a time, when industry had filled their barns with plenty, began to gaze with compassion on the poor degraded Russian serfs, who, driven by want and hunger, had turned to them for employment, and when opportunity afforded, they would sit down beside them and spell out for them the German New Testament, and some of their German hymns.
“There was something pathetic― almost tragic― in the spectacle of elderly fathers and mothers of large families, and feeble old folk who were tottering on the brink of the grave, painfully spelling dissyllabic words, struggling with the vowels and diphthongs, and laboriously drawing pothooks and hangers in the intervals of fatiguing field labor.”
The dilapidated thatched hut of a Russian peasant family At first the barriers of national prejudices and the difference of language had kept them apart, and many years must have elapsed before the Empress Catharine’s prohibition could have been so forgotten as to permit them to fraternize on the forbidden topic of religion. Of these years we have little to relate, but we know that God’s Spirit was at work preparing the ground for the seed to be sown.
It was as if God had said, “I will work, and who shall hinder it?” (Isa. 43:13). And He can work by means of the consistent life of His people, as was probably the case here, for “sooner or later true life begins to tell....Some of the Russian peasants who had been helped in their poverty, or ministered to in their sickness by their German neighbors, began to attend their services, to keep the Stunden, or hours, of praise and power; they learned to read, were furnished with the New Testament in their own language, and eventually some of them found the deeper blessing of eternal life. In this simple scriptural fashion this memorable movement began. Men told their neighbors what God had done for their souls, and so the heavenly contagion spread from cottage to cottage, from village to village, and from province to province, till at length the Russian Stundists were found in all the provinces from the boundaries of the Austrian Empire in the West to the land of the Don Cossack in the East, and were supposed to number something like a quarter million souls.”
Let us trace the movement of God’s Spirit, for such it surely was.
There lived in the colony of Rohrbach, near the river Boug, and not far from the city of Odessa, a good and zealous German pastor, named Bonekemper. In the year 1858, “the birth year of Stundism,” as it has been called, he decided to invite those of the Russian laborers who had acquired an imperfect knowledge of the German language to attend their meetings, which were held at stated times in private houses. They had been accustomed in their German homes to go to church in the morning, and in the afternoon to meet in each other’s houses to read the Bible. This was their “Stunde,” or hour for reading, and it was the origin of the word “Stundists,” which was first applied to them by the priests of the neighborhood as a term of reproach. They do not call themselves by any name but that of Christians.
Bonekemper also procured from St. Petersburg a number of Russian New Testaments and tracts, which he distributed freely in the neighborhood. One of the most diligent attendants at the German Stunden in
ILLUSTRATION
A Stundist Meeting
Rohrbach was a peasant named Onishtshenko, known as a disreputable tramp, who lived at Osnova, a Russian village not far from the Port of Nicolaieff. He was about thirty years of age in the year 1858, which was the date of his conversion and admission to membership with the German Stundists in Rohrbach. I mention him because he was really the first Russian Stundist, and God used him very distinctly to spread the Gospel amongst his countrymen.
His conversion is perhaps worth relating. He began to realize that his life was that of “a filthy brute,” and “one day, overwhelmed by a crushing sense of his guilt, he had thrown himself on the floor, and was fervently praying for forgiveness and light. ‘O God, enlighten me; make me a changed man.’ I besought Him with tears and sobs, when all at once it seemed as if someone tore the clothes from off my back, whereupon a marvelous sense of freedom, a feeling of intense joy came over me, and I knew God thenceforth.”
Burning with zeal to tell his comrades how great things God had done for his soul, Onishtshenko returned to Osnova, and began to preach the glad tidings to thirsty souls in whom the seed had already been sown. Crowds came to his cottage to hear the Word, and among the converts may be mentioned a young man named Michael Ratushni, gifted with much energy and heart for the Gospel.
“In two years, or before 1860, there was hardly a Russian hamlet in the neighborhood of Nicolaieff that had not its little company of earnest Stundists, teaching and praying, meeting together either openly or in secret, and zealously carrying forward a work dearer to them than life itself.”
Onishtshenko and Ratushni were real evangelists, and they tramped from village to village with their Master’s message. Sometimes they went about under the guise of peddlers, bookhawkers, or cobblers for since his conversion, Onishtshenko had not only learned to read and write, but also to make boots and shoes and as some scout had generally heralded their approach, it was no uncommon thing for them to find peasants from all the outlying hamlets awaiting them in a cottage or, perhaps, a hollow in the steppe. Here for the first time in their lives these poor famished souls listened eagerly to the gospel; and they bought New Testaments to take home with them, and hymns, roughly translated from the German, which they soon learned to sing.
“O head! once full of bruises,”
was one of their favorites. Also,
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Lord of glory died.”
All this, let us remember, took place in the province of Kherson. But these indefatigable missionaries soon moved on into Bessarabia, the Crimea, Ekaterinoslav, Kief and Podolia; and wherever they went, they were warmly received. We can form very little idea of the deep spiritual darkness in which these districts had been hitherto plunged. In the year 1860, in the province of Kief, it is said, that there was only one school for a population of 34,000 children, and that only one man in a thousand could read. On an average, for districts with populations of 5,000, there would be one church capable of accommodating 300.
Surely God was visiting this poor, dark continent with light and blessing from on high, and opening the door for His servants to preach the Word. “The gathering communities of Stundists bubbled over with zeal and enthusiasm, and wherever a man was found among them who had any gift of speech, he was giving all his spare time to telling others, near and at a distance the wonderful tidings that had brought peace to his own soul.” “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Yet it was not only the preaching that took effect, but the lives of the converts, which underwent a complete change; and no wonder, when they had turned to God from idols, and had been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ.
