Heinrich F. Reimer Letter of 1869

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Heinrich F. Reimer: Letter of 1869

Letter written by Heinrich F. Reimer (1818-1876). Printed in Storm and Triumph, by Delbert Plett, pp50-51. A letter of reconciliation with the “Friesens” Gemeinde. Alexanderkrone is a village in the Molotschna Colony of South Russia.

Alexanderkrone the first day of August, 1869. Beloved Ohms, Brethren and sisters.

Firstly, I wish you the dear and worthy peace through Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior. Amen. Beloved Ohms, brothers and sisters. We wish to make all of your aware of our feelings of thankfulness and encouragement with respect to the reconciliation. Indeed, we are very thankful for the great love of our heavenly Father which has again been experienced, and which our compassionate God bestows upon us very weak afflicted souls. Ah yes, I must confess that when, with the help of God, the resolution of peace was effected in Fischau, it moved me to tears. In my great weakness I had prayed to our beloved God many times, that he surely would want to inspire all of our hearts for love and for reconciliation, and that we grieving and scattered sheep would again come under one charge. Yes, I hope that all of us will have prayed to our heavenly Father, “Lord, your will be done”.

If it had not been the will of the Lord, how would the Ohms from the Crimea, the Aeltester Ja. Wiebe and Ohm Bearg, have made such a lengthy journey? And I Have the assurance that the Ohms were of assistance for reconciliation to us afflicted souls through the incitement of the Holy Spirit. They also served us with baptism, the Lord's Supper, a love service and ministerial elections.

I repeat again, many thanks are returned to our beloved God and to you. Oh that the Lord would not be sorrowful regarding his lost sheep, but we must take fault if we fall into sin against our loving God. Certainly, our loving God does not wish that any should go lost, but rather that we return again and bid that he, the God of compassion, might once more forgive our sins out of grace.

Oh how can we sufficiently rejoice with heartfelt thanks that the compassionate God of grace is still ruling over us miserable sinners? We must consider this with a grateful disposition and say with the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah that, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is they faithfulness:. Yes, so great that we may cry out and say with the king and prophet, : O Lord my God great are your wonders, and your grace which you have evidenced to us:. There is nothing equal to Psalm 40. The prophet Isaiah speaks out and says, his counsel is wonderful and magnificently worketh all things. Our benevolent God has marvelously led us insignificant ones, as we have no substance to obtain peace of our own strength, if the loving God had not caused it.

Yes beloved Ohms and brothers and sisters, the matters which have gone so adversely for us through our dispersion, must be allowed to serve for our learning and warning for the future. I mean to say for example as Judas Maccabee said to the Jews, that they should not be provoked by these calamities, but that they should judge such punishments not to be for destruction, but rather as a chastening of our nation. And therefore he never completely withdraweth his mercy from us, and though he that punished us with misfortune, yet doth he never forsake his people. II Maccabees 6. Similarly may the misfortune which we have had serve not only as a warning, but also an example, so that in the future we might live in greater fear of God and more carefully than we perhaps have done in the past and as Paul says “at all times to follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”. Hebrews 12.

Beloved Ohms and siblings. I find myself and my evil flesh to be so very weak when I think of the danger, how the devil is so everywhere present. Yes, he comes as an angel of light so that I must cry together with the poet. “Mein Gott ich dir klagen, durch dieses Lied die Plagen, die oft mein Herze quaelt, das mir die guten triebe, die Froemmigkeit und Liebe, bei fleisches schwachheit fehlt”. I am sometimes very frightened that the evil enemy will lead us from the narrow path which Christ has walked before us. Therefore, it is my heartfelt plea that you would unite yourselves in your prayers with us very weak fellow pilgrims and pray to God for us, that the loving God might grant true faith and love to us sinners in these troubled times. Fr which I pray with the poet, “O pflanz in mir so deine Liebe, das nichts als Liebe mich belebt, auf das mein Geist durch heisze Triebe, and dir als einem Liebling klebt”.

I also wish to mention regarding our newly elected minister (Lehrer), Ohm Ab. Klassen, that he is very zealous in his service to each us of the narrow way and to advise, which is also very essential. But I told him in love that he should not exert himself so much as it would weaken him, to which he replied that indeed his body was only weak. Therefore it is my plea that we might all wish to come to his aid in prayer to the Lord who can readily strengthen him. It is also my plea to you beloved Ohms that you would come to visit us as soon as possible.

I will now conclude this very insignificant writing. It is our wish that this little effort may come to comfort you in the best of health physically as well as spiritually. Physically we are quite well, many thanks be to God, but our spiritual condition is very very poor as stated above. But we must always express our concerns in prayer.

Now beloved Ohms and brothers and sisters, a heartfelt greeting to you from our beloved wife and myself and from the Johann Duecks. We remain your most subordinate and submitted brothers and sisters, and we say adieu, adieu, with a kiss of love. “Heinrich Reimers”

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