384. Слово на день торжественного венчания на царство и священного миропомазания Благочестивейшего Государя Императора Александра Павловича

(Said - unknown where; printed separately and in collections of 1820 and 1821) Lord, in Your power the King will rejoice, and in Your salvation he will rejoice greatly (Ps. 20:2). Let us not now examine, listeners, whose greatest joy comes from the lips of David in this exclamation of prayer: is it David’s own joy when, on some day, similar to the present, he recalled with solemn gratitude how miraculously he was lifted up from the flock to the throne, and how many times he saw the salvation of the Lord, revealed for himself and in himself for the whole people; or the anticipated joy of the Messiah, whom in the prophetic spirit he beheld ascending on high and sitting as a King at the right hand of the power of God, so that in Him all flesh might see the salvation of God. Being not only the prophet of Christ by the inspired word, but also his prophetic image, God-ruled life, David could merge this intense joy into one. Be that as it may, we cannot doubt that the King after God’s heart is proclaiming to us truly royal joy. "Sons of Sioni!" You stand here in order to “rejoice in your King” (Ps. 149:2) before God, anointed, crowned and exalted by God. Righteous, for the true joy of the King and the kingdom is one. So, let us listen more diligently to this sacred voice of joy coming from the mouth of the Prophet King; let us follow, as much as we can, his admiration or, more importantly, his instruction; he leads us through the joy of the King into the joy of the Lord; he preaches the power of God and the salvation of God as the firmest foundation and purest source of royal joy. “Lord, in Your power the King will rejoice, and in Your salvation he will rejoice greatly” (Ps. 20:2). The joy and happiness of the King and the kingdom begins when strength is felt, reflecting the fear of deceit or violence in which every society naturally finds itself. If civil law guarantees private security, then public peace and the inviolability of the law itself are protected by force. The heart of a weak state is shaken by every movement that occurs near its borders, and the light wind of rumor seems to it a menacing storm. But if weak kingdoms are forced to be in constant anxiety on the part of the strong, then the strong can no less fear the strongest, and the strongest of the union of many, or the happy audacity of one. And where is the foundation on which the power of the mighty of the earth would be firmly established? And is there undisturbed joy for kings and kingdoms? People pass through land and sea, looking for support for their affirmation and shelter for their safety. In the art of city rule, adopted from the rulers of the darkness of this age, strength and violence, wisdom and cunning, courage and audacity, sincerity and pretense, loyalty and perjury, alliance and strife, peace and war, gold and iron - in a word, everything indiscriminately is accepted as an instrument for the creation of dreamy greatness and power. But does this abundance of means always, or at least often, lead to the desired goal? Does it give an advantage over those whose enterprises and the benefits for their implementation are within the limits of justice? – Oh, if only those who work so tirelessly on the construction of the great idol of vanity, which is constantly crumbling in their hands, would abolish themselves and “turn” with Solomon to an impartial consideration of “vanity” (Eccl. 4:7)! Like him, they would “have seen under the sun, as if the course is not easy, below the mighty is warfare, below the wisest is bread, below the wise is wealth, below is the one who knows grace, for time and chance will happen to all of these things” (Eccl. 9:11). “Time and chance”: this is how the Wise One calls the unknown cause of events in the language of the world. But what is time if not the movement of things under the finger of the Eternal? What is chance if not an invisible force, hidden in actions visible but not foreseen, the shadow of the hand of the Almighty, the vestment of Providence? - O time, about whose inconstancy the frivolous complain so much, and which is just as much accused of slowness as of speed, how faithful you would seem to us if we more carefully observed your higher dimension - mercy and judgment, temptation and retribution, long-suffering and punishment! Oh, the case to which the blind spectators of the world attribute their own blindness, if only you had appeared, prophetic and right-beaming, when we had sufficient insight to open the secret hand guiding your arrows to their mark, and to distinguish, like the Prophet, the “arrow of salvation” (2 Kings 13:17) from the arrow of all destruction! Until then, everything in the world is so incomprehensible and doubtful, so unreliable and dangerous for us, until, not noticing in it the highest wisdom of all-founding and all-creating power, we think to arrange our bliss on earth only through our own wisdom and efforts. “In vain,” says the prophet to Moab, “thou hadst hope in thy fences, and in thy treasures, and thou shalt have it” (Jer. 48:7). “In the night,” that is, suddenly and unexpectedly, “the