ILLUSTRATION
Chapter 3: Separation
“Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.” Rev. 18:4.
The emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861, gave a further impetus to this movement, as it enabled the peasants to move from place to place with greater freedom. Those of them who were Stundists went forth, not only in search of work, but also carrying with them the New Testament, which was thus distributed all over the South of Russia.
It was about this time that Ivan Lisotski came to the front, and hundreds of families, chiefly through his instrumentality, embraced the true faith. Whether all of them were born again we cannot tell.
The gospel spread so rapidly, that the priests and the police were at a loss what to do, and in the year 1865, we find the priest of Osnova, asking for authority to deal with the “heretics,” who met in Ratushni’s house to read the gospels, and sing “extraordinary verses.” “But,” he adds later, “I can find no fault with their treatment of the icons, as each family has its icon in the proper place, and shows the proper reverence to it.”
From this we may infer that the Stundists did not at first break with the rites of the Greek Church; indeed, we know that hitherto they had always taken their children to the priests to be baptized, telling them that they only did it under protest.
It seems to have been the German baptists who set them an example in this respect; men such as Wieler, Pritzkav, Bekker, and Onken, who courageously stood out against any compromise with the corruptions and errors of the Greek Church. It was comparatively easy for them, because the Russians esteem it perfectly natural that a Tartar should be a Mohammedan, a Pole a Roman Catholic, and a German a Protestant. The fact of becoming a Russian subject does not necessitate a change of religion, but for this very reason it is obligatory that a Russian should for ever adhere to the Greek Church, and if he leaves it, he comes under the ban of heresy, and is treated as a traitor. So that while the German colonists were secure, and able to worship God as they saw fit, their poor Russian brethren, when once they had begun to break with what was considered the orthodox religion of their country, were exposed to danger on every side. It is to be lamented that when persecution began, the German baptists, instead of seeking to sympathize with their Russian brethren in their hour of sore distress, rather held aloof from them.
Perhaps at this point, it may be well to note some of the errors of the Greek Church, so that we may see clearly how necessary it was for a follower of Christ to come out from among them and be separate, despite the persecution which such a course entails.
The chief error we may mention is idolatry―gross, flagrant idolatry, which consists in icon worship. “Every peasant’s cottage ― the very poorest even ― has one or two of these painted representations of Divine beings, the Saviour, the Virgin, God the Father, or some of the principal saints. They are hung up in all public offices, from the ecclesiastical consistory to the bureau of the petty police official; they are before your eyes in banks, merchants’ offices, shops, railway stations, steamboats, drinking shops....
“To their icons peasant and noble do obedience; before them they prostrate themselves in prayer. The people call them `God,’ and burn holy oil before them. If happiness be a Russian’s lot in life, he ascribes it all to the icon; if misfortune follow him, it is because he has omitted some duty towards it―either
the oil has not been replenished, or the frame has not been kept bright, or he has sworn or got drunk in its presence. Favorite icons in churches receive the adoration of thousands, and are prayed to in every emergency of life. Icons follow the armies on their march, and victory is always sure when they are propitious.”
ILLUSTRATION
A peasant family in Russia worshipping their icons
One of their favorite icons represented the Virgin as a bride, seated between the Father and the Son, while the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove, held the imperial crown over her head. The Virgin, whom they designated as the Mother of God, was not for them simply as intercessor, as she is to the Romanists, but their God, and they prayed to her. They prayed also to angels, especially the angel Gabriel. It is easy to see that if to them the Virgin was the Mother of God, Jesus Christ was lost sight of, and practically ignored. He was merged in the Godhead. And yet God had said in His word, “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:23). And when God sent His Son into this world to save poor, ruined man, who had hitherto rejected all His messengers, He said: “I will send My beloved Son; it may be they will reverence Him, when they see Him” (Luke 20:13). These words are the most touching revelation of God’s heart towards His Son and towards the sinner― “It may be they will reverence My Son.” And what did man say? “This is the heir; come, let us kill Him!” He was lightly esteemed and set at nought; He was despised and crucified.
Is it any wonder, then, that when the Stundists read their Bibles for the first time, and learned how God has honored the Son and set Him at His own right hand, far above every name that is named not only in this world, but also in the world to come (Eph. 1:21),―is it any wonder that their hearts recoiled from a system which ignored Him, and that they were willing to endure anything rather than adhere to a creed which totally denied Him? And when they saw Him, with the eye of faith, bleeding on the accursed tree for them, we can well understand that they loved to sing ―
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
I might mention many more errors of the Greek Church, with which no true Christian could be associated; but it is their hatred of icon worship, which has, more than anything else, brought persecution upon the Stundists. Peace at all costs is not a divine principle. Our Lord Himself said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). And He said it in connection with denying Him before men. How thankful we may be that our Stundist brethren had grace to confess Him before their enemies!
“Thou life of my life, blessed Jesus,
Thou death of the death that was mine;
For me was Thy cross and Thine anguish,
Thy love and Thy sorrow divine.
Thou hast suffered the cross and the torment,
That I might for ever go free―
A thousand, a thousand thanksgivings
I bring, O my Saviour, to Thee!”
“For me hast Thou borne the reproaches,
The mockery, hate, and disdain,
The blows and the spitting of sinners,
The scourging, the shame, and the pain.
To save me from bondage and judgment,
Thou gladly hast suffered for me―
A thousand, a thousand thanksgivings
I bring, O my Saviour, to Thee!
“O Lord, from my heart do I thank Thee
For all Thou hast borne in my room;
Thine agony, dying unsolaced,
Alone in the darkness and gloom―
That I in the glory of heaven
Forever and ever might be―
A thousand, a thousand thanksgivings
I bring, O my Saviour, to Thee!”
