But a sick man, one with a family and children, is not wanted and cannot work — so people will cease to feed him, say those who are bent on making out a case for a bestial life. They will and do say this, and do not notice that they themselves, who say so and would like to act so, cannot do it, but behave quite otherwise. Those very people who do not ac- knowledge the practicability of Christ’s teaching, follow it! They do not cease to feed a sheep, a bull, or a dog which falls ill. They do not even kill an old horse, but give it such work as it can do; they feed their family, as well as lambs, little pigs, and puppies, expecting them to be of use. So how should they not feed a useful man when he is ill, and how should they fail to find work within their strength for the old and the young, or cease to rear those who will one day work for them?
They not only will do this, but they are doing this very thing. Nine-tenths of the people — the common labourers — are fed like working cattle by the one-tenth who are not common people, but are rich and powerful. And, however gross the delusion in which that one-tenth lives, how- ‘ MY YOKE IS EASY ' ‘ MY YOKE IS EASY ' ever much they may despise the other nine- tenths, this one-tenth of powerful people never deprives the nine-tenths of necessary subsistence, though they have the power to do so. In order that they may have offspring who should labour for them, they do not deprive the common people of what is necessary for them. Latterly this one-tenth have consciously endeavoured to ar- range for the nine-tenths to be properly fed, that as large an output of work may be got from them as possible, and that fresh workmen may be produced and reared. Even the ants breed and rear their own milch-cows, so how should men not do as much, and breed those who will work for them? Workers are needed. And those who make use of their work will always be much concerned to see that the workers do not die out.
The objection to the practicability of Christ's teaching which says that if I do not acquire for myself, and do not retain what I have acquired, no one will feed my family, is correct, but only in relation to idle, useless, and therefore harm- ful, people such as the majority of our wealthy class. No one except stupid parents will bring up idle people; because idle people are of no use to any one, not even to themselves; but even the worst men will feed and rear workers. Calves are reared, and man, as a working animal, is more valuable than a bull, as the prices in the slave-markets have always proved. That is why children will never be left without care.
Man does not live that others should serve him, WHAT I BELIEVE but that he should himself serve others. He who labours will be fed.
That is a truth confirmed by the life of the whole world.
Till the present time, always and everywhere, where man has worked he has obtained suste- nance, as every horse receives his feed. And such sustenance was received by the workers involuntarily, against the grain, for they only desired to free themselves from toil, to get as much as possible, and to seat themselves on the neck of those who were sitting on their necks. Such an involuntary, unwilling worker, envious and angry, was not left without suste- nance, and was even more fortunate than the man who did not work, but lived on the labour of others. How much more fortunate still will he be who works according to Christ's law, and whose aim is to work as much as he can and to take as little as possible! And how much more happy will his position be when around him there will be at least some, and perhaps even many, men like himself, who will serve him!
Christ's teaching of work and its fruits is expressed in the story of the feeding of the five and the seven thousand with two loaves and five fishes. Humanity will reach the highest happiness possible for it on earth when people do not try to swallow and consume every- thing themselves, but when they do as Christ taught them by the sea-shore.
Some thousands of people had to be fed. A disciple told Christ that he had seen a lad who ‘ MY YOKE IS EASY ' 329 had some fishes, the disciple also had some loaves. Jesus understood that some of the people, coming from a distance, would have brought food, but that others would not. (That some had supplies with them is shown by the fact that in all four Gospels it is mentioned that when the meal was ended remnants were col- lected in twelve baskets. If no one but the lad had brought anything, there would not have been those twelve baskets in the field.) If Christ had not done what he did, namely, per- formed the miracle of feeding the thousands of people with five loaves, what happens in our world would have happened there. Those who had supplies would have eaten what they had. They would have eaten it all, and even over-eaten themselves, so as not to leave any- thing over. The mean ones, perhaps, would have carried home their surplus. Those who had nothing would have remained hungry, watching the eaters with angry envy, and per- haps some of them would have snatched from those who saved, and there would have been quarrels and fights, and some would have gone home satiated, others hungry and angry. It would have been as it is in our life.
