90 / Growth-and Some Decline-of the Churches

Finally, the Christian must put his trust in God and be faithful unto death. If fiery trials come, he must look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. Thus Brenneman brought to a close his arguments and testimony. His sermon takes its place in the body of literature which his spiritual and lineal ancestors produced in the formative years of the Reformation. It breathes the spirit of the martyr ballads that came from the castle prison of Passau by the Danube three centuries ago. In the perspective of the past century it stands out as a forerunner to the peace principle as interpreted by the Mennonite Church today. Admittedly it contained no reference to any alternative service to war, a development of World War I and World War II. Its tone, however, was compatible with the idea of a "moral equivalent" to war, stressing as it did the Christian constraint to love enemies, to heal the wounded, and to reconcile men to each other.

Life in the Local Congregation

The local congregation was the place where much of the battle was won or lost in the test of survival on Ohio's frontier. While much of the local congregational life went on without being recorded there are still many glimpses afforded in the letters, articles, and reports which appeared in the Herald of Truth, which was published in both German and English editions. Founded in 1864 by John F. Funk with the encouragement of an Ohio bishop, John M. Brenneman of Allen County, this periodical became not only a news medium for scattered congregations but also a regular and influential teacher-a proclaimer and propagator of the faith. Local representatives of the Herald of Truth took subscriptions and sent them to the headquarters office in Elkhart, Indiana. Local reporters and contributors supplied news reports and articles on biblical and spiritual themes. In its pages are many columns and items which reflect the thought and activities of the Ohio congregations in the second half of the nineteenth century. What were some of the currents and crosscurrents that flowed through these scattered, small rural communities about a century ago?

There is first of all, evidence of vital spiritual life. These pioneers, at least many of them, aimed to do more than build homes and till farms. They sought to build a fellowship of Christian believers, bound to each other by ties of love. Church membership

was a serious matter. Obedience to God and to the teachers of the