land of Moab will perish” (Is. 15:1). “Food,” another calls to the prince of Tire, “food, by your cunning or by your sense, you created strength for yourself, or in the multitude of your cunning, and in your purchase you multiplied your strength; You will die the death of those who are wounded in the heart” (Ezek. 28:4, 5, 8). Let us, listeners, be attentive to the present judgments of God, as well as the ancient ones, and accept from the lips of the Prophet this parable that has already been completed against the new king of Babylon, against this arrogant giant who recently dreamed of sharing the power of the universe with the Almighty: “God crush the sinners with the yoke, striking the tongue” of the sinner, working for the unrighteous ruler, “with the plague of rage, which has no mercy.” ( Is. 14:5, 6 ) the immortal year of the power blessed by God, to which we now set a sacred limit! You call with a voice of thunder to these “tongues that are tottering” with insolence (Ps. 2:1), and you will not cease to cry to the generations to come, “let not the great man boast in his pride, and let not the mighty boast of himself in his strength... but let him boast in this, even though he knows and knows the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:3, 10). Blessed is the people who, without making an idol out of their own power, glory and greatness, “set their hearts on the power of God” (Ps. 47:14). “Blessed are the people, whose Lord is their God” (Ps. 143:15). “I will take him before me, and at my right hand” (Ps. 15:8), they are not moved by any confusion or danger. A kingdom governed by faith and trust in God, if outraged by injustice and the claims of the sons of strangers, rests “in God, the righteous and strong judge” (Ps. 7:12); if threatened with violence, he resorts “to God who girdles... with force” (Ps. 17:33); if it is open to secret forges and unexpected attacks, it has a “guardian” who “will not sleep, but will fall asleep” (Ps. 121:4); even if he is exhausted, he “looks forward to God who saves” the weak “from cowardice and from the storm” (Ps. 54:9) of despair. Entering into righteous warfare, it dares against the whole world, recognizing as its supreme leader the one who was pleased to be called “the God of armies” (1 Samuel 17:15), who “comes out in the strength” of his beloved people and “let him... strength to its people" (Ps. 28:11): having acquired peace, it thoroughly enjoys it, both as an earthly blessing and as a heavenly blessing, knowing that "the Lord blesses his people with peace" (Ps. 28:11). And when in God he creates for himself such “strength” in which his enemies begin to see the finger of God, then his joy and joy are as inalienable to him as the power of God is invincible, mercy is immutable and glory is inviolable. And this joy, this joy opens the heart and lips of the king Psalmist: “Lord, in your power the king will rejoice.” It is not human power, not my own power that consoles me, Lord! The consolation that the world can both bestow and steal is vain. But when I think that You have made me the chosen instrument of Your power, then in grateful admiration I forget myself; I feel only Your omnipotent power, I rejoice in it, I glorify it; I live and enjoy it. “Lord, in Your power the king will rejoice!” However, the feeling of power is still half of royal joy. “Lord, in Your power the king will rejoice, and in Your salvation he will rejoice greatly” (Ps. 20:2). If the strength and power of kings and peoples is a talent entrusted to them by the Lord of hosts, then only by faithfulness in its use can they be enriched beyond abundance and enter into the full joy of their Lord. If a slave hides his treasure in the ground and does not bring the Lord the profit of his work, he finds some peace in his carelessness and pleasure in self-interest: but soon the Judge and the Rewarder appears, and the ghost of happiness disappears. There was a time when David himself - for even the righteous fall - when David himself wanted to enjoy only his power, which he thought to see in the large number of people obeying him: “let us make the number of people” (2 Samuel 24:2). But he had not yet tasted this pleasure when he fell into the angry hands of the ruler of the kingdom of man: “And the Lord gave death in Israel” (2 Samuel 24:15). What God did here with a miraculous hand, admonishing His chosen one, is accomplished in some way and everywhere by the most natural course of human affairs. While on earth they begin to vividly feel their own power, in blind self-confidence to preach peace and affirmation and to count only the benefits, and not the responsibilities, associated with the power given by God, then in the destinies of heaven the sentence of destruction and omnipresence has already been written: “and the Lord will give death in Israel.” From dreamy self-satisfaction, carelessness is born, luxury feeds on carelessness, and this is already a mortal wound on strength, and on wisdom, and on prosperity, and on abundance. But if the calming feeling of power is dangerous when it plunges into dreamy complacency and inaction; it is no less detrimental when force becomes only a means to multiply strength, and is brought into action