That I have abjured the Church which terms itself Orthodox is quite true, but this I did not because I rebelled against, but, on the contrary, because I wished to serve God with all the powers of my soul. Before abjuring the Church and unity with the people, which unity was inexpressibly dear to me, I devoted several years to the investigation of the teachings of the Church, both theoretical and practical . . . and I became convinced that the teaching theoretically is an insidious and injurious lie, while practically it is a collection of the grossest superstitions and sorcery, which entirely obscure all the teachings of Christianity. True I have abjured the Church. I have ceased to observe its rites, and given instructions in my will that my near ones should not allow the servants of the Church to come near me when dying and that my corpse should be as quickly as possible taken away with ́out any conjurations or prayers over it, just as any objectionable and unnecessary thing is taken away so as not to be in the way of the living.

Here is what I do believe: I believe in God, whom I understand as Spirit, as Love, and as the source of everything. I believe that He is in me and I in Him. I believe that the will of God has been expressed in the clearest and most intelligible way in the teaching of the man Christ, to conceive of whom as God and to pray to him I consider the greatest sacrilege. I believe that the real happiness of man consists in men loving one another. . . . I believe that the meaning of every man's life thus consists in increasing love within himself, and that increase of love leads the individual man to greater and greater happiness. . . . At the same time it helps on more than anything else the establishment in the world of the kingdom of God, that is, such

a structure of life that discord, deceit, and violence, which now reign, will be replaced by free consent, truth, and fraternal love among men. I believe that there is only one means for the progress of love-prayer, not that public prayer in temples which was directly forbidden by Christ (Matt. vi. 5-13), but the prayer the example of which was given us by Christ, prayer in solitude, consisting in the renovation and strengthening in our consciousness of the meaning of our lives, as also of our dependence on God's will alone.-Letter in Reply to the Holy Synod.

This solution of the meaning of my life, which gives me full rest and joy of life, I desire to communicate to men. My age and state of health are such that I am with one foot in the grave, and worldly considerations have no meaning for me. Even had they, I know that this exposition of my religion ['The Christian Teaching '] will not contribute either to my worldly profit or my reputation, but, on the contrary, may only exasperate and grieve both those unbelievers in religion who request literary work from me and not theological treatises, and those believers in religion who are indignant at all my religious writings and abuse me for them. So that I am urged to do what I do, not by wish for gain or fame nor by any worldly considerations, but only by fear to fail in what is required from me by Him who has sent me into this world and to Whom I am hourly expecting to return.

I therefore beg all those who shall read this to follow and understand my writing, putting aside, as I have done, all worldly considerations, and holding before them only that eternal Principle of truth and right by Whose will we have come into the world, whence, as

beings in the body, we shall very soon disappear: without hurry or irritation let them understand and judge what I say. If they disagree let them correct me; not with contempt and hatred, but with pity and love. If they agree let them remember that if I speak truth that truth is not mine but God's, and only casually part of it passes through me, just as it passes through every one of us when we behold truth and transmit it to others.-The Christian Teaching.

CHAPTER II

SOCIETY

f.-THE STATE IN AN AGE OF VIOLENCE

HOWEVER Conscious a man may be of the new design and purpose revealed to him by his reason, he goes on in the old fashion until his life has become intolerably inconsistent and therefore distressing.

Humanity has outgrown its social, its civic age, and has entered upon a new epoch. .. One needs but to compare the practice of life with its theory to be horrified at the extraordinary contradictions between the conditions of life and our inner consciousness. Man's whole life is a continual contradiction of what he knows to be his duty. This contradiction prevails in every department of life, in the economical, the political, and the international.

The man of education suffers even more than a

workman from these inconsistencies. If he has any faith whatever he believes, perhaps in fraternity-at least in the sentiment humanity; and if not in the sentiment humanity, then in justice, and if not in justice, then surely in science; and he cannot help knowing all the while that the conditions of his life are opposed to every principle of Christianity, humanity,

justice and science.

He affirms his faith in the principles of fraternity, humanity, justice, and political science, and yet the oppression of the working class is an indispensable factor in his daily life, and he constantly employs it to attain his own ends, in spite of his principles; and he not only lives in this manner, but he devotes all his energies to maintain a system which is directly opposed to all his beliefs.

We are brothers, but every morning my brother or my sister performs for me the most menial offices. We are brothers, but I must have my morning cigar, my sugar, my mirror, or what not,-objects whose manufacture has often cost my brothers and sisters their health, yet I do not for that reason forbear to use these things, on the contrary, I even demand them. We are brothers, and yet I support myself by working in some bank, commercial house, or shop, and am always trying to raise the price of the necessities of life for my brothers and sisters. We are brothers; I receive a salary for judging, convicting, and punishing the thief or the prostitute, whose existence is the natural outcome of my own system of life; and I fully realise that I should neither condemn nor punish. We are all brothers, yet I make my living by collecting taxes from the poor, that the rich may live in luxury and idleness. We are brothers, and yet I receive a salary for preaching a pseudoChristian doctrine, in which I do not myself believe, thus hindering men from discovering the true one. I receive a salary as priest or bishop for deceiving people in a matter which is of vital importance to them. We are brothers, but I make my brother pay for all my services, whether I write books for him, educate him, or prescribe for him as a physician. We are all brothers,

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