According to the teaching of our Church, on the contrary, human life, as the greatest good known to us, is represented as being only an atom of the life that is, for a time, held back from us. Our life, according to our view, is not life as God wished to give and should have given it us, but is a spoilt, bad, fallen life, a copy of life, a caricature of the real life we for some reason imagine that God should have given us. The chief aim of our life, according to this view, is not to live this mortal life as the Giver of life desires, nor to make it permanent in the generations of men, as the Jews teach, nor in merging it with the will of the Father, as Christ taught; but in convincing oneself that after this life true life will begin.
Christ does not speak of this imaginary life of ours which God ought to have given, but for some reason did not give, to man. The theory of the fall of Adam and everlasting life in para- <fc DO' its ei tf S' e ( ] THE PATH OF LIFE dise and an immortal soul breathed into Adam by God, was unknown to Christ, and he did not refer to it, nor by a single word hint at its existence. Christ speaks of life as it is and will always be. But we speak of a life we have imagined for ourselves — such I as never ■ existed; how, then, can we understand Christ's teaching?
Christ could not imagine among his disciples such a strange conception. He assumes that every one understands that personal life in- evitably perishes, and he shows a life that does not perish. He gives welfare to those who are in evil plight; but to those who have persuaded themselves that they have much more than Christ gives his teaching can offer nothing. I may exhort a man to work, assuring him that I for his labour he will receive food and clothing, but suddenly the man becomes convinced that he is a millionaire; evidently he will not listen to my exhortations. The same thing occurs with Christ's teaching. Why should I try to earn, when I can be rich without work? Why should I try to live this life according to the will of God, when I am confident that, with- out that, I shall have an everlasting personal life?
We are taught that Christ saved people by the fact that he was the Second Person of the Trinity, that he was God and became incarnate, and, having taken on himself the sins of Adam i and of all mankind, he redeemed the sins of men before the First Person of the Trinity, and for our salvation established the Church WHAT I BELIEVE and the sacraments. By believing this we are saved and receive everlasting personal life be- yond the grave. But it cannot be denied that he saved and saves people also by the fact that, having shown them the inevitable destruc- tion awaiting them, he, by his words, ‘ I am the way, the truth, and the life,’ showed them a t true path of life in place of the false path of personal life we previously followed.
There may be people who have doubts about life beyond the grave and salvation based on the redemption, but about the salvation of men, individually and collectively, by showing them the inevitability of the destruction of their personal life, and by merging their will with that of the Father, there can be no doubt. Let any rational man ask himself what his life and death is. Can he give to that life and death any other meaning than that wdiich Christ gave?
Any meaning given to a personal life, if it be not based on the renunciation of self for the service of man, humanity, the Son of man, is a delusion which flies to pieces at the first con- tact with reason. That my personal life perishes and that the life of the whole world in the will of the Father does not perish, and that only | by merging with it can I possibly be saved, of that I can have no doubt. But this is so little in comparison with those exalted religious beliefs in a future life! Though it be little, it is sure.
We are lost in a snow-storm. A man assures us, and he believes, that there are lights and THE PATH OF LIFE there is a village; but it only seems so to him and to us because we wish it were so. We have walked towards those lights, and there were none. Another man has walked through the snow; he has reached the road and shouts to us: ‘You will get nowhere, the lights are in your eyes; you will go astray and perish. But here is the hard road; I am on it; it will keep us right.’ That is very little. When we be- lieved in the lights that glittered in our bewil- dered eyes, we seemed close to a village and a warm hut, and to safety and rest, and here we have only a firm road. But if we listen to the first man we shall certainly perish, and if we listen to the second we shall certainly reach our destination.
And so what should I do if I alone have under- stood Christ’s teaching and believed in it — alone among people who do not understand it and do not fulfil it?
What am I to do? Live like every one else, or live according to Christ’s teaching? I have understood Christ’s teaching in his command- ments, and I see that their fulfilment offers (blessedness to me and to all men. I have under- stood that the execution of these command- ments is the will of that Source of all, from which my life also has come.
I have understood that whatever I may do I shall inevitably perish in a meaningless life and death, with all who surround me, if I do not fulfil the will of the Father, and that in its 1 fulfilment lies the only possibility of salvation. Doing as all do, I shall certainly counteract WHAT I BELIEVE the welfare of all, I shall certainly act contrary to the will of the Father of life, I shall certainly deprive myself of the only possibility of better- ing my desperate position. Doing what Christ teaches me, I continue what has been done by people who preceded me: I co-operate in the welfare of all men now living as well as of those who will come after me; I do what is desired of me by Him who brought me into existence, and I do what alone can save me.