by the spirit of dominance, for strength is destroyed both by inaction and by constant tension. Even if the spirit of predominance was not condemned by the Supreme Ruler of the world, it must sooner or later prepare its own destruction because by coercion it arouses forces opposing and fighting against it, irritates at the same time both the oppressed and those who may fear oppression, and through the very conquests and enslavements transforms only external and open enemies - into domestic and hidden ones. But also mutually, even if he was not at enmity with himself, he must be destroyed by the justice of the Almighty, causing sedition and indignation in His power and transgressing the limits of His judgment. “When you have divided the languages ​​of the Highest,” says the first writer of the world, “set the boundaries of the tongues according to the number of the Angels of God” (Deut. 32:8): of course, at this time it was also decreed that the Highest One would be “king of all the earth” (Ps. 46:8). Everyone who ever wanted to “be like the Most High” with the king of Babylon and sought universal sovereignty was subjected to the same condemnation as the king of Babylon: “you will go down to hell and to the foundations of the earth” (Is. 14:14-15). There is only one true, as well as natural, direction of people's power - the direction towards the public good and the salvation of distressed humanity. If the king and the people have the blessing of Providence that their power, revealed in their own salvation from danger, extends to the salvation of other peoples suffering under a heavy and unjust yoke, then their happiness is not deceptive and their joy is filled. If God reveals His salvation not only to us, but also through us, then we are not only an object, but also an active instrument of His providence; and what could be more reliable than this state, so long as we are not torn out of His hand by self-will? We are the accomplices of His goodness; and what could be more majestic and blessed than this service? Therefore, the power of God and the salvation of God constitute the complete joy and joy of the God-ruled king. Following more heavenly than earthly suggestions and sensations, he does not rejoice over the death of his enemies: seeing their fall, he laments their bitterness and has mercy on their misfortune. He does not rush from victory to dominance, but admires the fact that, saved by God, he has the power to promote the salvation of God's people. He does not exalt himself with the height of his service: he would have been afraid of it if he had not “offered God as his helper” (Ps. 51:9). He is not consoled by his glory, but brings it to God the Savior. “Lord, in Your power the king will rejoice, and in Your salvation he will rejoice greatly” (Ps. 20:2). Such, listeners, is the joy of David and such is the joy of Alexander - such is finally - since we can share it - such should be the general joy of this day. Don’t you still hear with joyful hearts how the Most Pious Autocrat, at the very time when he wants to give worthy glory to his victorious army, ascending in spirit to God, sings the Davidic song: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory” (Ps. 113:9)? Or how, showing us the miracles of war that took place under his leadership, David again exclaims: “Who is the great God like our God? You are God and work miracles!” (Ps. 76:14-15) Or, as, controlling the hearts of heterogeneous warriors and rulers, captivating the heart of a hostile kingdom by force of arms, and the hearts of enemies with righteousness and goodness, at the height of his glory, he again confesses that “one God rules everything.” And what else - blissful devotion to the sovereign will, the all-governing will - no longer only confesses what exists, but also foresees and predicts the future action of Providence over its deeds, “One God,” he says, “controls everything, and He will accomplish this work,” and the great work of saving broken kingdoms and groaning peoples and pacifying the world is being accomplished. Sons of Russia! “I rejoice in my king” (Ps. 149:2), and with my king, truly royal and Divine joy, may it sweep through all places and times to come, and moreover, may the life-giving “voice of joy and salvation” heard by the Prophet “in the villages of the righteous”, the voice of people’s joy penetrate into all hearts and souls: “the right hand of the Lord create power”; the voice of the king’s joy: “The right hand of the Lord exalts me” (Ps. 118:15–16). Truly, Lord, you yourself have exalted the chosen one from your people, and “you have made his firstborn higher than the kings of the earth” (Ps. 89:28). “By Your power” the Russian “Tsar” rejoices, and about “Your” only “salvation”, first over us, then through us and over the entire Christian race, “rejoices” with thanksgiving and hope. In these feelings, he previously came from the borders of his power for protection and salvation, and now he comes again for the pacification and prosperity of the peoples. Give him this joy of Your great salvation. “Lord, save the king” (Ps. 19:10), and hear us, together with him, ascribing to You “glory and honor and strength” (Ps. 28:1). Amen. You might be interested in: