Глава третья Бог в частной и всемирно-исторической жизни рода человеческого

A. God’s providence in the private life of people as separate, independent individuals 1. Stories confirming the idea that the ways of God’s Providence are inscrutable In the third book of Kings (chap. 5 et seq.) we read that when Solomon built the church of Jehovah on Mount Zion, all the materials that served for this huge building had to be prepared far from Jerusalem, so that the sound of tools could not be heard in the holy city. Thus, for a very long time, workers stationed in the Judean valleys and on the mountains of Lebanon cut down cedars or hewed stones. Not one of them knew the great architect's plan; but everyone received an order to complete a certain lesson by the appointed time. The day came when the church appeared in all its grandeur and decoration. Here lies a striking picture of the particular workings of Divine Providence in the historical destinies of the human race. God, this supreme Architect, has been building for centuries (in the sense of world governance) a huge building, the plan of which is hidden from us, but which will be a shrine for His glorification. And here, in this land of exile, far from heaven, far from holy Zion, far from the home of peace and glory, materials are being prepared for the heavenly city. Consequently, each of us must carry out at his post the work entrusted to him, without trying to comprehend the place that it will occupy in world harmony. How can we, workers of one day, penetrate into the plan of God of eternity?.. It is enough for us to know that our work, no matter how humble, is known to the Most High; It is enough for us to know that He will demand it sooner or later and will accept it from us; it is enough for us to believe that the day will come when all these materials, which seem to us to be scattered in disorder, will be collected in such an order that will delight and delight us. Then human suffering, sorrow and sacrifice will no longer seem useless and difficult to us; then we will see how from the darkness of insignificance and obscurity great deeds of Christian love and secret virtues, of which God alone was a witness, will emerge; then nothing will seem small, accidental or unexpected to us either in the history of mankind or in our own existence. There will be no more chance, and the building which Divine wisdom has slowly erected through centuries of work will rise in its supra-stellar beauty as an eternal sanctuary of infinite love. Let us now present several examples confirming the idea that the ways of God's Providence are inscrutable, although they are always marked by the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme World Ruler. a) One hermit asked God to make him understand the ways of His Providence, and imposed a fast on himself. However, God did not reveal to him what he wanted to know. The monk still did not stop praying, and finally the Lord enlightened him. When he went to visit an old man who lived far away from him, an angel appeared to him in the form of a monk and offered to be his companion. The hermit was very happy with the offer, and they went together. When the day turned to evening, they stopped for the night with a pious man, who received them with such honor that he even offered food on a silver platter. But what a surprise! Immediately after the meal, the companion took the dish and threw it into the sea. The elder was perplexed, but did not say anything. They went further and the next day stayed with another, also pious man, and this one also received them with joy: he washed their feet and showed them all attention. But trouble again! When the hermit and his companion began to prepare for the journey, the one who received them brought his young son to them to bless him. But instead of blessing, the companion, touching the boy, took his soul. Neither the old man, out of horror, nor the father, out of despair, could utter a word, and the old man ran out, and his companion, not lagging behind, followed him. On the third day of their journey, they had nowhere to stay except one dilapidated house abandoned by everyone, and they took refuge in it. The elder sat down to taste the food, and his companion, to his amazement, again began a strange thing. He began to dismantle the wall and, having destroyed it, began to build it again. Seeing this, the elder could not stand it. “Who are you, a demon or an angel? What are you doing? – the elder said with anger. “The day before yesterday you took a dish from a good man and threw it into the sea, yesterday you took the life of a boy, and today you are straightening the walls of a house that no one needs!” Then the companion said to him: “Do not be surprised, elder, at this and do not be tempted about me, but listen to what I tell you. I am an angel of God. The first person who accepted us truly acts in everything pleasing to God; but he had acquired that dish untruthfully, and therefore I threw it away so that he would not ruin his reward through it; the second husband is also pleasing to God, but if his young son had grown up, he would have been a terrible villain - that’s why I took his soul, for the good of his father, so that he too would be saved; the owner of this house is an immoral, lazy person and therefore became poor; His grandfather, while building this house, hid gold in the wall. That is why I corrected the wall so that the owner would not find gold here and die through it. Return, elder, to your cell and do not suffer madly; for this is what the Holy Spirit says: “The judgments of the Lord are many depths that are untestable and unknown to men”: therefore, do not test them - it will not benefit you.” The angel then became invisible, and the amazed old man repented of his error and then told everyone what had happened to him. (Shower Thurs. 