Chapter 4: Karl Bonekemper
“Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only.” James 1:22.
It was in the year 1867 that the first real act of persecution was perpetrated but soon to be followed by further acts of cruelty.
In the same year, 1867, Pastor Bonekemper, of whom we have already spoken, died, and was succeeded in the pastorate of Rohrbach by his son Karl Bonekemper. The latter had begun life as a merchant, and had gone to seek his fortune in America, but during a storm which his ship encountered on the voyage, God spoke to him, and he at once determined to devote himself to the service of his Master. This he did for some years in America, until the news of his father’s illness and death recalled him to Rohrbach. He was, as to natural talents, a superior man to his father, and there is no doubt that according to his light, he used his talents in the service of God and for the benefit of his fellow men. He had studied medicine as well as theology, and as he understood the dialect which is common to the south of Russia, he easily found entrance among the poor whom he was ever ready to befriend. He soon became one of the chief leaders of the Stundists, and when difficulties arose in their midst, it was invariably to him that they turned for counsel and advice.
The Stundists so steadily increased in numbers, that after a time Karl Bonekemper felt that some sort of organization was necessary, and he set to work therefore to divide the field of labor into presbyteries, each presbyter being assisted by a deacon. As all this has been fully gone into in “The History of the Stundists,” it will not be necessary to repeat it here, but it may be interesting to note some of Karl Bonekemper’s maxims, which, in the shape of letters, were handed about from village to village.
“Learn to read, both men and women of you, and teach your children to read.”
“God’s will and revelation are found in the New Testament, therefore obtain a New Testament at all costs, and study it day and night.”
“Be generous to your brother in darkness; be not spiritually proud; seek to enlighten him, he is your brother.”
The letters of many of the Stundist leaders were addressed in the scriptural style to “The Church at ―”
“To the beloved in Christ, the brethren of the Church in ―, greeting,” followed perhaps by a warning, such as “See, brethren, that as your Church has sounded for ten years as with the voice of a trumpet, that that sound be not silenced;” or “Gird up your loins for the fight. For the enemy will rejoice in your weakness, and if you set not your house in order, great will be the confusion and danger. See that your elders be men well spoken of, and do not forget the poor and the oppressed when you assemble together on the Lord’s day.”
The Russians are par excellence a nomadic race, and this of itself tended to keep the Stundists in close communication one with the other, and promoted a sort of rough organization, for every leading Stundist visited his comrades in the faith, and maintained correspondence with them.
“The service of God,” they said, “means our living for others, and dying to ourselves.” And it is on this principle that they greatly regulated their lives. They mowed the hay and reaped the corn for the prisoner or the afflicted. They sowed his potatoes, repaired his hut, and even brought up his children. Another thing which characterized them was their love for God’s Word. Most of them carried a New Testament in their pockets, even when about their work, so
ILLUSTRATION
“They mowed the hay and reaped the corn for the prisoner or the afflicted.”
that when a moment of recreation came, instead of spending it at the public-house, they retired to some quiet nook to read the precious volume, and found it “more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb.” (Psa. 19:10).
But it is not only for enjoyment that they read God’s Word, though a very blessed thing doubtless; they read it also to learn how to walk in this world. It was a lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path (Psa. 119:105). They sought to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, as may be seen from the following letter written by a presbyter of the province of Bessarabia: “We have only one duty on earth― to put ourselves into harmony with God’s will concerning us. How are we to know God’s will? He has revealed it in the New Testament, and in so far as we are negligent in finding out that will of God, so far do we defeat the end for which He has placed us here. We hold, therefore, that constant meditation on the Scriptures enables us to live after the pattern of Christ, and to glorify and enjoy our Maker.”
Chapter 5: Beginning of Troubles
“Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it.” 1 Cor. 4:12.
It is not easy to follow accurately every stage of this revival of God’s Spirit in Russia, especially as up to the year 1880, most of our information is derived from the reports of the priests. But, if we move on from Kherson to Kief, in the year 1868, we find meetings being held at the village of Plosskoye, at first secretly, for fear of the police and priests, but afterwards as their courage increased, openly by day, in the house of a man named Zyboulski. He had learned the gospel from Tyshkevitch, who had lived for years in Kherson, before returning to his native place to spread the glad tidings among his comrades. There was no small stir in the neighborhood, and as might be expected, the police were soon on the track. Arrests were made, fines imposed, and the meeting houses closed. Tyshkevitch and Zyboulski were both carried off to prison, where they remained for more than a year, visited by the priests and government emissaries in hopes of inducing them to recant. But to one and all they made answer: “We will have none of your theatrical accessories. We want the New Testament, and that alone nothing else.”
These were not he only arrests which were made before the year 1870, but I give them as an example of what went on.
The Stundists might now be computed at 70,000 being spread over ten provinces between the Austrian frontier and the Volga. In the year 1872 They had overrun the whole of Tarastch, and it is interesting to read the accounts of meetings held in the town of Kanev, on the Banks of the Dnieper, scouts being set to watch, while these poor peasants assembled, amidst the rustling sedge on the banks of the river, to worship God, or to listen to a sermon from one of their leaders. At any moment they might be secretly seized by the police, and carried off to jail, or banished to a remote corner of the Empire, for in Russia there was no press to expose these cases of persecution, and so-called heretics were tried and sentenced within closed doors.
From this time and onwards most of the converts broke at once with the rites and ceremonies of the Greek church, and when summoned to appear before the Consistory officials to answer for their conduct, they invariably replied from Scripture. When told that the law forbade the laity to interpret Scripture, they would quote Col. 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Their reason for not going to the Greek church was that they desired to worship God in spirit and in truth according to John 4:20-24. To bow before an icon, a thing made with hands, would be idolatry.