But Christ knew what he wanted to do (as is said in the Gospels). He bade them all sit round, and he told his disciples to offer to others what they themselves had, and to bid others do the same. And then it appeared that, when all who had supplies had done like Christ's disciples — that is to say, had offered what they had to others — all ate moderately, M* WHAT I BELIEVE and, after going round the circle, there was food enough left for those who had at first not eaten. And all were satisfied, and much food remained over; so much that they gathered up twelve baskets full.
Christ taught men that they should deliber- ately behave in this way in life, because such is the law of man and of all humanity. Work is a necessary condition of man's life. Work also gives welfare to man. And therefore the withholding from others of the fruits of one's labour, or of other people's labour, hinders the welfare of man. Giving one's labour to others promotes man's happiness.
‘ If people do not take away property from one another they will die of hunger,' we say. It would seem that we should rather say the contrary: if people take by force from one another there will be some who will die of hunger — and this actually occurs.
Really every man, however he lives, whether according to Christ's teaching or to the world's • — is alive only thanks to the work of other people. Others have protected him, and given him drink and fed him, and still protect him and feed him, and give him drink. But by the world's teaching man, by violence and threats, obliges others to continue to feed him and his family. By Christ's teaching equally man is protected, nourished, and supplied with drink by others; but in order that others should con- tinue to guard, to feed, and to give him drink, he does not bring force to bear on any one, but tries himself to serve others and to be useful nee u tk Mi c ei Jt ca: jfoi at) f( ‘ MY YOKE IS EASY ' to all men as he can, and thereby he becomes necessary to all. Worldly people will always wish to cease to feed one who is unnecessary to them and who compels them by force to feed him, and at the first opportunity they not only cease to feed him, but kill him as unnecessary. But all men, always, evil as they may be, will carefully feed and safeguard one who works for them.
In which way, then, is it safer, more reason- able, and more joyous to live: according to the world's teaching or according to Christ's?
CHAPTER XI THE DEAD CHURCH The teaching of Christ establishes the king- dom of God on earth. It is not true that the fulfilment of this teaching is difficult; it is not < only not difficult, but it is inevitable for a man who has comprehended it. This teaching sup- plies the only possible salvation from the in- evitably impending destruction of personal life. Finally, not only does the fulfilment of this teaching not call us to sufferings and depriva- tions in this life, but it releases us from nine- tenths of the sufferings we endure for the sake of the world's teaching.
And, having understood this, I asked myself, Why, till now, have I not fulfilled this teaching se which offers me welfare, salvation, and happi- ness, but have followed quite a different teach- ing— that which has made me unhappy? And the only answer that could be given was: I did not know the truth; it was hidden from me.
When the meaning of Christ's teaching re- vealed itself to me for the first time I had no idea that the elucidation of that meaning would cause me to repudiate the teaching of the Church; it merely seemed to me that the Church had not reached the conclusion which i THE DEAD CHURCH flows from Christ's teaching; but I did not 1 suspect that the new meaning of Christ's teaching which had revealed itself to me, and the deductions which followed therefrom, would separate me from the teaching of the Church. I was afraid of that, and therefore, during my researches, far from seeking for mistakes in the Church's teaching, I on the contrary in- tentionally shut my eyes to the propositions which seemed to me obscure and strange, but which did not contradict what I con- sidered to be the essence of the Christian teaching.
But the further I travelled in the study of the Gospels and the more clearly the meaning of Christ's teaching revealed itself to me, the more inevitable became the choice between the teaching of Christ — reasonable, clear, accordant with my conscience and giving me salvation— and ; the directly opposite teaching, disagreeing with my reason and conscience and giving me nothing except a consciousness of destruction for my- self and others; and I could not help rejecting the Church's propositions one after another. I did this unwillingly, with a struggle, and with a desire as far as possible to soften my disagree- ment with the Church, not to separate from it, and not to deprive myself of that most joyous support to one's faith — community with many people. But when I had finished my work I saw that, try as I might to retain at least something of the Church's teaching, nothing remained. Not only did nothing re- main, but I was convinced that nothing could wHAT I BELIEVE wHAT I BELIEVE remain. During the conclusion of my work theij f following incident occurred. My young son! 11 told me that two quite uneducated and scarcely I on literate people, who were our servants, had had! a dispute about a passage in a religious book in 1 ch which it was said that it is not a sin to kill 9 is criminals or kill people in war. I did not be- lieve that this could have been printed, and || i I asked to have the book shown to me — the \ booklet which had provoked the dispute was j called A n Explanatory Prayer-book (3rd edition, c 80th thousand, Moscow, 1879). On page 163 of t that booklet is said: £ What is the sixth of God’s commandments? 1 Thou shalt not kill. What does God forbid in this commandment? He forbids us to kill— j that is to say, deprive men of life. Is it a sin legally to punish a criminal with death, or to kill one’s enemies in war? It is not a sin. A criminal is deprived of life in order to stop the f great evil which he commits; enemies are j killed in war because in war one fights for one’s ruler and country.’ And to those words is limited the explanation of why the command- ment of God is repealed. I did not believe my eyes.
