118. Слово пред присягою для избрания судей 551

(Spoken in the Cathedral Church of the Miracle Monastery in Genvar 2 days; printed in Christian Reading of 1835 and in meetings of 1844 and 1848) Do not quickly lay your hands on anyone, but rather participate in the sin of others; Keep yourself clean. (1 Timothy 5:22). Hearing this, noble men, and men of various births and degrees decorated with honorary titles, you may immediately think: what is the use of this word now? “Laying hands” is not our business; we have come to make a vow with good intentions to elect those worthy to certain civil positions; and with an oath before God to testify to the Sovereign, the Fatherland, and each other that we will do this exactly in accordance with our conscience. I know: and on this particular occasion I would like to offer you some thoughts. But let me think that it was not inappropriate that I chose for this purpose the word of the Apostle, which you heard, to guide my meditation. Let me explain. “Do not quickly lay your hands on anyone, but rather participate in the sin of others; Keep yourself clean." You can know, as eyewitnesses, that the rite of laying on of hands, constantly used in the Church from the times of the Apostles to the present, means, preceded by election and confirmation, the elevation and consecration to various degrees of Church service. So the rule of the Apostle: “do not lay on your hands quickly” means: do not be hasty in election, confirmation, elevation to Church positions: be careful and careful in this. It is true that this rule is directed at us, the servants of the Church Administration; But now we need a rule for you, honorable voters of the Civil Administration. But what to do? The apostles did not write state decrees, not civil laws; one cannot demand that detailed instructions for the Civil Voter be found in their books. However, you are convinced that the Apostles in their Scriptures were guided by the truth, and, moreover, by the Divine: and the truth is the same for everyone. Both the wisdom and the legislation of the Apostles was godliness: “And godliness is profitable for all things” (1 Tim. 4:8). Therefore, you can take the true and pious rule of the Apostles from the Church and transfer it to your electoral chamber. Put aside the specifics: the thought of Church ministries, the rite of ordination: you will see in the Apostle’s saying under consideration a general rule: do not be hasty in electing a public position, but be prudent and careful. Apply this 552 closer to your business and ritual, and tell yourself: do not rely on the election ball too soon: be careful, careful. I will add to this that the Apostle, and not I, teaches you in this way: respect the instruction, both in itself and for the sake of the Mentor. But the Apostle gives us and you not an unaccountable command: for Christianity rules by the power of free conviction. To the instruction about caution in elections, he immediately adds the conviction of the importance and necessity of this instruction. “Participate,” he says, “in other people’s sin; Keep yourself clean." What other people's sins is he talking about? What does it mean to “participate in the sin of others?” – The words of the Apostle contain a far-sighted thought: it is necessary to reveal it and bring it closer to the point. In order to convincingly warn against “quick”, that is, imprudent and rash elections, the perspicacious Mentor looks at the consequences of these. If you choose someone for a position without attention, what will happen is that the easiest thing is that you choose someone unworthy. If Timothy (to whom St. Paul originally wrote his instructions), through imprudence, ordains a Presbyter ignorant of the doctrine of salvation, or unworthy in life, then either involuntary sins of ignorance or voluntary sins of untamed passions and low inclinations will occur in the Presbytery; and further, as a consequence of this, some of the sins of the people, which should have been cleansed through spiritual reason and sacred service, will remain unpurged; and even further, new sins of temptation will be born, which comes with special force through unworthy servants of the shrine. These are the various kinds of other people’s sins that St. Paul warns Timothy and me about! We would say, perhaps: what do we care about other people's sins? Let those who make them be responsible for them. But the Apostle says: below, share in the sin of others: consequently he believes that the sins now indicated fall on the responsibility not only of those who commit them, but also of the one who quickly, imprudently, thoughtlessly chooses and raises up unworthy workers of righteousness and holiness, who later turn out to be workers of unrighteousness and sin. Who dares to say that St. Paul judges too harshly here? The one who knows the matter of just judgment is the one who belongs to the elect among the elect, who have been awarded the power of attorney by the infallible Elector - “judge the world, judge the angels” (1 Cor. 6:2-3). It should also be noted that the Apostle speaks of election only “quickly,” imprudently; and such election finds itself already participating in the sins of others. What would he say about deliberately ill-intentioned, biased, selfish elections? - It is not difficult to conclude how much more severely ill-intention should be condemned, in comparison with imprudence: and I think that to ill-intentioned, biased, self-interested voters, he would say that almost the entire burden of sins committed against the title and position by those unworthily elected will fall on their head. Transfer, dear voters, the Apostolic Discourse from our elections to yours; and think with what attention you must now use the power of election, which has been granted to you with such generous power of attorney by the Supreme Power of the Autocrat. If - which I do not assume will happen in practice, but what I am saying along the way of warning 553 - if you do not use all possible attention and care to discover, attract and elect the most worthy and trustworthy people to public positions; - if you cast electoral votes in favor of one because he really wants to be elected, in favor of another because he is a good friend, in favor of a third because someone needs to be elected, and so on; and yet you will not delve enough into whether the person being elected has the abilities and information necessary for the affairs for which he is elected, and whether his previously known rules and actions guarantee that he will carry out the service that you want to entrust to him in accordance with the public benefit; - if later, as a result of such an inattentive and biased election, the servant of justice you have chosen will disobey truth and justice, begin to justify the injustices of the rich and powerful, and will not listen to the court of widows and orphans; the guardian of the earth's order and tranquility, instead of alleviating and resolving the difficulties of the humble of the earth, will become for them a yoke that binds and oppresses; the leader of your hereditarily respectable hosts will not be as direct and firm in his ways as the dignity of this class, especially prominent and exalted in the State, requires, in which the pillars for the splendor of the throne of the Autocrat grow; - if such and greater irregularities and sins are revealed in those you have chosen, as a result of an inattentive or biased election: then allow me to tell you, before this happens, that in this case your smooth electoral balls will turn in your hands into sharp arrows that will hurt public welfare, and will turn to hurt your conscience, which is calm, perhaps, during the election process, according to the same inattention in relation to oneself, as well as in relation to others. Beware, well-meaning voter, that nothing of the sort happens; be attentive - zealously, far-sightedly attentive; do not allow consequences of election that are undesirable either for society or for you; “below share in the sin of others; Keep yourself clean." “Keep yourself pure,” not only from the distant sins of others, but at the same time from the sin closest to you, your own, which can creep up through inattention. For what are you doing here now, beginning the work of election entrusted to you? – You accept into your mouth the name of the all-seeing God, you kiss the Word of Christ and the image of the crucified Christ; and with these most holy signs you seal your vow that you will act as faithfully in the work you are beginning, as God sees you faithfully, as faithfully as the Word of the Gospel, as faithfully as your Savior and your future Judge died for you. If for this reason you are inattentive in your work, then you will easily become unfaithful; and thus you will offend the Divine shrine that you kiss, and the worshiped name that you accept. Keep yourself from such dark uncleanness: “For the Lord will not cleanse him who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). “God searches the hearts and bellies in righteousness” (Ps. 7:10)! By the power of Your terrible and worshiped name, protect those who now accept it, in the purity of right understanding and good intentions, may their work be peaceful, prosperous, and generally beneficial, may they consider “themselves from everyone,” and elect them to the authorities, “strong men,” to You, “those who fear God, righteous men, hating pride” and self-interest (Exodus 18:21), worthy to rule and judge among Your people. Amen. In the Author's manuscript: before the oath of the nobility of the Moscow Province for the election of judges. In the Author's manuscript: this is closer... 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