A young girl, when asked why she did not make the sign of the cross, replied that Christ’s sufferings on the cross were graven in her heart, so that she did not need an outward sign to remind her of them.
Ratushni, of whom we have already spoken, when offered the bribe of holy orders in the orthodox church and a comfortable career if he would forswear his religious convictions, replied that he set greater store by God’s promise than man’s favor, and that he would not sell his birthright for a mess of pottage.
In 1873 some of the Stundists were sent to monasteries, in the hope that the monks would be able to reconvert them, but they remained firm in the faith; so much so, indeed, that entreaties came from some of the monasteries to send them no more Stundists, as the monks were not steadfast enough to resist them, and were in danger of being perverted themselves.
In these monasteries the Stundists were subjected to a form of torture called “doing penance,” which consisted often in their being reduced to a state of starvation, and having then to listen to the endless harangues of the monks. But they were unmoved, and one of the exhorting priests, whose honesty exceeded his prudence, wrote: “The fact is that these men either have done no wrong, or else their hearts have been hardened by the ceaseless questioning and cross-questioning to which they have been subjected.” There were secret reports of the priests and bishops which still lay hidden in the archives of monasteries and consistories, showing how great was already the thirst for vengeance on these Christians.
“One of the first of these pleas for violence was drawn up in 1873 by Father Terletsky, a priest selected by the Archbishop of Kief for his energy, erudition and eloquence to bring back the lost sheep to the true fold. He had been a Roman Catholic priest, and having changed his own faith with profit to himself, now exerted himself to the utmost to dissuade others from the crime of changing theirs. His failure to convert a single Stundist was a terrible blow to his orthodoxy and self-love, and afforded some excuse for the report which he drew up and sent to the Metropolitan, setting forth that the wandering sheep could only be restored by adopting the following measures: (1) Strictly prohibiting all Bible readings and prayer meetings, and, lest they should be convened at night in secret, quartering soldiers in the huts of all who were suspected of Stundism, and dogging the steps of all wandering pedlars; and (2) condemning without trial or accusation all Stundist preachers to penal servitude in the mines of Siberia.”
A copy of this report was sent to St. Petersburg, and little by little the government was overwhelmed with similar projects.
But it was not until the years 1877 and 1878 that the real fire of persecution commenced, and the priests, as we may suppose, were mainly instrumental in this. Indignant at finding their authority set at naught, their pretensions to be the sole representatives of the orthodox church despised, and finding themselves powerless to arrest the growing strength of the Stundists, they had recourse to foul and violent measures. At a conference of bishops and archbishops held in Kief in 1878, the most slanderous reports were sent in as to the conduct of the Stundists, and the secular powers were induced, not without some difficulty, to lend their aid in suppressing the movement, which was represented as dangerous to both Church and State.
The behavior of the Stundists was so exemplary, that over and over again their enemies had been unable to bring in a verdict against them. But when man wanted to get rid of Christ, His innocence was no impediment. “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him, crucify Him,” was only cried the louder.
From this time the Stundists were given to understand, as a body, that their separation from the Greek church meant the loss of every personal right and privilege.
And in what did this consist? It meant that they were to be treated like fugitives and vagabonds on the earth. That their names were to be placarded up in all railway offices, dockyards and workshops, so that no work of any kind might be given to them. It meant that they were not to purchase or rent land under any pretext. That their children were to be torn from them and handed over to strangers. That at any moment, when they were found reading the Bible or praying with one or more persons, they might be arrested and transported to some dreary spot in Siberia, and there “shot out like rubbish on the dumping-ground that is to prove their last resting-place on earth.”
ILLUSTRATION
“Their children were to be torn from them and handed over to strangers.”
The police in Kherson and Kief after this rigorously closed every meeting house, and confiscated hundreds of Testaments and manuscript hymnbooks. The leaders had their passports seized and were forbidden to stir from their own villages. This kind of thing went on for four years, but still it failed in hindering what was manifestly the working of God’s Spirit. If the meeting houses were closed, the Stundists gathered together at night for prayer in some nook or corner on the open steppe, and when deprived of their books, they found means of procuring others.
“By day, some of them would take their stand outside the taverns and await the habitual drunkard or the weak-willed farmer come to squander the proceeds of the sale of his cattle or corn.”
Many a poor sinner was reached in this way, and brought to repentance and to God, at the cost of prison or penal servitude to the one who had sought and won him.
The government, seeing all this, resorted to stronger measures, and in 1882 we find arbitrary and exorbitant fines levied on any poor peasant who continued to attend the meetings. One pound and eight shillings per head was the sum levied on each Stundist every time he went to a prayer meeting. Men and women were flogged, and the lash, to increase its efficacy, was sometimes wielded by the heretic’s own brothers.
“All through the winter of 1882 and 1883 it was quite a common thing to see in the villages auctions of the affects of Stundists their bedding, clothes and sticks of furniture being sold to liquidate these scandalous fines. We have before us a list of the Stundists fined and imprisoned in the village of Nerubalsk. During the space of eighteen months, twelve families here were fined the incredible sum of two thousand six hundred roubles, equivalent in our currency to 260 pounds.”
The same manner of proceeding went on in scores of other villages where Stundists lived, yet the priests were not satisfied.
“My predecessors knouted the Stundists with whips,” exclaimed the newly consecrated Bishop Sergius, “but I will beat them with scorpions.”
“Give alms to a needy Stundist!” exclaimed a village priest when he was asked to assist a hungry woman, whose husband had died, leaving her nothing but the Cain’s mark of the Stundist name; “I had rather fling the food to the dogs.”