1879, Oct.) b) St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, describes the following incident in the Acts of Anthony the Great: two monks went to visit St. Anthony in his desert. But, walking through the waterless, hot desert, they were completely exhausted from thirst, and one of them died, while the other was near death. St. Anthony, being far away from them, several miles, sitting in his monastery on a rock, hastily calls two of his monks and tells them: “Run there into the desert as quickly as possible, taking with you a vessel of water: for one of the two brothers coming to us has already died of thirst, and the other is still breathing, but is suffering greatly and weakened; If you hesitate, you won’t find anyone else alive: God revealed this to me when I was standing in prayer.” Having received the command, the messengers immediately and willingly set off on their journey. Having found the wanderers, they buried the body of the deceased, and refreshed the other with water and, strengthening him with food, brought with them to St. Anthony. With this description, Athanasius wisely notes that someone might ask: why does St. Didn't Antoine send his monks earlier to save the wanderers, even before the death of one of them? Such a question is truly indecent for a Christian, because this was not the business of St. Anthony, but here was the judgment of God: God Himself pronounced His righteous sentence over the dying and the thirsty - the living; He revealed His will to St. Anthony about the salvation of the wanderer. Anthony the Great, reflecting within himself, marveling at the hidden and unknown mysteries of God, humbly cried out to God: “O Lord, my God! It sometimes pleases You to grant long life to people who are apparently useless and immersed in the abyss of iniquity, and sometimes You prematurely deprive this life of people who are very useful for the good of society: some who have sinned little are severely executed by You; others, on the contrary, live happily without any sorrows, and through this they gain the audacity to commit crimes: “their unrighteousness comes, as it were, from fatness” (Ps. 73:7). During this reflection, Anthony hears a voice: “Be attentive to yourself: what you are reflecting on is the judgment of God, and you do not examine or test it.” c) In 1117, when there was an earthquake throughout Italy, some of the inhabitants of the city of Mediolana gathered in one house to deal with the needs of the public; suddenly a voice is heard from the yard, calling by name one of those who were in that house to come out. The one who was called was perplexed as to who was calling and to whom, and therefore hesitated to come out, waiting for the call to be repeated. Suddenly, someone unfamiliar, approaching the door, asks the person invited to quickly leave; As soon as the summoned man retreated a few steps from the house, the house falls and with its ruins kills everyone who was inside it. The question arises: why was it that only one of those in the house was saved from death, while all the others perished? The judgments of the Lord are a great abyss. Who does not clearly see in this incident the ancient miracles that took place? So the angel of the Lord brought Lot and his children out of Sodom, and left all the other inhabitants as sacrifices to the fire. In the same miraculous way, many people who were together with many other people who died from some cause that produced a common disaster, a common destruction, were preserved unharmed. “God is high in His power, He upholds everything with His strength, and who can be found like Him, strong?” Who is able to examine His deeds and say to Him: “You are doing injustice” (Job 36:22-23). 