The circus at Berdichev is on fire: all push and suffocate one another, pressing against the door, which opens inwards. A saviour appears and says: 4 Stand back from the door, turn back; the more you push the less chance you have of being saved. Turn back, and you will find an exit, and will be saved.’ Whether many people, or I alone, hear this and believe it — in any case, having heard and believed, what can I do but stand back and call on all to listen to the saviour? They may smother, crush, and kill me; but, all the same, there is no salvation for me except by going the only way that makes an exit possible. And I cannot but go that way. A saviour should really be a saviour — that is to say, should really save. Christ’s salvation is really salvation. He came, spoke, and humanity is saved.
The circus has been burning an hour, and one must make haste, and the people may not be in time to escape. But the world has been burning for 1,800 years, since the day when Christ said, 4 1 have come to bring fire upon earth; and how am I straitened till it is THE PATH OF LIFE kindled 9 — and that fire will burn till people save themselves. Is not that why men exist, and is not that why the fire burns, in order that people may have the joy of being saved?
And, having understood this, I understood and believed that Jesus is not only the Messiah, the Christ, but that he is really the Saviour of the world.
I know that there is no other exit either for me or for all those who, together with me, are tormented in this life. I know that for all, and for me, together with them, there is no way of escape except by fulfilling those commands of Christ which offer to all humanity the highest welfare of which I can conceive.
I am not frightened about whether I shall have more unpleasantness or whether I shall die sooner. This may be terrible to one who does not see how senseless and ruinous is his separate, personal life, and who thinks he will * not die. But I know that my life, aiming at personal, solitary happiness, is the greatest [absurdity, and that at the end of this stupid life there is inevitably nothing but a stupid death. Therefore things cannot be at all I terrible for me. I shall die like every one else, like those who do not fulfil the teaching; but, both for me and for all, my life and death will have a meaning. My life and death will serve j the salvation and life of all, and that is what Christ taught.
CHAPTER IX ] M FAITH AND WORKS Were all people to fulfil Christ’s teaching (1; the kingdom of God would have come on earth; L if I alone fulfil it, I do the best that is possible for myself and for all men. Without the ful- T filment of the teaching of Christ there is no j salvation. 4 But how is one to get the faith to Q fulfil it, always to follow it, and never to be un- faithful to it? ’ 4 Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.’
The disciples asked Christ to confirm their j faith; 4 I wish to do good, but I do evil,’ says the Apostle Paul.
4 It is hard to be saved,’ men in general say and think.
A man is sinking and asks to be saved; a rope is thrown him which alone can save him, and the drowning man says: 4 Confirm my faith that the rope will save me. I believe,’ 4 says he, 4 that the rope will save me, but help my unbelief.’
What does this mean? If the man does not seize the thing that can save him, it only means I that he does not understand his position.
How could a Christian, believing in the divinity of Christ and all his teachings (however * he understand them), say that he wishes to j FAITH AND WORKS believe, but cannot? God himself, coming to earth, said: You have before you everlasting (torment, fire, everlasting infernal darkness — and here is your salvation — in my teaching and in its fulfilment.
It is impossible for such a Christian not to believe in the offered salvation, not to fulfil it, and to say, £ Help thou my unbelief/ In order that man might say that, he must disbelieve in his own destruction, and must believe that he will not perish.
Children jump from a ship into the water. They are still upheld by the current, by their 1 clothes which are not yet soaked, and by their own feeble movements, and they do not under- stand their peril. From above, from the de- parting ship, a rope is thrown to them; they are told that they will certainly perish, and are begged by those on the ship to save themselves (the parables of the woman who found a piece of silver, of the shepherd who found a lost sheep, of the supper, and of the prodigal son, speak only of this). Rut the children do not believe; they disbelieve, not in the rope, but in the fact that they are perishing; other frivolous children, like themselves, have assured them that they will always, even after the ship has gone, continue merrily bathing. They do not believe that their clothes will soon be soaked, that their little arms will be tired, that they will begin to gasp, will be choked, and will g© to the bottom; they do not believe in all this, and solely for that reason do not believe in the rope which would save them.
