Reflections on the Close of the Year

The following words come from John Kline's Diary - entry of December 31, 1838:

This evening closes the work of another year. The record of this year is now nearly complete. Have I any idea of that record? I think I have. Of one thing I feel sure. It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink. Neither has it been written in the skies. Each one's yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart.

Each one's LIFE, therefore, is his record. This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within. "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things."

The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man. This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the HEART, out of which the character grows, is the BOOK that will be opened before the throne, out of which everyone will be judged. A good heart is each redeemed saint's BOOK OF LIFE: and an evil heart is each lost soul's book of condemnation.

Hence we are told by our Lord "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment:" and that "whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop." Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart's love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.

Source: Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, Benjamin Funk

Coming to the end

Throughout this 300th anniversary year of the Brethren, it has been our intent to provide daily stories and reflections about the Brethren. Much has been recorded over the years and we are indeed grateful to the historians and writers who have kept alive the stories and information about the church in their era. We hope our effort has helped in some small way to help keep the writings of others alive for a while longer. Tomorrow's entry will be the final entry in this series - coming from the December 31 journal entry of John Kline which we believe will bring fitting closure.

But for today we turn to words written by J.H. Moore at the conclusion of his 1929 book, Some Brethren Pathfinders. In the Preface to the book, Moore described how the chapters had been written for the Gospel Messenger to keep the stories alive for boys and girls of that generation. Demand led to the publication of the stories in book form and is a tribute of respect to the religious heroes of the wilderness.

Moore's book ends with a paragraph titled simply: The End.

To all things there must be an end, and here ends my story, not because the material at our disposal is exhausted ... but we think enough has been told to show that in the generations gone by we had a band of devout and efficient leaders worthy of any honor that we might possibly be able to confer upon them. All honor to the noble heroes of the cross and heroes of the wilderness. They blazed the way for present and future generations and we shall do well to keep their achievements in mind, and profit by their devotion, experiences and sacrifices.

Source: Some Brethren Pathfinders, J.H. Moore

Tomorrow: a year-end entry from John Kline's Diary

White Christmas

Brethren missionaries in the Far East faced grave danger in the face of the Japanese war of aggression that led to United States involvement in World War II. Some escaped through harrowing circumstances, but others, such as Lloyd and Ellen Cunningham, were captured and interned by the Japanese during the war.

The Cunninghams, along with their then two and a half year old son Lloyd, Jr., were in the Philippines after Pearl Harbor. They had been serving as missionaries in China since 1938, but they had moved to the Philippines for advanced language study in 1941. On December 29 of that year the three were imprisoned, and were not liberated until February 3, 1945.

It was over 32 years later that Ellen Edmister Cunningham decided to write down some of her memories of that era. Her account of her imprisonment is filled with stories of hunger and want. At one point, she wrote, "Our calories dropped to about 600 per day. Breakfast consisted of a cup or two of very bad tea. The natives pointed out some wild greens that were edible so we spent hours picking and cleaning these leaves that grew in the back of the compound. Those mixed with a little oil and lots of water furnished our noon meal of soup."

Through the latter part of her imprisonment she relates that on more than one occasion the rumors of an Allied advance were tempered with the fears that they would be killed by the Japanese to prevent their liberation.

On their last day of imprisonment they heard American tanks and wondered if this would also be their last day on earth. But their Japanese captors had fled. Even so they had a difficult time convincing their liberators they were Americans, who thought that all the prisoners of war had already been set free.

Their son, who by that time was five, had never seen a loaf of bread and asked what it was. Then Ellen asked one of the American soldiers if World War II had produced any memorable songs like the previous world war.

"The soldier with whom I was talking thought a moment and then he said, 'I don't think of any war songs, but have you heard White Christmas?' Of course we hadn't, so he called one of his buddies over and had him sing it for us. I thought it was such a beautiful song and even yet I get goose bumps when I hear it and it brings back memories of that long ago night."

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tercentennial Minutes for December 28, 2008

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song whose lyrics reminisce about White Christmases. The morning after he wrote the song — Berlin usually stayed up all night writing — the songwriter went to his office and told his musical secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written ... the best song that anybody's ever written!"

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten,

and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

Dan West: The Brethren in the Future

Writing in 1947, Dan West suggested that "in the last third of a century we [the Church of the Brethren] have moved so far and so fast that were my own father to return he would not likely recognize the same church to which he belonged."