The police were empowered to drive the Stundists by force into the churches to listen to sermons against their religious tenets. In fact it would be difficult to find any form of suffering and ill-treatment to which they were not exposed.
The titles of two of the most widely distributed leaflets after the year 1883, were, “No salvation outside the orthodox church,” and “The Damned Stundist.” The latter was printed in the government printing office, and distributed at the express desire of the Archbishop of Kharkoff, and shows how terribly strong was the hatred against God’s people.
ILLUSTRATION
“The police were empowered to drive the Stundists by force into the churches to listen to sermons against their religious tenets.”
Boom, ye church thunders!
Flash forth ye curses of the Councils!
Crush with eternal anathemas
The outcast race of Stundists!
The Stundist strikes at our dogmas,
Scoffs at our traditions,
Loathes our holy icons,
The heretic, the damned Stundist!
God hath blessed our Russian church
With high renown and fame,
Slandered is our Mother dear,
Slandered by the damned Stundist.
Our fanes and holy temples
That shine throughout the land,
Like stars in the blue firmament,
Are shunned by the damned Stundist.
Our prayers before the altar,
The hymns by which we honor God,
The mysteries we celebrate
Are blasphemed by the damned Stundist.
All the blessed and holy Saints,
Guardians of our Fatherland,
Our patrons and our watchful guides,
Are scorned by the damned Stundist.
The relics of the slaves of God,
Our images most holy,
Our processions of the cross,
Are loathed by the damned Stundist.
When we our fields and meadows bless,
Our brooks and springs we consecrate,
Nay, when we kneel and kiss the cross,
Then gibes the damned Stundist.
Dark and gloomy, demon-like,
He shuns the flock, the orthodox,
He skulks in nooks and corners dark,
God’s foe, the damned Stundist.
The simple sheep who venture near
The lair of this evil-working beast,
Shudder at his blasphemy,
And are entrapped by the damned Stundist.
Chapter 6: Banishment
“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.” Heb. 11:36.
Every government of a province in Russia was at liberty to transport to the Caucasus or to Siberia, any person whom he considered troublesome or in any way detrimental to the peace of the province. No trial at law is necessary. Therefore, in the year 1884, the Holy Synod and the Government decided, if possible, to inflict a death-wound on Stundism through its leaders. For this purpose lists were obtained of those who were most prominent amongst them, and one after another in quick succession they were imprisoned, or transported to some distant part of the Empire.
It would take too long to enumerate each case, but I may mention that of Ivan Solovev, as being typical of many others. “He was one of the Kief leaders, a young man of bright intelligence and ardent temperament. Accused before the governor of spreading heretical tenets, he received notice that within fourteen days he was to clear out of the bounds of the province of Kief. He had five children and a wife, and worked a flourishing little farm. Everything had to be sold at a ruinous loss. But in good heart he left all, and settled in the province of Kherson, where he resolutely began to repair his broken fortunes. His seed was hardly in the ground when he was informed by the local authority that the governor had ordered him to ‘move on.’ He was in debt for his seed and his cattle, so the Jews came in, seized everything; and one morning he and his family began a long tramp of 150 miles to Bessarabia. One old horse that they were able to save helped to relieve them on their march, for they all took turns at riding. They arrived after a month’s march in Bessarabia, but two of the children had died on the road.
He had hardly settled down in a little village near Kishenev, when again that dread order to `move on’ was received, and again the weary Solovev began his wanderings. Another child had died in Bessarabia, and the reduced family now made their way to the Taurida, where he hoped that the brethren would succor him in his necessity. About halfway on his journey, as he was passing through a small town, he was informed by the police that he was not to continue his present route, but to proceed to Ciscaucasia, where orders had been already sent to prepare the authorities for his arrival. The wretched, harassed man, with his sick wife and two remaining children, arrived at last in Stavropol, famished and emaciated, with his hope and his passion of spirit gone forever.
ILLUSTRATION
“The governor ordered them to ‘move on’.”
“One of the noblest of the Kief preachers, Ivan Lisotski, was treated in the same way. Two of his children also succumbed to the hardships of travel, his means of livelihood were also taken from him, and for over ten years he was harried about from province to province. But, unlike Solovev, he never lost hope, he always remained sanguine and buoyant, and now from his place of exile in distant Trans-caucasia, he maintains a correspondence with his friends in Russia, which heartens them in their troubles, and does much to bind together in bonds of brotherly sympathy the sorrowing villagers, whose lot is becoming so terrible, and those who have gone from them into banishment and exile.
“All through the five years between 1882 and 1887 the police were active in the service of the Inquisition. The local prisons in the provinces of Kief, Kharkov, Bessarabia, and Kherson always contained numbers of Stundists: men and women who had either been tried and found guilty of tampering with the Orthodox, or else were there on suspicion of having done so.
“Every gang of criminals which left the central jails in these provinces counted among its numbers some who were noble servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked in chains with heads shaven, and clad in the ignominious prison garb, for no other offence than that they sought to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their consciences. There was no distinction drawn between such ‘criminals’ and the worst desperadoes of the country. They walked in the same etape, they herded in the same vile dens at night, they were obliged to listen to the filthy conversation of their companions, they were treated with the same contumely by their soldier guards.