WHAT I BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE As the children who have fallen from the ship believe that they will not perish, and therefore I do not catch at the rope, so people who believe in the immortality of the soul have convinced themselves that they are not perishing, and therefore they do not obey the teaching of Christ-God. They do not believe that which it is impossible to disbelieve, and this simply11 because they believe in that which it is impos- sible to believe.
And so they call to some one: 4 Confirm in us the belief that we are not perishing.’
But this it is impossible to do; in order that they should have faith that they will not perish they must cease to do the things that destroy them and must begin to do the things that save them — they must catch at the rope which would save them; and they do not wish to do this, but to assure themselves that they are not perishing, despite the fact that one after another their comrades perish before their eyes. And this desire of theirs, to believe in that which is not true, they call faith. It is natural that they always have little faith, and want to have more.
Only when I understood the teaching of Christ did I understand also that what these people call faith is not faith, and that this false faith is what the Apostle James rejected in his Epistle. (That Epistle was long not acknowledged by the Church, and when it was accepted it underwent certain perversions, some words were thrown out, and some transposed or arbitrarily translated. I follow the accepted [tiai in; J pro he far am un ffl ne ik ar b :tt 01 ai tl n t 1 f FAITH AND WORKS 281 translation, merely correcting the inaccuracies, in accordance with Tischendorfs text.1) James ii. 14-22, 24, 26: ‘ What doth it profit, my brethren,5 says James, ‘ if a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will shew thee my faith. Thou beiievest that God is one; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and shudder. But wilt thou know, 0 vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, Jin that he had offered up Isaac his son upon fthe altar? Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made per- fect...Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead/ J ames says that the only signs of faith are ; the works which flow from it, and that therefore faith from which works do not flow is a matter of mere words, which, as they will not feed any one, will also not justify any one or save him, and therefore faith from which works do J 1 The English Revised Version accords with Tolstoy’s translation, and has been followed here.
WHAT I BELIEVE not flow is not faith, but only the desire to believe something: only a mistaken assertion in words that I believe what I do not believe.
Faith, according to this definition, is that which promotes deeds, and deeds are what faith produces — that is to say, that which makes faith really faith. The Jews said to Christ (John vi. 30), 4 What then doest thou for a sign,' j that we may see, and believe thee? What! workest thou? * That is what was said to him when he was on the cross (Mark xv. 32): 4 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe/ (Matt. i xxvii.42): 4 He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel; let him now j come down from the cross, and we will believe on him/ And to this demand to increase their faith, Christ replies that their wish is vain, and that nothing can compel them to J believe that which they do not believe. (Luke xxii. 67) He said, 4 If I tell you, ye will not believe/ (John x. 25-6) 4 1 told you, and ye believe not. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep/ The Jews demanded what is demanded by Church Christians, some external sign which i; would compel them to believe in the teaching j of Christ, and he replies and explains to them why it is impossible. He says that they cannot believe because they are not of his sheep — that is to say, do not follow that path of life which he has shown to his sheep. He explained < ( J ohn v. 44) wherein lies the difference between j FAITH AND WORKS his sheep and others, explaining what some believe and others do not believe, and on what faith rests. c How can ye believe,” says he, * which receive teaching 1 one of another, and the teaching that cometh from the only God ye seek not?, To believe, says Christ, you must seek that teaching which flows from the only God. He who speaks from himself seeks his own teaching (8o£av rrjv ISiav), but he who seeks the teaching of him who sent me is true, and there is no untruth in him (John vii. 18). The teaching of life is the basis of faith.
Actions all flow from faith, faith comes from doxa, that meaning which we attribute to life. There may be innumerable actions; there are also very many faiths; but there are only two doxa, doctrines of life. One of these is denied and the other affirmed by Christ. One teaching, that which is denied by Christ, is that personal life is something really existing and belonging to men. This is the doctrine which was held, and is held, by the majority of men, and from which flow all the various faiths held by worldly men and all their actions. The other doctrine is that which was preached by all the prophets and by Christ: it is that our personal life gains meaning only by the fulfilment of the will of God.
If a man has for his doxa that the most important thing is his personality, he will 1 86%cl, as in many other passages, is here quite wrongly translated by the word 6 glory ’; do^a, from Sokcm, means opinion, judgement, teaching. — L. T.