Many of these changes, Dan believed, had demonstrated the genius of the Brethren in action. ... Dan concluded that the future was "uncertain as yet but potentially far beyond anything in our history."

According to him the question was, and still is, whether the Brethren would continue to develop their social policy as rapidly as they had done in the past fifty years, or whether they had reached the point where an inevitable leveling-off would take place.

Perhaps Dan would say today, as he wrote in the family's Christmas newsletter in 1944:

God is still in his heaven ...

and here on earth too

trying to help us floundering mortals

to learn how we ought to live

in homes, in churches, in communities,

and in the world.

He shouldn't have to wait so long on us!

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Called to Serve

The Lord Calls Us to Serve

The Lord calls us to serve our present age. He speaks through our heritage to those of us in new communities where our neighbors, uprooted from former church homes, may easily drift away from religion to be counted among the vast unchurched. He speaks to those of us in urban communities where neighborhoods are changing in class and in color, and we must either serve or die. He speaks to those of us in rural churches where the community is so stable that rigid boundaries have long been drawn between the churched and the unchurched, the Brethren and the non-Brethren.


This is what our heritage says to me: "You have a vision of what the church can become – a fellowship of disciples, learning, growing, and following the Master together. You have the New Testament as an authority out of which your practice, your faith, and your approach should continue to grow. You have a plan that is sound: a keen interest in family living and an appreciation of what this basic unit of society can do to shape the world’s tomorrows. Your respect for conscience and for the religious experiences of others gives you the attitude for service. All this finds its final and dramatic challenge in the ordinance of feet-washing."


These are things which the Church of the Brethren holds dear. And since we do, we must share them or we shall lose them. A church that will risk losing its life in the service of a community will discover it has new life in its Lord. It was a wise brother who said, "If we have reason for existing, we have reason for serving."

Source: "To Serve the Present Age," Robert N. Miller, Brethren Life and Thought, Winter 1956

Christ-centered

It is the love experienced

when Christ is at the center of one's life,

that draws us into unity.

We do not create unity or fellowship.

They are gifts.

When our lives are Christ-centered,

we can disagree

without being bitter or divisive.

It is a mark of the working of the Holy Spirit

that we can hold one another

in love and fellowship

even though

there is diversity among us.

Source: Biblical Inspiration and Authority

1979 Annual Conference Statement

First Brethren Baptism in America

In August of 1723 a rumor spread that famed preacher Christian Liebe had come from Germany to the Colonies to preach in Philadelphia. The rumor was false, but it caused some of the scattered Brethren who had emigrated to Pennsylvania to get back in touch with each other after four years in America.

In 1719 the Brethren in Europe, penniless after having been hounded from sanctuary to sanctuary because of their religious beliefs, faced dissension from within as the group split over the question of whether one could only marry within the fellowship. Exhausted and hurt, some emigrated to Germantown, under the leadership of Peter Becker.

For the next four years they established farms and businesses, while sending back glowing letters describing the unlimited opportunities in William Penn's colony, which was the home of an experiment in religious liberty. Though the Liebe rumor proved false the Brethren realized they missed worshipping together. Peter Becker, who had a great reputation for singing, was named their first minister in America.

A baptism was arranged at the edge of the Wissahickon Creek on Christmas Day of 1723. The ice was broken, and six new members were dunked three times forward. Twenty-three adults gathered afterward at the Gumre home on the top of the nearby hill. With everyone dried off and warmed both outwardly and inwardly, the Brethren shared their Love Feast.

They felt so good afterwards they decided that the following fall all the men would go forward in a great evangelistic trip, one that would result in the founding of new churches that are still in existence today.

Christmas Day, 1723 - one of the most important dates in Brethren history.

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tricentennial Minute for December 23, 2007

Christmas Eve 1940 - Kenneth Morse

In 1943, Kenneth Morse began a thirty-five year tenure on the denominational staff. He edited youth publications from 1943-1950 and became as editor of The Gospel Messenger in 1950. In 1965 he and his staff radically changed the magazine's appearance and the name was changed to Messenger. In 1971 he became book editor for Brethren Press but continued as associate editor of Messenger until his retirement in 1978.

Morse was noted as a poet and hymn writer (including "Move in Our Midst"). A book of his hymns, poems and prayers, Listen to the Sunrise, was published in 1991. The earliest of the poems is a meditation for Christmas Eve, 1940, when our country was preparing to conscript its young men to serve in a war that came a year later. It seems appropriate for this day as well.