“Of course many a Stundist rejoiced in the opportunities thus afforded him of doing noble evangelistic work. One man, a noble character, cast into the jail at Tiflis amongst a crew of vile scoundrels, has recorded his joy at having had such an opportunity of preaching the gospel. He describes how he was obliged to put on a filthy prison costume, swarming with vermin and stained with every abomination. He describes the fetid atmosphere of the den in which he and twenty others passed the hours of the tropical nights. But the other prisoners grew to respect his gentle character; and he relates how some of them, unable otherwise to show him kindness, rolled up their prison shoes in a bag, and put this bundle under his head at night to serve him as a pillow. This man’s sole offence was alleged disrespectful words against the orthodox church.’ He was not tried; there was no evidence against him save the suspicion of a priest, but his punishment was four years banishment to a remote province of the empire, and the loss of most of his personal rights and privileges.
“Let us next take the case of Ivan Golovtchenko, a Stundist preacher in the province of Ekaterinoslav. He was taken before the Court on a charge of propagating Stundist doctrines. The evidence against him was of the flimsiest character, but it was sufficient, nevertheless, to convince an orthodox jury of peasants of his guilt. He was sentenced to three years in jail. As soon as his term of imprisonment had expired, the authorities made enquiry in his native village if he was a safe person to permit to return to his home. The priest to whom this enquiry was addressed, held up his hands in holy horror at the idea. ‘Certainly not,’ he replied, ‘he is an arch heretic, and would only lead my flock astray.’ So an administrative order was made out, banishing poor Golovtchenko to Siberia for life. During his term in prison, his wretched family were literally starving, and their experiences on the long and desolate road to Siberia were terrible.”
These suffering Christians may well be compared with those in Heb. 11, who were said to be “destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.” Their faith is an encouragement to us to “run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” (Heb. 12:1-2.)
“In the dungeons and in the deserts
Have Thy saints, by the world despised,
With joy untold and unmeasured,
Looked on the face of Christ.
In the torture or in the fire,
`Midst the scorn and the hate of men,
They have seen but the light of His presence
Around them then.”
ILLUSTRATION
Crossing the steppes
Chapter 7: Suffering
“Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not.” 1 Peter 2:23.
It makes one shudder to relate the cruelties that have been perpetrated in recent years on these poor Russian peasants for no other reason than that they seek to follow Christ in this world.
“The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you, if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me” (John 15:20, 21).
In April, 1891, a stone-mason, named Grebenyovk, of the village of Slodbodka, in Kherson, and a comrade of his were fined 37 pounds each for allowing prayer meetings to be held in their rooms. For a similar offence, in the month of June, the former and his wife were condemned to pay 12 pounds and 37 pounds respectively. The involvency of the offenders was followed by imprisonment, and Grebenyovk, on his release, forfeited his passport, a measure which deprives him for a term of two years of the right to leave the town in which he resides.
Urgent business requiring his presence in a neighboring town, he subsequently petitioned Admiral Zelony, the governor of Odessa, for leave to absent himself for a short time. The admiral glanced scornfully at his petitioner, and shouted out in a voice of thunder: “Ah, you are a Stundist, are you? you rascal! How dare you leave the Orthodox church, you scoundrel? I’ll pack you off to Siberia, you son of a ― “As God wills,” the stone mason answered simply.
“As God wills, is it, you ruffian! You presumed to leave the Orthodox church, did you? Well, by ― I’ll make it hot enough for you outside the church, you’ll find. Leave my presence this moment; begone! son of a ―.” And the stone mason, a really fine specimen of a puritan, left the presence of the governor with the simple dignity with which he would doubtless have gone to execution.
It is said that every jail in southern Russia contained some of these Christian men and women, and the filth of many of the cells in which they were confined is past description. The walls and ceilings literally swarmed with vermin, and the hardships they had to endure were infinitely greater than anything inflicted on ordinary criminals.
Imprisonment generally ended in banishment; and besides this, with no warning at all, many of them were dragged off from their homes at night in irons and fetters, and sent for long terms of penal servitude to the mines of Siberia. From the year 1888 and onwards, it was seldom that a gang of prisoners tramped across the icy snows of the Caucasian passes without a Stundist leader being chained in the midst, not to speak of lesser members of their community. And when at length they reached their journey’s end, worn out and shattered in health, the authorities were careful to separate them one from the other as far as possible, lest their united influence should be pernicious to those around them. The most arid and rocky deserts were selected for their domicile, such as Gerusi, Terter and Yevlach, and here they had to camp out in the open, until the Tartars took pity on them and gave them something to do. So poverty-stricken were they, that they would work a whole day gathering stones from the mountains for the paltry sum of twopence divided between twenty of them, and this after a weary journey of nearly 300 miles on foot.
Words cannot describe the horrors and brutalities to which they were subjected on these journeys laden with chains which would catch the snow at every step, and thus impede their progress, their feet swollen and covered with sores, forced to carry the soldiers’ baggage, and if they remonstrated, thrust at with bayonets, lashed at with the driver’s whip, and stormed at with curses such was the treatment they received by day, and at night their sufferings were, if possible, intensified.
Crowded into a filthy wooden hut called a forwarding prison, often only meant to accommodate a third of their number, they were yet forced to take refuge in it to escape the biting cold and perchance a blinding snow storm. Here they were locked in for the night, so that no matter how thick and polluted the atmosphere might become, they could only sigh and groan for the morning, and try to close their ears to the foul language around them. Is it to be wondered at that the weakly ones succumbed even on the journey, and that if they managed to reach the end, they died when they found themselves starved out in a barren land of exile? Sad to say, there were not a few cases of insanity brought on by sorrow, suffering and hardship.
The names of these poor sufferers are too numerous to mention here, but I will quote the case of “Felix Pavilkovski, once a preacher in the province of Kherson. The priest of his village enticed him into a theological discussion.