2. How we can recognize His holy will from the incomprehensible judgments of God Throughout our lives we must often repeat the saying of the royal prophet: “Your righteousness, O Lord, is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are a great deep” (Ps. 35:7). How hidden and incomprehensible are the destinies of God about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and about the Pharaoh who did not know Joseph (Ps. 1:18), about which the blessed one rightly said. Augustine: “One (Nebuchadnezzar) was punished by God for his countless wickednesses and through this was brought to saving and very useful repentance (self-correction). On the contrary, Pharaoh became embittered, despite the executions of God, neglected them and died in the Red Sea with all his army; they were both people; both pagan kings, both were punished.” Why didn't we get the same ending? One understood the punishing hand of God, sighed before God and corrected his behavior; the other did not obey the will of God announced to him, remained in his sinful stubbornness and died. Here is another example of the incomprehensibility of God's judgment: one of the best kings of Judah was Asa, who did good before God and strengthened his kingdom, overthrew idols throughout the entire land of Judea, destroyed idolatry, and destroyed the worship of high places and oak groves. However, this glorious king, who reigned commendably for a long time, who was an example of pious kings for thirty years, at the end of his reign lost his first glory, changing in his behavior from better to worse. He imprisoned the prophet Ananias, who accused him of bad deeds, executed many innocent citizens, and finally, having a terrible pain in his legs, did not turn to God with repentance for his sins and with prayer for his healing, but resorted to doctors and healers. Oh, how he has changed for the worse, how different his last deeds are from his first! Initially the king of righteousness, he became a arrogant disobedient to the will of God, announced to him through the prophet (2 Chron., ch. 15 and 16). On the contrary, the most lawless and wicked Manasseh throughout his life, who brought the Jewish people to such a degree of wickedness that they became worse than those nations that were destroyed by God from the face of the children of Israel, recognized in his misfortune the hand of God weighing on him, turned to God, repented of his wickedness and received the forgiveness and mercy of God (2 Chronicles 33). Oh God! Your judgments are a great abyss, an abyss without measure. Saul and David (the first kings of the people of Israel), how amazing they are to us in the difference of God’s judgment over them! Both of them were at first worthy of praise, both sinned gravely, causing temptation for the entire kingdom, both were subjected to grave punishments, but how opposite these punishments had an effect on them! Saul was confirmed in his wickedness and died miserably; David turned punishment into healing for himself and turned out to be God’s beloved chosen one. Questions here are out of place: why is this? and for what? Such questioning occurs at the instigation of the spirit of malice and has brought disastrous ruin to many. “What, did God truly say: Do not eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden of Eden?” – the most cunning of all animals once asked his wife (Eve) (Gen. 3:1). To this question, Eve should have answered the evil beast: “We know that God commanded us not to eat fruit from (only) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” But why and why He commanded this, we should not ask God: His holy will was so pleasing, but we cannot test the reasons for such His will. “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser? Or who gave Him in advance that He should repay? Everything (that exists) is from Him, through Him, by Him and in His power” (Rom. 11:34-36). If a servant from his master or a subordinate from his superior demands to explain to him the reason for his order or any order, then the first will consider this an insult, and the second – for rebellion and disobedience, but you dare to be very insolent against God! Apart from His holy will, there is no other reason for God’s Providence, just as if it did not exist at all. How incomprehensible and wonderful this is: the Samaritans willingly believed the words of the Lord and begged Him to stay with them; the Gergesians of little faith, on the contrary, begged the Lord to leave them as quickly as possible. The unfaithful Jews, neither by words, nor by deeds, nor by the signs and wonders of the Lord, came to their senses and did not believe in the truth of His Divine Messenger: Thy judgments, O Lord, are a great abyss! Julian of Alexandria, the holy martyr, who could not walk due to illness in his legs, was brought by two of his servants before the judgment seat of the persecutors of Christianity. One of the servants who brought him was a Christian, but at the judgment seat he denied both Christ and his master and died in vile idolatry; another of them, named Eun, did not betray either God or his master and remained unshakable in the faith of Christ. Both confessors of Christ were first put on camels and led around the city of Alexandria with dishonor and desecration, then they were subjected to merciless beatings, and finally thrown alive into a burning fire, where in a good confession they gave up their souls to God. Looking at their torment, one of the soldiers present, named Vesa, sympathized with the innocent martyrs, began to admonish the people and calm them down from rioting, was brought to the judge, accused that he also professed the faith of Christ, and, by the judge’s decision, was sentenced to death: the executioner cut off his head; Thus, he received the crown of martyrdom in place of the Christian minister who rejected Christ. What can be said about all this except the fair saying: Thy judgments, O Lord, are a great and immeasurable abyss! For the divine Apostle Paul, God’s definition of Rebekah’s two twins: Esau and Jacob, was wonderful and very surprising; “For when they were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad” (Rom. 9:11), why it would be possible to prefer one of them to another, God already said in advance: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Rom. 9:13). “What shall we say about this? Is it really not true with God? No way! O man, who are you that you argue with God? Will the product say to the person who made it: “Why did you make me this way?