Page:Historical and biographical sketches.djvu/186

182 their example, and urges more forcibly than ever the people at Rotterdam to give assistance. “The truth is,” he writes, “that many thousands of persons, old and young, and men and women, have arrived here in the hope and expectation of going to Pennsylvania, but the poor men are misled in their venture. If they could transport themselves by their own means, they might go where they pleased, but because of inability they cannot do it, and must go where they are ordered. Now, as there are among all this multitude six families of our brethren and fellow-believers, I mean German Mennonites, who ought to go to Pennsylvania, the brethren in Holland should extend to them the hand of love and charity, for they are both poor and needy. I trust and believe, however, that they are honest and God-fearing. It would be a great comfort and consolation to the poor sheep, if the rich brothers and sisters from their superfluities would satisfy their wants, and let some crumbs fall from their tables to these poor Lazaruses. Dear brethren, I feel a tender compassion for the poor sheep, for they are of our flesh, as says the Prophet Isaiah, lxviii, 7 and 8.” It was not long before pity for our fellow-believers was excited still more forcibly. Fiercer than ever became the persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland. The prisons at Bern were filled with the unfortunates, and the inhuman treatment to which they were subjected caused many to pine away and die. The rest feared from day to day that the minority in the council which demanded their trial would soon become a majority. Through the intercession, however, of the States General, whose aid the Netherland Mennonites sought, not without success, some results were effected. The Council of Bern finally determined to send the prisoners, well watched and guarded, in order to transport them from there in an English