This was towards the end of 1891. Pavilkovski was indiscreet enough to let fall some expressions hostile to the church. He was arrested at the priest’s request, and sent to jail. Disgusting work was here thrust upon him, and petty larcenies committed on his food. The warders demanded money, and when he could not gratify them, they prepared a cagelike structure, in which a man could stand upright, but could neither sit nor lie down. Fastened into the cage, Pavilkovski was carried off to the prison privy, and remained in this fetid and horrible place for three days and three nights, the butt and laughing-stock of the jailbirds around him. When at last he was taken out he was a huddled-up lifeless heap. His joints had lost their use. Each day his jailers brought him seven ounces of black bread and a mug of bad water. It will be noticed that they did not starve him.”
At last the authorities decided to try Pavilkovski, and he and six others were sentenced to be banished for life to Eastern Siberia. After four months more in jail the seven Stundists began their awful journey. Their wives and children were allowed to accompany them. The Stundists had their heads shaved, and iron anklets riveted on. Each Protestant was chained to a convict bound for the mines. It would take up too much space if we narrated in any detail the sufferings of these seven families, but it is worth mentioning that before their long journey had drawn to a close, Pavilkovski’s wife and two of the other women had died from fatigue and exposure, and that of the thirteen children who left their homes in Russia, only five remained alive. We have heard from these martyrs since their arrival in Siberia, and they are full of a magnificent hope that even in their distant homes they will be shown a way to spread the light of the coming kingdom.
ILLUSTRATION
“The Stundists had their heads shaved, and iron anklets riveted on. Each Protestant was chained to a convict bound for the mines.”
“It is no rare thing for every Stundist in one village to be taken up and sent off to jail, later on to be banished to the Caucasus. Now that it is admitted to be no crime, but on the contrary the highest policy to persecute these Christians, they are subjected not only to the brutalities of the police and priests but also of the Orthodox peasants so-called. Anything short of murder is permitted, as that might bring the authorities into trouble if it got known to their Western neighbors. In several villages of the province of Kherson, the peasants, not content with taunting and jeering at the Stundists, have been known to flog and imprison them. One poor man had his arms turned and twisted until the blood spurted out, another had nails driven into his feet. Their houses searched at any moment, burst into at night, the windows broken, their goods smashed, their books and papers seized, their wives and children ill-treated, the old and sick turned out of doors, and for all these atrocities there is no possible redress.”
“Reduced to beggary by a system of fines which have been raised to as much as 87 pounds a head, in terror for their lives, and in constant dread of imprisonment or transportation, we are not surprised to hear that many of them have sold their belongings and emigrated to Roumania or the provinces contiguous to Siberia, hoping there to be out of reach of their tormentors, and to be able to bring up their children as the Bible has taught them. For, sad to say, the kidnapping of Stundist children is an ordinary occurrence. A Stundist being an outlaw, his children are not his own; indeed, a law has been passed to the effect that all children of Stundists are to be placed under clerical guardianship and to be baptized in the Orthodox church, and this is carried out to the letter.”
Chapter 8: Sore Temptation
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” 1 Peter 4:12,13.
We must not be surprised to hear that some of those who were called Stundists, and who professed to believe in Christ, had, to escape the fire of persecution, turned back to the orthodox religion of their country. “We should anticipate similar results if persecution, either by Rome, or by the state Church, were to break out in any part of Christendom. The differences which separate Christians are counted so slight, the cry for reunion is growing so loud and becoming so popular, that hundreds would find no difficulty in reconciling it with their consciences to accept the dominant form of Christianity. It is faith, faith in God and in Christ and in the Bible that can enable men to stand alone, and to resist error, whether clothed with attraction or armed with power.
Besides, we live in a soft and luxurious age, in which suffering is feared more than sin. Our nerves are weak, our spirits tender. We need a recreation from above. We need the power of Christ, such as inspired the martyrs of the past. The once potent message of God, ‘I am with thee,’ needs to fill us anew, so that God’s strength may be exchanged for our weakness.”
In the days of the apostle Paul, we read of a Demas who loved this present world better than sharing the prison life of his aged friend, or even his “persecutions and afflictions.” But, thank God, there were many Stundists who still rejoiced to be counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake; and we heard lately of some who have been found in their prisons with their Bibles open before them, and their faces shining with joy. In the faroff regions of Transcaucasia and Siberia these banished ones still sought to spread the glad tidings of God’s grace wherever they went, in spite of all the hindrances put in their way; for even out there they were subject to police surveillance, and the very letters they received and sent were all inspected, and often suppressed. This made it difficult to obtain as many details about them as we should have liked.
The following is a letter written from the province of Yeniseisk, in the heart of central Siberia. The writer was banished there for life because he preached the Gospel to his fellow-villagers: “Your souls are saved. Let no act, or word, or thought of yours put your Saviour to shame before the eyes of those who refuse to honour Him. Tell all the brethren that, although so far away from home and wife and child, I am happy, for Christ has filled me with joy unspeakable; and I realize the presence of His Spirit, here in Siberia, as I never realized it before.”
The police surveillance in the Russian provinces still continued with the same rigor, as may be gathered from the following letters, which contained the most recent information to be had. The first is from a peasant in the province of Kief: ―
“Dear Friend, I am glad to say that my family and myself are well, but we are a good deal troubled and in fear. On the 8th the police entered my cottage. There were the prefect and two of his assistants. The prefect commanded me to open a large box standing on the floor. He then began rummaging among my things; but I had taken care to have all my letters removed to a safe place, so he had to satisfy himself by seizing some of my books, among them a psalter and a hymn book. He also seized a little collection of manuscript tracts which I had copied out from books lent me by the brethren. For a long time past my letters have been handed to me, by the police, open, and not as previously by the postman. Everything is read by the police! Please send me no more letters, and tell all my friends not to write to me.”