Christmas Eve, 1940

Will the angels sing on the hills tonight
When the world is weary with war?
Will they sing again of peace on earth?
Will the shepherds hear them once more?

Will the wise men see the star tonight
While the fires of hate burn high?
Will they bring to the child their gifts of love?
Will they find his star in the sky?

Will the Lord God intervene tonight
To halt the hatred of men?
Or will this night of horror spread
To cripple the world again?

To the ears of faith the angels sing,
To the eyes of hope the star leads on;
To the hearts who wait the Lord God speaks;
To the world he gives his son.

Sources: The Brethren Encyclopedia
Listen to the Sunrise, Kenneth I. Morse

An Incarnation of God's Reconciling and Redeeming Love

We who are the body of Christ,

an incarnation of God's

reconciling and redeeming love

in the world,

are called to be a channel of God's loving justice.

Wherever brokenness among people exists,

we are called to participate

in God's work of healing;

Wherever people suffer from oppression,

we are to work

for God's act of liberation; and

Wherever people are deprived of basic

human needs and opportunities,

we are called

to God's work of humanization.

Source: Justice and Nonviolence

1977 Annual Conference Statement

Bill and SueZann Bosler

Bill Bosler was pastor in Miami, Florida's First Church of the Brethren. He went about his work largely unnoticed by our denomination or by the city where he worked. He served in a racially troubled neighborhood. Under his leadership, the Miami congregation grew from 12 to 70: Salvadorians, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, whites, American blacks and others. The poor, the alienated, the struggling, the young were among those he served.

Bill Bosler died the way he lived: reaching out to a young stranger in a poor, high-crime area filled with violence and danger. At 2 p.m. on December 22, 1986, he was murdered at the parsonage by someone who came to his home asking for help. He died with love toward the young man who attacked him.

SueZann Bosler, Bill Bosler's daughter, walked into the room where he father lay dying from knife wounds. His killer turned on SueZann, slashing her three times in the back and twice on her skull. Pretending to be dead, her life was spared. When the man left, she called for help.

It took months for SueZann to recover from the physical and emotional trauma she had suffered. Her lifelong opposition to the death penalty was put to the strongest possible test. Her father's convictions about the sacredness of life helped sustain her during that time. Several Bible passages strengthened her view that "only God has the right to take a human life."

The intruder, James Bernard Campbell, was arrested and convicted. The judge sentanced him to die in the electric chair. SueZann went to the judge to plead that the killer's life be spared. Since that time she has become an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, telling her story and appealing as a witness to the way of Christ, a way that advocates mercy in place of vengence.

"I want to give James Campbell something," she told Annual Conference in an emotional appearance. "I want him to have a Bible."

Source: To Follow in Jesus' Steps, C. Wayne Zunkel

Dan West: The Word Became Flesh

Dan West lived what he believed.

Thurl Metzger said of Dan, "Dan refused to eat cake until all could have daily bread."

Kermit Eby wrote: "Heifers, unlike bombs, are personal, particularly if you bring them up or sacrifice for them. Before they mature and become cows (giving their new host not only milk but the beginnings of a dairy herd) they become pets. Sent away to help the needy, a part of you goes along. Received by fellowmen in need, the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is reaffirmed.

"And so once more the word becomes flesh; and brotherhood takes on meaning because first a simple Brethren dreamer and than a church realized that brotherhood knew no boundaries."

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

On Earth Peace

On December 20, 1974, M.R. Zigler invited approximately thirty-five persons to join him for dinner at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, MD. That evening twenty-seven persons met and launched the On Earth Peace Conference. This initial meeting included one member of the Brethren Church and twenty-six members of the Church of the Brethren.

The goal of the OEPC was "...to implement the proclamation that came into the world when Jesus was born." (Luke 2:14)

On Earth Peace has helped fund several books and assisted in the early stages of the Brethren Encyclopedia.

Since the OEPC movement was initially made up of largely Church of the Brethren members, the decision was reached that OEPC should affiliate with the ... Church of the Brethren. That formal affiliation occurred in September 1976. In August 1981, OEPC was incorporated as an independent body.

More information about On Earth Peace today may be found at their web site: http://www.onearthpeace.org/

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

The Sword

Now we see that Christ always,

in all his sufferings,

endured them,

and that with great patience,

and never resisted

or defended himself.

So

we can not see or find

any liberty

to use any (carnal) sword,

but only the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God.

