Page:Stundists.pdf/17

Rh

A peasant who had been much in Rohrbach was I. Onislienko. He lived in Osnova, a Russian village in the neighbourhood, not very far from the port of Nicolaieff. He had been in the employ of various German farmers, and was one of the most devoted of those who attended the German Stunden, and one of the most diligent of the students of the New Testament. At this time he was thirty years old, a tall, meagre man, with childlike blue eyes, a pleasant mouth, and a ready gift of facile speech. Early in 1858 he declared himself converted, and was admitted to membership with the German brethren. Onislienko was, therefore, the first Stundist. Shortly after his conversion he returned to Osnova, and at once began evangelistic work among his fellow villagers. They met in his cottage in crowds, and to them he declared all that he himself knew, all that had worked so complete a reformation in his own heart. His preaching caught on. The state of preparedness was already there; the seed had been already sown. Onishenko had long singled out for special instruction a remarkable young man, whose gifts both of mind and heart were well known to him. He felt that if he could win young Michael Ratushni to the cause, he would gain one who would devote every energy he possessed to the spreading of the Gospel message. Ratushni was convinced and converted, and together with his teacher he went to Rohrbach to visit Bonekemper, and be received by the German brethren. As far as we can learn Ratushni's visits to Rohrbach were frequent, and there can be no doubt that he here obtained the instruction that was so indispensable in the prominent part he has since occupied as one of the foremost leaders of the Stundist revolt against the Orthodox Church of his country. In the meantime other evangelists, men who did useful and enduring work, but whose names have not been recorded, had been prepared in Rohrbach,