ILLUSTRATION
“The police and the Elder were coming to seek us”
The next is from a Stundist preacher, also living in the province of Kief, dated January, 1894.
“Last Sunday evening we had a very narrow escape. You know that since brother Ilarion’s house has been watched, we have met from time to time among the sedge on the river. Thank God even for that house of prayer! Well, on Sunday evening we had all assembled at the place by the river (the Dnieper), when Pavl came running up to say that the police and the Elder were coming to seek us. It was very dark, and that enabled us to hide easily. We crept in among the reeds-ten of us. The ice was very thin, and we sank in the water up to our knees. After waiting an hour we heard the police arriving at our meeting-place, and could see them dimly running about looking for us. At last they left to return to the village; and, without leaving the place where we were, I offered up prayer for our deliverance. I have had bad rheumatism ever since, so has Pavl.”
The next is from a Stundist preacher in the district of Elizabethgrad: “The troubles and persecutions in the province of Kief show no signs of abating. I have a report from a village near Uman, that, at a recent meeting of the brethren, a number of them were arrested by order of an orthodox priest, and made to tramp to Uman, a distance of ten miles, where they were kept in jail for fifteen days without any trial, and with just sufficient bread to keep them from starving. An order was then given by the police to shave their heads. This was done; and amid the jeers of the police and of the other prisoners, they were ordered home again. During their stay in prison they were treated like dogs, beaten and cuffed about by the police officer. A good many of the brethren have been sent from here to Transcaucasia. One brother has left a wife and four children in abject want. Another, the whole support of parents, who are nearly eighty years old, has also been banished. The priests are at work among the brethren, tempting them to leave the faith, and to return to the empty forms of orthodoxy; and some weak ones have done so, but not many, thank God!”
“In the world ye shall have tribulation:
Lord Jesus, Thou saidst it of old.
There dark are the desolate mountains,
The night winds are cold.
But safe from the storm and the tempest
My soul hath a cell;
There ever, beside the still waters,
With Jesus I dwell;
There, hushed from the strife and the sorrow,
Alone and apart,
In chambers of peace and of stillness―
That home is His heart.”
Chapter 9: Meetings
“An example of suffering affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure.” James 5:10-11.
Time went on and there seemed no hope of any mitigation in the sufferings of the Stundists. In December, 1894, the Minister of the Interior issued a manifesto to the effect that they were the most dangerous sect both for the Church and the State, and that, therefore, all their meetings were forbidden. From one who visited them at Gerushi, on the Persian frontier, we learn that even in their exile they had to come together very early in the morning, before the police were about. They are much touched at hearing that Christians in England were praying for them, so let us be encouraged to continue remembering them before the Lord. In 2 Thess. 3:1,2, we read of Paul asking the brethren to pray for him and Silvanus and Timotheus, “that the Word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” We, too, might pray in this way for the Stundists.
Perhaps, before we close this little account, some of my readers would like to read a description of one of their meetings. It was published as follows in the “Leisure Hour,” years ago.
“Their services are as simple as could be, the largest room in a hut is usually chosen for the occasion. The furniture does not consist of anything beyond a few stools and a table. In the right corner there is also a small table covered with a white cloth, on which lie a Bible and a hymn book. The latter contains Russian translations of many Lutheran, and even of some English hymns. The service opens with a hymn, or more generally a Psalm. Then some one reads a portion of the Bible, which is followed up by exposition. Psalms and hymns are again sung, and afterwards all kneel down and a prayer is offered up.
“The sacrament of holy communion is almost as simple. ‘We believe,’ they say, ‘that in this sacred symbol, Christ gives to the believer to taste of His body and blood in a spiritual manner.’ An elder generally opens the meeting with the words, ‘Let us begin this meeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ whereupon he opens the Bible at the twelfth of Exodus and reads verses 1-15, explaining the paschal feast of the Old Testament. ‘This solemn feast,’ he says, ‘was ordained in memory of the liberation of the Jews from servitude or bodily death. Now, however, the blood of the Lamb has freed man from eternal death.’ When he has expounded this chapter, the elder reads 1 Cor. 11:23-34, or Matthew 2:6. While he is reading, a deacon places a plate of bread and a cup of wine on the table, and as the elder is repeating the verses `Take, eat,’ etc., the plate is handed round. The same occurs with the wine. All those present, before participating, sing one verse of the communion hymn, which, literally translated, reads:
`When Thou, Lord, madest known
Thy death to the disciples,
Then, at even taking bread,
Thou didst bless it;
And breaking, gavest it to all,
Saying unto them,
Take, eat, all of you,
This is my body―’
“A similar verse, which is also a paraphrase of the verses in the Bible, is also sung before partaking of the wine. After this the elder reads Matt. 26:26-28, and with a prayer and the benediction, the service concludes.”
This, of course, depicts what their meetings were like in earlier days, for later on, it had to be done with the greatest precaution.
An eye-witness has described about forty people assembled in a cleared space in a forest, who had all come from different directions, stealthily, by twos and threes, lest they should be noticed, each one carrying a Bible wrapped up in paper to disguise it if possible. But such a meeting generally ends now by one or more being caught by the police and sent to jail.
I am afraid some of us would have left our Bibles at home rather than run the risk of being taken up by bringing them. To these poor Stundists the Word of God was a living reality, a revelation from heaven, a compass to direct their course through this world. They were willing to lose everything rather than give it up.
How solemn it is that in countries where there is full liberty to read it, no man making us afraid, it is fast losing its authority and becoming as a fable to be discussed. God grant that any of the young who read this, may take example by the Stundists and search its precious pages, for in them they will find exhaustless treasures of wisdom.
ILLUSTRATION
Cossacks clearing a street