Source: 1785 Annual Meeting Minutes

Anticipating Christmas

Editorial
December 1918

Once more the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child
awakens the world to a new appreciation of that priceless Gift,
sent from heaven by the great loving Father.
And once more, in that name, we wish you
the happiest season that you have ever experienced.

Fitting indeed it is that we celebrate Christ's birth this year.
Pile up the wood a little higher on the hearth,
allow the smile to return to the mouth,
the twinkle to the eye,
the deepest gratitude to the heart.
For the message of the angels, proclaiming peace,
two thousand years ago,
finds renewed expression at this glad time,
when the Great War is over.

The peace which has suddenly come to "all mankind"
is but an imperfect type of that ineffable joy and peace and rest
which will come when a world of sorrow and sin
is made willing to lay every burden at His feet.

Once more the stocking will be hung on the mantelpiece,
the roaring fire will crackle up the chimney;
stories of winter snows and reindeer and sleighs
and Kriss Kringle will gladden the happy little hearts of all lands,
bursting with joy; and why not!
All the elements of mystery and enchantment and imagery
surrounding the story of the Babe of Bethlehem
are due the child in this happy Christmas celebration.
We almost wish we were children again.

Source: The Missionary Visitor, December 1918

Elder Landon West

A native of Ohio, Landon West studied at the New Vienna Academy operated by James Quinter and taught public school for several years. He was called to the ministry in 1864, the same year he was married at the age of 23.

Although progressive in many ways, Landon West remained with the German Baptist Church (Church of the Brethren) in the 1881-83 division. He was a strong advocate of the Sunday school movement and mission work among blacks in southern Ohio.

Poor health forced Landon West to end his extensive travel and preaching around 1887 although he continued his writing, including frequent contributions to church periodicals. In 1900 the family moved to Miami County, Ohio near Pleasant Hill. He had eight children, among them his son Dan West.

Among his many writings, perhaps his most original work was "Eden's Land and Garden with Their Marks Yet to be Seen" (1908). He received wide recognition for his carefully presented theory that the Great Serpent Mound near his boyhood home in Adams County was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

West's theory differed markedly from the notions of archeologists who visited Serpent Mound after it was first surveyed in 1849. The mound is about one thousand feet long, in the form of a serpent whose bent body and curled tail extend along a hilltop. The serpent's jaws are opened wide as if ready to devour an oval shaped object.

West believed that the mound was created by the hand of God as a lesson to the world, that its forms were symbols of Satan and of the forbidden fruit with which the serpent tempted Eve. West is reported to have said, "This figure is the most ancient record of history known to exist. It shows first sin and its immediate results as Moses also records them.... [It] supports the written or inspired history of the human race."

According to archeologists, Serpent Mound is one of many "effigy" mounds built by American Indians around 1000 BC. Some were used for burial purposes; others may have been intended for religious rituals.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Lafiya

In the West African Hausa language the "lafiya" greeting means "health and well-being." It became the name given to a medical program begun by the Church of the Brethren in 1971.

Lafiya was directed by J. Roger Schrock, medical coordinator for Brethren mission work in Nigeria. The program comprised three areas: education, village outreach, and construction projects. It began with the training of Nigerian doctors, nurses, midwives, and para-medical workers and an interim program to train four teams of Nigerian medical personnel to conduct clinics for prenatal care and monthly "under-five" child welfare clinics in the villages. Hospitals at Lassa and Garkida were remodeled and enlarged and a training center was constructed at Garkida for a rural health center.

The rural health program directed by John Horning emphasized maximum local praticipation and the utilization of village health workers. It provided a three-month course in simple curative medicine, health education, and disease prevention using innovative mthods to teach rural people about health and preventative medicine.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Katharine Drexel

On October 1, 2000 Pope John Paul II canonized Katharine Mary Drexel who became only the second recognized American-born saint in the Roman Catholic Church - and the only official saint with a Brethren mother.

And now for the rest of the story.

A young Brethren woman, Hannah Jane Langstroth, was raised and baptized by the German Baptist Brethren in 1850. She married into the wealthy Drexel family of Philadelphia to Francis Drexel, a banker and partner of J.P. Morgan. In 1858 Hannah Jane Langstroth Drexel gave birth to their second daughter Mary Katharine. Thirty-four days later Hannah Jane died and was buried in the Germantown Brethren cemetary. She would not live to see the wonderful ministry of her infant daughter.