WHAT I BELIEVE consider that his personal welfare is the most important and desirable thing in life, and according to the direction in which he seeks that welfare — whether in obtaining property, or distinction, or fame, or in the satisfaction of his desires — he will have a faith corresponding to that outlook, and all his actions will accord with it.
If his doxa is different, if he understands life in such a way that its meaning lies only in the fulfilment of the will of God, as it was understood by Abraham, and as Christ taught, then, according to his perception of the will of God will be his corresponding view of faith, and all his actions will conform therewith.
That is why those who believe that our life is satisfactory cannot believe in the teaching of Christ, and all their efforts to believe it always remain vain. In order to believe, they would have to alter their outlook on life; and until they alter that, their actions will always conform to their belief, and not to what they wish to believe and say they believe.
The desire to believe in the teaching of Christ, in those who asked a sign of him, and in our believers, does not correspond and cannot correspond with their life, however they may try to make it. They may pray to Christ-God, and receive, Communion, and do deeds of charity, and build churches, and convert others; all this they do, but they cannot do Christ's deeds, because such deeds flow from faith based on quite another teaching {doxa) than that which they hold. They cannot offer up in sacrifice FAITH AND WORKS their only son, as was done by Abraham, > whereas Abraham could not have hesitated about presenting, or not presenting, his son in sacrifice to God, that God which alone gave meaning and blessedness to his life. And in just the same way Christ and his disciples could not but give up their lives for others, for in that alone lay the meaning and welfare of their life. From this misunderstanding of the essence of faith flows that strange desire people have to believe that it would be better to live according to the teaching of Christ, while with all the strength of their souls, in accordance with their faith in personal life, they seek to live contrary to that teaching.
The basis of faith is the meaning of life, from which flows the valuation of what is important and good and what is unimportant and bad in life. The valuation of all the phenomena of life depends on one's faith. And as now people, having faith based on their own teaching, cannot in any way make it accord with the faith which flows from the teaching of Christ, so was it also impossible for his disciples to do so. And this misunderstanding is frequently and clearly expressed in the Gospels. Christ's disciples often asked him to confirm their faith in what he told them (Matt. xix. 23-8 and xx. 20-8; Mark x. 35-45). According to both the Evangelists, after the sayings — terrible to every believer in personal life and to every one who sees welfare in worldly riches— after the words that the rich will not enter the kingdom of heaven, and the words still more terrible WHAT I BELIEVE for those who believe only in personal life — - that whosoever does not leave all, and life itself, for the sake of Christ's teaching, will not be saved — Peter asks, £ What shall we have who have left all and followed thee? 9 After- wards, according to Mark, James and John, they themselves, but, according to Matthew, their mother, asked him to grant that they' should sit on each side of him when he will be in his glory. They ask him to confirm their faith by promising a reward. To Peter's question Jesus replied with the parable of the labourers hired at different hours (Matt, xx. 1-16). To James's question he answered: You know not yourself what you ask — that is to say, you ask impossibilities, you do not understand the teaching. The teaching lies in the renunciation of personal life, and you are asking for personal fame, personal reward. You can drink the same cup (live the same life) as I, but to sit on my right and left hand, that is, to be equal with me, is what no one can do. And here Christ says: Only in worldly life do the powerful enjoy and delight in the fame and power of personal life; but you, my disciples, should know that the meaning of human life does not lie in personal happiness, but in serving all, in humiliation before all.
Man lives not to be served, but himself to serve and give up his personal life as a ransom for all. Christ, in reply to his disciples' demand, which showed him how completely they failed to understand his teaching, did not tell them to believe — that is to say, to change that valuation Oil an I Cl hi P1 m k 0 P f< a V i: t c t ( i 1 , FAITH AND WORKS of the good and evil in life which flowed from ; their teaching (he knew that this was impos- sible) but explained to them the meaning of life on which his faith rested — that is to say, the true valuation of what is good and evil, important and unimportant.
To Peter’s question (Matt. xix. 27) ‘What shall we have, what reward for our sacrifices? 9 Christ replies with the parable of the labourers hired at different times and receiving identical payment. Christ explains to Peter his mis- understanding of the teaching, from which his absence of faith results. Christ says: Only in personal and meaningless life is it precious and important that the remuneration for work should accord with the amount of work done. The belief in a remuneration for work according to the amount of work flows from the doctrine of personal life. That belief rests on the assumption that we have a claim to something; but man has no rights and can have none. He is ever in debt for the welfare given him, and therefore can make no demands on any one. Even if he gives up his whole life, he still cannot repay what has been given him, and therefore his master cannot be unjust to him. If a man asserts rights to his life and keeps account with the Source of all things which has given him life, he thereby only shows that he does not under- stand the meaning of life.