The disputants asked my opinion about their difference. I told the one who considered that what the book said was right that the explana- tion was incorrect.
‘ How is it that people print what is wrong and contrary to the law? ’ said he. I had no reply to give him. I kept the book and looked \ it all through. The book contains ( 1 ) thirty-one!
THE DEAD CHURCH i prayers, with instructions about genuflections, and how to hold one's fingers when crossing oneself; (2) an explanation of the Creed; (3) a quite unexplained extract from the fifth chapter of St. Matthew, which for some reason is called, ‘ Commands for obtaining bliss; ' (4) the Ten Commandments of Moses with explana- tions, which for the most part annul them; (5) hymns for Church Festivals.
As I have said, I not only tried to avoid condemning the faith of the Church, but I tried to see it in the best light, and therefore did not seek for its weaknesses, and, though well acquainted with its academic, I was quite un- acquainted with its pedagogic, literature. The circulation of such an enormous number of copies of a prayer-book in 1879 which evoked the doubts of the simplest people amazed me. I could not believe that the plainly pagan contents of the prayer-book (having nothing in common with Christianity) were the teaching the Church deliberately disseminated among the people. To verify this, I bought all the books published by the Synod or with its blessing, and containing brief statements of the Church's faith, for children and the common people; and I read them through.
Their contents were for me almost new. When I had Scripture lessons, such matter did not exist. There were then, so far as I can remember, no ‘ Commands for obtaining Bliss,' nor was there the teaching that to kill is not a sin. It is not found in any of the old Russian catechisms. It is not in the catechisms of WHAT I BELIEVE Peter Mogila, nor in the catechism of Platon,, nor in the catechism of Balyakov, nor in the |Me short Catholic Catechisms. This novelty was jPa introduced by Eilaret, who also drew up a I catechism for the use of the Army. The:P Explanatory Prayer-book is drawn up in j accord with that catechism. The fundamental j book is the 4 Long Christian Catechism of the lio1 Orthodox Church, for the use of all Orthodox j th Christians, published by order of His Imperial Majesty.’ m That book is divided into three parts: On I; t Faith, On Hope, and On Love. In the first (| part is an analysis of the Mcene Creed. In ci the second part an analysis of the Lord’s n Prayer, and the eight verses of the fifth chapter j tl of Matthew forming an introduction to the p Sermon on the Mount, and for some reason f r called £ Commands for obtaining bliss.’ (Both t these parts treat of Church dogmas, of prayers and sacraments, but give no teaching at all about life.) In the third part the duties of a Christian are set forth. In this part, called i 4 On Love,’ are set out, not the commandments of Christ, but the Ten Commandments of Moses, and these are set out as though only to teach people not to fulfil them but to act in oppo- sition to them; as, after each commandment, there is a reservation which cancels it. With reference to the first commandment, which orders us to honour one God, the catechism teaches us to honour angels and saints, besides, of course, the Mother of God and the three Persons of the Trinity ( Long Catechism, pp. 107, THE DEAD CHURCH THE DEAD CHURCH 108). With reference to the second command- ment, not to make to oneself idols, the catechism teaches the obeisance before icons (p. 108). With reference to the third commandment, not to take oaths in vain, the catechism teaches people to swear on any demand of the legal authorities (p. 111). With reference to the fourth commandment, to observe Saturday, the catechism teaches us to keep not Saturday, but Sunday, and thirteen great holidays and a multitude of smaller ones, and to observe all the Fasts, including Wednesdays and Fridays (pp. 112-15). With reference to the fifth commandment, to honour one’s father and mother, the catechism teaches us to honour the Tsar and the Fatherland, one’s spiritual pastors 4 and those in various 'positions of autho- rity3 (sic) and on honouring those in/ authority there are three pages with an enumeration of all kinds of authorities: 4 Those in authority in schools, the civil authorities, the judges, the military authorities, one's masters (sic). This last injunction refers to those who serve them and whom they command ’ (sic — pp. 116-19).
I am quoting from the 1864 edition of the Catechism. Twenty years have passed since the abolition of serfdom, and no one has taken the trouble even to strike out the sentences which, with reference to the commandment of God to honour one’s parents, were included in the Catechism for the maintenance and justifi- cation of slavery. With reference to the sixth ^commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ one is taught from the first lines to kill.
338 WHAT I BELIEVE Q. What is forbidden in the sixth com- mandment?
A. Murder, or the taking of life from one’s neighbour in any manner.
Q. Is* every taking of life a sinful murder?
A. It is not sinful murder when life is taken in the fulfilment of one's duties, for instance:;:j (i) When a criminal is punished with death by legal sentence, (ii) When enemies are killed in war for ruler and country. (The italics are in the original.) And further: Q. What occasions can be regarded as criminal murder?
A...When anyone hides or releases a murderer.
And this is printed in hundreds of thousands of copies, and forcibly, with threats and under fear of punishment, is instilled into all Russian people under the guise of Christian doctrine. This is what the whole of the Russian people j are taught; this is what all the innocent angel children are taught — those children whom Christ wished not to have driven away from j him because 4 theirs is the kingdom of God ’; — those children whom we must resemble in order to enter the kingdom of God (resemble by not knowing such teaching); those children, in defence of whom Christ said, 4 Woe unto him who causeth one of these little ones to stumble.’ And it is these children to whom this is forcibly taught, and who are told that this is the only and the sacred law of God.
This is not a proclamation circulated secretly under fear of imprisonment, but a proclamation THE DEAD CHURCH disagreement with which is punished by imprison- ment. I now write this, and I am frightened that I even allow myself to say that one cannot repeal God’s chief law, written in all the codes and in all our hearts, by words which explain nothing, 4 in the fulfilment of one’s duties to King and country,’ and that people should not be taught so.
Yes, that has come about which Christ foretold (Luke xi. 35, 36; Matt. vi. 23): 4 Look therefore whether the light that is in thee be not darkness. If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! ’ The light that is within us is become dark- ness, and the darkness in which we live has become terrible.
4 Woe unto you,’ says Christ, 4 woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, even while for a pretence ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall i receive greater condemnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him worse than before. Woe unto you, ye blind guides!
4 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, : and say, If we had been in those days when the prophets were tortured, we should not have WHAT I BELIEVE been partakers in their blood. Ye are witnesses s against yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure begun by those who were like yourselves.
I will send unto you prophets and wise men; some of them ye will kill and crucify; and some of them ye will scourge in your assemblies, and expel from city to city; that upon you may I come all the righteous blood shed on the I earth since Abel.5 ‘ Every blasphemy [libel] will be forgiven to men, but the libel against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.’ All this reads as though it had been written yesterday against those who now no longer compass the * sea and the land, libelling the Holy Spirit and leading people to a belief which makes them worse, but directly, by violence, oblige them to accept that belief, and persecute and destroy all those prophets and wise men who attempt to expose their fraud.
And I became convinced that the Church’s teaching, although it calls itself Christian, is that very darkness against which Christ strove! and ordered his disciples to strive.
Christ’s teaching, like every religious teaching, has two sides: (i) The teaching of conduct — of how we should live, each separately and all together — the ethical teaching; and (ii) the explanation of why people should live in that way, and not otherwise — the meta- physical teaching. The one is the result, and at the same time the cause, of the other. Man j should live so, because such is his destiny: or the destiny of man is such, and therefore he j THE DEAD CHURCH should live so — these two sides of Christ’s teaching are to be found in all the religions of the world. Such is the religion of the Brahmans, Confucius, Buddha, and Moses, and such is the religion of Christ. He teaches life, how to live, and he gives the explanation why that is how one should live. But, as it was with all other teachings — Brahmanism, Judaism, Buddhism — so was it with the teaching of Christ. People lapse from the teaching of life, and among them some are found who undertake to justify that lapse. These people, seating themselves, to use Christ’s expression, in the seat of Moses, explain the metaphysical side of the teaching in such a way that the ethical demands cease to be obligatory and are replaced by an external service of God — by ritual. This phenomenon is common to all religions, but never, I think, has it been displayed so sharply as in Christianity. It has been dis- played with such exceptional sharpness because the teaching of Christ is the highest teaching; and it is the highest because the metaphysics and ethics of Christ’s teaching are so inseparably united and are so defined by one another, that to separate them is impossible without depriving the whole teaching of its meaning; and also because Christ’s teaching is in itself a Protestantism— that is to say, a denial not merely of the ritual observances of Judaism, but of every external worship of God. And therefore in Christianity of necessity this tearing asunder completely perverts the teaching and deprives it of any meaning. And so it was. The WHAT I BELIEVE sundering of the teaching of life from the 1 11 explanation of life began with the preaching of Paul, who did not know the ethical teaching expressed in the Gospel of Matthew, and who preached a metaphysical-cabalistic theory foreign to Christ; and this separation was finally completed at the time of Constantine, when it was found possible to clothe the whole heathen order of life in a Christian dress, and therefore to accept it as Christianity without altering it.
From the time of Constantine — a heathen of the heathen whom the Church, for all his crimes and vices, numbers with the company of the saints — begin the Ecclesiastical Councils, and the centre of gravity of Christianity was transferred completely to the metaphysical I side of the teaching. And that metaphysical teaching, with the ceremonies that accompany it, diverging ever more and more from its fundamental meaning, reaches its present stage — a teaching which explains the most incom- prehensible mysteries of life in heaven, and gives a most complex ritual of divine service, but supplies no religious teaching concerning \ our life on earth.
All religions except Church Christianity de- mand from their adherents, besides ceremonies, the performance of certain good actions and abstention from certain bad ones. Judaism demands circumcision, the keeping of the Sab- bath, the giving of alms, the observance of the j Jubilee year, and much else. Mohammedanism demands circumcision, prayer five times a day, THE DEAD CHURCH tithes for the poor, worship at the prophet's tomb, and much else. And so with all the other religions. Whether these demands are good or bad, at any rate they demand certain actions. Only pseudo-Christianity demands nothing. There is nothing that it is definitely obligatory for a Christian to do, or from which he must definitely abstain, if one does not count fasts and prayers which the Church itself admits to be non-obligatory. All that is necessary for the pseudo-Christian are the sacraments. But the sacrament is not done by the believer himself, it is performed over him by others. A pseudo- Christian is not bound to do anything, and is not bound to abstain from anything, in order to be saved, but all that is necessary is performed over him by the Church: he is baptized, and anointed, and communion is given him, as well as extreme unction, and absolution is even granted on an inarticulate confession, and he is prayed for — and saved! The Christian Church since the time of Constantine has not demanded any actions from its members. It has not even put forward any demands of ab- stinence from anything. The Christian Church recognized and sanctified everything that ex- isted in the heathen world: it recognized and sanctified divorce, and slavery, and courts of justice, and all the state authorities that existed, and wars and executions, and it only demanded at baptism a verbal renunciation of I evil, and that only at first; afterwards, with the introduction of infant baptism, it ceased even to demand that.
WHAT I BELIEVE The Church, acknowledging Christ's teaching in words, directly rejected it in life.
Instead of guiding the life of the world, the Church, to make itself agreeable to the world, interpreted Christ's metaphysical teaching in such a way that no demands relating to life result from it; so that it did not prevent people from living as they had done before. The Church yielded to the world, and, having done so once, it followed the world's way. The world p did whatever it liked, allowing the Church, as best it could, to shape its explanations of the meaning of life accordingly. The world in everything arranged its life contrary to Christ’s teaching, and the Church devised allegories to show that people, while living contrary to Christ's law, live in accord with it. And finally the life of the world became worse than hea- then life had been, and the Church not merely justified that life, but asserted that it was in agreement with Christ's teaching.