Although Katharine never knew her mother and was devoted to her step-mother. According to one biographer, Katharine and her sister Elizabeth regularly visited in the home of their mother's family in Germantown where they played with their cousins and learned to crochet from their grandmother, who wore the Brethren plain dress. Who knows what else they learned from the Brethren side of their heritage.

At the age of thirty, Katharine gave up her social position as the member of a prominent family and chose a religious vocation. She founded the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People. For many years she chose to live on less than a dollar a day while she poured more than a thousand dollars a day into the charitable and educational projects she initiated and supported. Over a period of sixty-four years, she contributed to these causes between twelve and seventeen million dollars from her inheritance.

Katharine traveled widely in order to know personally the living conditions of American Indians in the West and blacks in the South. Her contributions helped in the establishment of Xavier U., an institution in New Orleans aiding the education of blacks.

While Katherine was often called saintly, an official petition that she be regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church was introduced in 1964 by Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia, less than ten years after her death. When canonization finally came on October 1, 2000, Katherine became the first official saint with a Brethren mother.

Sources: The Brethren Encylopedia

Wikipedia

Dan West: Faith

Dan was periodically known to write down a brief outline of his faith beliefs, adding "here is the outline (incomplete) of my best interpretation now. In a few more years it ought to be better and fuller."

A note written by Dan on an envelope ... postmarked January 27, 1961, expressed his continuous search for truth: "Sometimes I wonder if I am out of it for clinging to such things as hope, faith, and love. Camus in The Stranger (1946) would say that I am. But my life is too much grounded in facts of love. This I know. Deep as these doubts are that Camus helps me to see within me, my present direction - is faith!"

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Anna Mow - writing on faith

In the introduction of her book, Springs of Love, Anna Mow shares the following thoughts which grow out of her many years of mission work in India:

A young minister asked me, "What do you think of Zen Buddhism?"

I said, "I have been interested in Zen Buddhism and other mysticisms of the East for years, but have you heard about the Holy Spirit?"

Americans who have never taken God's promises seriously and have been undisciplined in their lives, of course, find great benefit from seriously practicing quiet times and accepting disciplines for their lives. A guru from India is reported to be persuading 30,000 converts a month to his method of finding inner peace. He promises relaxation with alertness, decreased blood pressure, decreased anxiety, increased individual self-esteem and capacity for intimate contact, increased creativity and personal satisfaction in life and work.

On the other hand, I know many Hindus who were previously devout in the faith they inherited but later found it inadequate. When these people found the reality of Christianity they gladly accepted the new truth even when it meant disinheritance and persecution. We need not be frightened about the inroads of foreign faiths, if we know what we really have in Christ.

Source: Springs of Love, Anna Mow

Anna Mow - writing on wives and husbands

Anna Mow in her teaching in the church often touched upon the subject of wives and husbands.
Wives, submit yourselves to your husband as to the Lord. (Eph. 5:22)

This is one of the most misinterpreted verses in Scripture. The verb is not even repeated in the original Greek, and this is only a participial phrase added on to verse 21. The verb is in the previous verse where it is given as a law for all human relationships. Whatever basic attitude is required for a wife toward her husband is also, therefore required of a man in all his relationships.

I think the Apostle Paul applied this statement to wives first because he thought that women who were created to be mothers would be the first to understand what quality of life he was talking about.

... I know some Christian women who have been told they must "obey" even non-Christian husbands because a woman must obey a man! That is easy to answer if he asks her to do something wrong because the relationship is to be "in the Lord." There is no difficulty in the woman-man relationship if both are truly committed to the Lord. ...

"For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head
of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." (Eph. 5:23)

Many Bible people talk about the "order of command": God, Christ, man, woman. I have no objection to the order, but the use of the word command is not Christ-thinking. Especially as it is usually defined in this instance.

... In 1 Corinthians 7:4, Paul made them partners. Aristotle, 300 years before Paul, said that man is superior and woman is inferior, that man was made to rule and woman to be ruled. It is particularly relevant that in that social context Paul made them partners.

Then man's headship is described as the same as Christ's headship. And Jesus said He did not come to be ministered unto but to minister (Matt. 20:27,28, KJV). He also said, "Whosoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Matt. 20:26) So European theologians in 1952 came to the conclusion that a husband is the head of his wife when he is her servant!

Authority for the Christian is power for the benefit of others and never power over them. If we can find this secret in the closest human relationship, we will be able to live it in all of life.

Source: Springs of Love, Anna Mow