People who had received happiness demanded something more. These people stood in the market-places idle and unhappy, lacking life.
WHAT I BELIEVE The master took them, and gave them the greatest blessing of life — work. They accepted i the kindness of the master, and then remained j dissatisfied. They were dissatisfied because j they had no clear consciousness of their position; they had come to work holding a false doctrine to the effect that they had rights to their lifer and to their labour, and that therefore their labour should be rewarded. They did not understand that this labour was the highest blessing, which is freely given to them, and for which they should only try to return a similar blessing, but could not demand reward. And therefore people, having, like these workmen, a perverted understanding of life, cannot have a just and true faith.
The parable of the master and the workman! who returned from the field, spoken in reply to the disciples' direct request that he would confirm their faith, defines yet more clearly. the foundations of the faith Christ teaches.
(Luke xvii. 3-10) Horrified at the difficulty of fulfilling the rule Christ lays down, that one must forgive one's brother not seven times, but unto seventy times seven, the disciples say: Yes, but...in order to fulfil this, one must have faith; confirm, increase, our faith. As previously they had asked: ‘ What shall we get for it? ' so now they ask what all so-called Christians ask to-day: I want to believe, but cannot; confirm our belief that the rope of salvation will save us. They say: Do something to make us believe, just as the Jews had asked of him a sign. By miracles, or oin n I gel .be wl Cl ai fn tl ii C!
0 C i] i : FAITH AND WORKS or by promising rewards, make us believe in our salvation.
The disciples said, as we say: It would be well to arrange so that we, living the personal, self-willed life we do, could also believe that, if we were to fulfil God’s teaching, things would be still better for us. We all make that demand, J which is one contrary to the whole sense of Christ’s teaching, and we are surprised that we are quite unable to believe. And to this most fundamental misunderstanding, which existed then as it exists now, he replies with a parable in which he shows what true faith is. Faith cannot result from credulous acceptance of what is said; faith comes only from recognizing one’s position. Faith rests only on reasonable consciousness of what it is best to do, being in the position in which we are. He shows that it is impossible to arouse this faith in others by promising a reward or by threats of punish- ment, and that this could result only in a weak credulity which would crumble at the first temptation; that the faith which moves moun- tains—that which nothing can disturb — rests on a consciousness of inevitable impending : destruction, and of the only possible means of safety in this position.
To have faith, no promises of reward are neces- sary. It is only necessary to understand that E salvation from inevitable destruction lies in living a common life according to the Master’s will. Whoever understands that will not seek for confirmation, but will save himself without any exhortations.
WHAT I BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE To the disciples’ request for a confirmation of! their faith Christ says: When a workman re- I turns from the field, his master does not at > once tell him to have dinner, but tells him to; stall the cattle and serve him, and only then h will the workman sit down to table and have dinner. The workman does ail this without „ I considering himself ill-used, and does not jfc boast or demand gratitude or reward, but knows that so it should be, and that he is but doing what is needful; that this is a necessary con- dition both of the service and of the true welfare j of his life. So also you, says Christ, when you j have done all that is demanded of you, must consider that you have only done your duty. He who understands his relation to the Master will understand that only by submitting to his Master’s will can he have life; and he will know wherein his welfare lies, and will have a faith to which nothing will be impossible. This j is the faith Christ teaches. Faith, according to Christ’s teaching, rests on a reasonable con- sciousness of the meaning of one’s life.
The foundation of faith, according to Christ’s! teaching, is light.
(John i. 9-12) ‘ That was the true light, ' which lighteth every man coming into the; world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew j him not. He came unto his own, and his j own received him not. But as many as re- i ceived him, even to them that believe on his name, gave he the right to become the children j of God/ (iii. 19-21) ‘And this is the FAITH AND WORKS judgement,1 that the light is come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For every one that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be re- proved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made mani- fest, because they have been wrought in God.’
For him who has understood the teaching of Christ there cannot be any question of confirming his faith. Faith, according to Christ’s teaching, rests on light, on truth. Christ nowhere de- mands faith in himself: he demands faith in the truth.