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, so that from the same mixture he can make one vessel for honorable use, and another for low?” (Rom. 9:14, 20, 21) Is there really less difference between the potter and the clay than the difference between God and man, an insignificant worm? Who will dare to say to God: “Why are you, Lord, doing this?” Saint Gregory said: “To explore the hidden causes of God’s destinies is nothing more than the opposition of our sinful pride to His advice or determinations. Our duty, our business, is to repeat the words of St. Paul: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His destinies, and His ways unsearchable” (Rom. 11:33). In our earthly life we ​​will never comprehend many things with our minds. It is enough for us to know, be convinced and undoubtedly believe that God is not unjust, and on the last day of judgment there will not be any of the defendants who would say anything else to the Lord other than the words: “Thou art righteous, O Lord, and thy judgments are just” (Ps. 119:137). Once upon a time, King David, seeing the wicked lucky ones of the world, dragging some of the people of God with them by their example, wanted to understand the fate of God about them; He thought about this for a long time, but, not receiving any success, he humbly confessed: “It is difficult for me to understand this until I enter the sanctuary of God” (Ps. 72:16,17). We must postpone until a future, better life a more complete understanding of the destinies incomprehensible in this present life and their final end, the highest Wisdom of God! So, let us also stop expanding the wings of our curious judgment about objects unknown to us. The waves of the boundless ocean of the Highest Mind, constantly rotating and returning, ascending and descending, surpass the quickness of all wisdom, not only human, but also angelic. And how could we comprehend the final causes of the deepest Divine destinies? Who can comprehend God's predestination: why was this one born in paganism, the other in Christianity? Why did the gospel sermon in many countries become publicized quite late, and therefore many thousands of people died, deprived of the opportunity to be saved through the teaching of Christ, while in other countries it was quickly publicized? Why is one state filled with heretics, while another is free from all the vices of unbelief and piety is strongly rooted in it? Why does God's punishment for the sins of some pass (before time), while others befall? Why are sometimes innocent people put on trial, accused and killed, while the sins of some people affect their children and their further descendants? We will not repeat the questions: why did God provide the opportunity for repentance (moral correction) to Adam, and not to Lucifer (Satan)? Why did Jesus Christ have compassion for the fallen Apostle Peter and look at him, and not at Judas? Why does one die in infancy, while another lives to a ripe old age? Why does one, having sinned a little in anything, die without repentance? another, having been mired in grave iniquities for a long time, finally corrects himself and receives a death worthy of a Christian? Why does one wallow in wealth and luxury, while the other does not have a piece of bread or a penny of money? A restless and overly curious mind! Why would you look for this? Touching the fire of Divine destinies, you will melt; ascending the inaccessible mountain of Divine Providence and Providence, you will fall and spin like moths and mosquitoes swirl around a candle at night until they burn out; so the human mind strives to boldly penetrate the secrets of the incomprehensible flame of the Divine. The Eternal, All-Wise God arranged everything by measure, number and weight; Who can resist His power and will? (Wis. 11, 4; cf. 1 Ezra, ch. 4). Why do we, insignificant ones, boast of our pride and boldly strive to weigh the weight of fire, measure the speed of the wind, or return the past day? It is enough for us to believe that the cause of all causes is the will of God, and whoever seeks greater strength and power does not know the essence of God. Every cause is recognized by its dependence on another, so a series of causes are formed, subordinate to one another, and that cause, which, by its existence, was not a consequence of the previous one, is the first cause of all causes. But before God and His most holy will, nothing existed, did not precede God, and therefore the cause of all causes is only the Eternal, strongest and immortal God, glorified in the Holy Trinity. What are you still looking for? God allowed, God willed, God created everything. According to the just and godly saying of Salvian: “For us, the will of God must be the most perfect truth; the highest wisdom - willing and calm adherence to the instructions of the Divine will and Divine Providence.” (Extracted in abbreviation from: John Maksimovich, Metropolitan Iliotropion. Publ. 1896) 3. Like St. Ephraim the Syrian came to the conviction of the existence of God's Providence? St. Ephraim had a faulty character in his youth: he was often angry, impatient, etc. His way of thinking was also not entirely strong. For example, he could not be convinced of the existence of Divine Providence. But God instructed him and corrected him. This is what St. himself says about this. Ephraim: “In my youth, when I was troubled by doubt, I once went out of town, stayed there and spent the night with a sheep shepherd in the forest. At night, wolves attacked the flock and tore the sheep to pieces. When the shepherd informed the owners about what had happened, they did not believe me, accused me of stealing sheep and sent me to the judge. At the same time, another young man accused of a serious crime was brought before the judge. The judge adjourned the case and sent both of us to prison, where I found another young man. In prison, I learned that the young men imprisoned with me were also unfairly accused, and I began to doubt even more. I spent seven days in prison, always thinking about the Providence of God, and finally I saw in a dream a man who said to me: “Think over in your thoughts what you were thinking about and what you were doing, and you will know for yourself that the young men imprisoned with you suffer justly.” Having awakened, I began to carefully go through all my actions in my thoughts and found that once upon a time, in the same village, with evil intentions, I drove a poor villager’s cow out of its corral, and it was torn to pieces by beasts. When I told the dream and guilt to two young men, they also checked their past lives and remembered the bad deeds they had done. One remembered that he saw a man drowning in the river and did not save him, although he could have done it, and the other remembered that he once joined the accusers of a widow who had the intention of depriving her of her father’s inheritance. Now only I am convinced that God knows everything, cares about everything and sends punishments according to deserts. From that time on, I made a promise to improve my life.” And, indeed, through labor and strict observation of his actions, Ephraim destroyed all the bad inclinations of his character and achieved a high degree of holiness. (Thu-Min.) 4. Stories about God’s providential care for holy people 1. The prophet Elijah had no food for himself in the desert and would not have found it anywhere, because there was famine. And so, the ravens bring bread and meat to him every day, and at certain hours, morning and evening. How could the birds know about the prophet’s hunger and how could they understand human hours for eating, which they themselves do not observe? One explanation of the question: “God commanded them to feed the righteous” (1 Kings 17:4-6). And how many such wonderful examples are there in the lives of the saints! 2. Martyr. The basilisk was taken to trial before his tormentors: they put boots with nails inside and an iron chain around his neck. In one place, the warriors who accompanied him tied him to a dry oak tree at the gate in the middle of a hot day, while they themselves dined and drank wine in the house. People gathered and watched. The appearance of St. was extremely pitiful. martyr, when he, exhausted and scorched by the sun, stood by the oak tree. He loudly asked God for help. And so, suddenly there is an earthquake, the chain and copper boots fall off from him, the oak tree to which he was tied turns green, is covered with wide branches that bring him coolness from the heat, and a stream breaks through under his feet to quench his thirst (Chet.-Min., May 22). 3. St. Alexander Nevsky before each war asked God for help, calling on the Mother of God and St. for help. martyrs Boris and Gleb. So what? Boris and Gleb apparently appeared to his soldiers, encouraging them of victory. After that, he won victory after victory. But the Lord helps only the right side in war, as Alexander Nevsky said: “The enemy is strong; but God is not in power, but in righteousness” (Ch.-Min., August 30). 4. When God prepares one of the pious people, who at the same time has a natural mind, special knowledge and experience in life, prepares to place him in a high place of service, church or civil, then he leads this person through trials, for example, allows him to suffer from envious people and slanderers, embarrassment in his service. Joseph went through this path of life before his rise in Egypt; David was led along the same path, by the will of God, until his accession to the throne (Ps. 17, 22, 26, 33, etc.); It was no other way that Mordecai achieved exaltation. Why do the pious first need this path? So that they all the more restrain themselves from self-confidence and learn to surrender themselves to the will of God; so that we develop a sense of justice and mercy towards others all the more; so that they have more experience in life, etc. But the longer this testing state lasts for one of them, the less he sins and the more successfully he acts in the high place that will be entrusted to him. 5. God leads pious people safely out of the most extreme circumstances in their lives, gives them unexpected help when they are completely exhausted in their suffering: “Many are the sorrows of the righteous (it is said), and I the Lord will deliver them from all of them” (Ps. 33:20). Yes, prophet. Daniel was thrown into a den to be devoured by seven hungry lions, but the lions do not touch him, and he is fed by the prophet Habakkuk, who came from distant places on the orders of an angel (Dan. 14:31–39). 6. Sschmch. Polycarp spent the night at the hotel. Suddenly an angel awakens him and tells him to leave the hotel. And as soon as he left, the hotel collapsed and crushed everyone who was in it (Chet.-Min., February 23). 7. One monk named Moses, jealous of the virtuous life of St. John Climacus, asked him to accept him as a disciple. They interceded for Moses before St. John some elders, and John took Moses as his partner and disciple. After this, this great father one day commanded Moses to dig up soil in one place and carry it to the garden to improve the soil in it. Moses, having arrived at the indicated place, did as ordered without laziness; when midday came, and with it the intense heat of the sun, Moses, tired, went into the shade under one large stone, lay down there and fell asleep. And so, the Lord, not wanting to grieve His servants in any way, according to His usual compassion, delivered Moses from unexpected death, and St. John from grief. For when the monk was sitting in his cell with God-thought prayer and fell asleep in a light sleep, he saw a certain holy man appear to him, who said to him: “Is it so, John, you sleep carelessly, and Moses is in trouble!” At these words, John awakened and armed himself with warm prayer for his disciple. Then, when evening came and the disciple returned from work, the elder asked him if anything bad had happened to him. The student answered: “A huge stone almost killed me, and would certainly have killed me if you, father, had not called me, for when I fell asleep under it at noon, I suddenly heard your voice calling me, I quickly ran out from under the stone, and at that moment the stone fell.” John did not say a word to the disciple about his vision, but secretly, in his heart, he glorified the good God with grateful prayer (from the life of St. John of the Climacus, March 30). 8. God’s Providence does not leave pious people without punishment for their sins. Thus, David, for each of his grave sins, suffered a visit from God (2 Samuel 12:14, 24:13), while many of his contemporaries remained unpunished for many of their sins; The God-fearing king Jehoshaph fell under the wrath of God for one inappropriate friendship with the vicious Ahathath (2 Chron. 19:2-3). So, is God really less merciful to the righteous than to sinners? No! But those who deeply believe in the Providence of God and, like strict Christians, are accustomed to hardships in life, are more able to endure punishment than those who have little faith and are pampered; the latter would sooner come from punishment to cowardice than they. Through punishments of one kind or another, pious people, like gold in fire, are purified for the Kingdom of Heaven. 5. Stories about obvious traces of God’s Providence in the lives of ordinary people a) Miraculous rescue from fire In the forties, in the city of Starokonstantinov (Volyn province), as always, part of the army was stationed. It is unknown for what reason the soldiers were placed not far from the powder magazine. Whether it was imprudence, whether it was a necessity - now we can’t figure it out. In the environment where some of the soldiers were located there was a kitchen, a simple oven, built in a camp style, in the ground. The furnace was very close to a powder magazine. How it happened is unknown, but a spark from the furnace fell into the cellar; Of course, everyone who had the presence of mind rushed to the cellar to avert a terrible disaster. Who doesn’t know the dedication of our soldier? Who doesn’t know his determination to sacrifice his life just to fulfill his duty of service? And this time the soldiers did a lot, but not everything: they did not avert a terrible disaster. Apparently, the residents needed it. The city was on fire. Flames flowed like a wide river throughout the city. House after house, street after street fell prey to fierce flames. It was a hot summer. The buildings were as dry as straw. There was no salvation for houses, much less property. All huts, houses and even chambers were destroyed. There was one stone house covered with iron; he was away from the fiery river. The owner of the house, a proud gentleman, did not tremble in the face of misfortune, sat calmly on the balcony, mockingly looked at the unfortunate fire victims and arrogantly said: “If only you had iron roofs, you fools, and would be calm, here I am...” But the noble gentleman’s speech did not end - it froze on his lips. A terrible crack of the roof interrupted the words of the proud man. With a terrible roar, the tin sheets of the roof rolled up, fell to the ground, and pieces of red-hot tin flew off onto neighboring buildings. The proud gentleman saved nothing from his enormous property. And right there, not particularly far from the house of the proud master, in the very center of the raging fire, stood a poor Jewish hut, almost bent to the ground. Its owner was a poor, poor Jewish woman. When houses covered with tiles and iron were collapsing, could the Jewish woman have thought that her thatched hut would be saved from the furious elements! Who knows what the poor woman felt during this terrible time! Perhaps she was passing from despair to madness; or it may be that in a few moments she understood something that even great sages do not always understand. Running into the church, the Jewish woman fell to her knees and fervently prayed for the salvation of her home. Just as the Lord once heard the prayer of a Canaanite woman, so now He did not abandon the fervent prayer of the poor Jewish woman: her house remained safe and sound, while all the surrounding houses burned almost to the ground. They said that the Jewish woman did not hide either before her co-religionists, much less before the Christians, that her house was saved by the intercession of a Power invisible to her. Old people do not change their confession, and the Jewish woman did not accept baptism. But she was not like those lepers who turned out to be ungrateful. Until her death, the Jewish woman had a vivid sense of gratitude, and every year, until her death, she brought a few kopecks to the church. If the all-generous Lord does not ignore the prayers of people who have not believed in the Son of God, will He leave us, His children, when we fervently lift up our prayers to Him with our hearts and lips? (“Sunday Thu.”, 1883 No. 52.) b) God is merciful not only to the righteous, but also to repentant sinners After the victory over the Turkish troops near Khotyn, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, as usual, invaded Turkish lands for plunder. Having plundered many Turkish villages and cities and filled their ship with rich booty, the Cossacks set off by sea on their return journey and were already approaching Zaporozhye. But at that time a strong headwind arose, and huge sea waves hit the ship with such force that a leak soon formed in it, and it began to fill with water. Seeing their inevitable death, the Cossack robbers turned with tears and a great cry to God, may he deliver them through the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God of Pechersk and St. Archangel Michael from the danger threatening them, while making a vow to serve for some time in the monastery of the Mother of God. And so, when they were praying, a great miracle happened: from the lower part of the ship, a golden-looking young man suddenly appeared before them on a shiny horse and, standing in the middle of the frightened people, said to them: “Do not be afraid, men, but diligently pray to God, and He will deliver you from death, that’s why He sent me,” and he became invisible. Meanwhile, the wind died down, the sea calmed down, and the ship, which was already half filled with water, now turned out to be completely dry, as if there had never been a leak in it. Having witnessed such a miracle, the Cossacks with all their hearts glorified God, who had delivered them from a terrible death, and returned safely to their homeland, where they hastened to fulfill the vow they had made to serve in the monastery of the Mother of God, in the great Kyiv Lavra (Borrowed from the handwritten notes of Metropolitan Peter Mogila, printed in the VII volume of “Arch. of South-Western Russia”, sn. “Resurrection. Thursday, 1887). c) The Lord saves people from obvious danger, if their life is useful, then with a mysterious voice, then by other means One artisan (a tailor by trade) worked in the room where his child slept in a cradle. Suddenly, in the midst of the fun, for no apparent reason, some incomprehensible fear took possession of him, as if his heart was squeezing from a spasm, and some vague feeling told him that the life of the baby sleeping in the cradle was in some danger. Not only that, he quite clearly heard a voice inside himself, briefly and definitely telling him: “Get up quickly and take the child from the cradle!” The craftsman did not immediately listen to this unknown voice. He even tried to calm himself down with various considerations. The child was still sleeping soundly in his bed; nothing bothered him in the room; It was also quiet outside. Where could his life be in danger? “It must have been just imagination that created such mental unrest; we need to drive him away,” the tailor decided and, taking up the needle again for work, even tried to draw out the song. Indeed, he managed to calm down for a few moments; but then suddenly fear seized him again, this time much stronger than before, and again he heard an inner voice, more definite and almost threatening: “Get up quickly and take the child from the cradle!” Again the father stops his work, and the song itself died on his lips. He looks around carefully and examines the entire room, starting from his desk and to the very last, most distant corner of it. Since he absolutely nowhere found any reason to fear for the child, and the latter was still fast asleep in his bed, it seemed unreasonable to him because of some imaginary danger to wake the child and take him out of his warm bed. Thus not listening to the voice, he again took his place at the desk and began to work; but his former gaiety had already disappeared: he no longer hummed the song. In vain he now made every effort to overcome his fear by any means. A few moments later the fear returned again, and much stronger than before; in my heart, with the force of a thunderclap, a voice again rang out: “Get up quickly and take the child from the cradle!” Now, at last, he did what the warning voice demanded. Instantly he was already at the cradle, hastily took the baby and returned to his place. As soon as he sat down on the chair, a strong roar was heard in the corner of the room where the cradle was located. The entire ceiling instantly collapsed, fell onto the cradle and completely covered it with debris and fallen pieces of plaster. The child was frightened by the loud noise and began to cry, but he was safe and sound in the arms of his father, who, deeply touched by what had happened, pressed him to his heart. What a living joy the poor mother was overcome when, hearing a loud noise, she ran into the room in horror; she was afraid that her husband and child were killed, but they both remained safe and sound. Filled with deep piety, her heart, as well as that of her husband, poured out with the most sincere prayer to the Lord when her husband told her how miraculously his dear child had been saved. (Compiled from “Sunday Thursday”, 1885 No. 19.) d) God's care for orphans In 1748, the widow of Baron Rodion Kondratievich von Weidel (he served as a lieutenant general and, having received his resignation, lived poorly in a village in Kharkov province), Elizaveta Bogdanovna, nee Passekova, sincerely Orthodox and devout, became very ill on the way to St. Petersburg in Akhtyrka. Concerned about the fate of her young children, she fervently prayed in the local Intercession Church in front of the miraculous Akhtyrka Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos for healing. In a dream, on May 2, the Mother of God announces to her that in five days she will leave earthly life and must therefore prepare for death and distribute her property to the poor. The patient mentioned two daughters, whom she would leave at a young age and without food. “Don’t worry about your children, I will be their guardian,” answered the Mother of God and repeated the order to distribute the property so that prayers could be performed. The Baroness announced the vision she had to her confessor, as well as to other persons, and five days later she actually died. Then, soon, completely unexpectedly, both of her young daughters were demanded to the Highest Court and, having been brought up there, were subsequently given in marriage, one (Anna Rodionovna) to Count Z.G. Chernysheva, and the other (Marya Rodionovna) - for Count P.I. Panina. This precious story, placed in the book of Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov 58, we can somewhat supplement with information from the handwritten autobiography of the late Archimandrite of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Fr. Melchizedek († January 6, 1853). “Empress Elizabeth Petrovna,” he writes, “having learned from her close nobles about the baroness’s blessed dream and about the orphans left after her, nicknamed “daughters of the Mother of God,” said: “It is impossible for the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, to apparently be what She deigned to call Herself; this must be performed by the earthly queen, Her faithful servant. So, I will be their mother!” When, by order of the Highest, the orphans were brought from the Kharkov province to St. Petersburg and presented to the palace, the empress tenderly kissed and pressed them to her heart, ordered them to stay in the palace and gave them an excellent upbringing “in the fear of the Lord.” Both sisters, over time, were granted maids of honor. Chernysheva enjoyed the friendship of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna and spent the critical night with her before Her Highness was elevated to the imperial throne 59 . The famous sisters, keeping a living, reverent memory of the wonderful arrangement of their fate, made important donations for the Intercession Church, which contains the Akhtyrka Icon of the Mother of God. Countess A.R. Chernysheva built another one near it - a stone one, in the name of the Nativity of Christ, with living rooms on both sides of the new church, where she often lived for whole months and wanted to spend her last days. In this church, three paintings, a gift from the creator of the church, belong to the brush of the famous Spanish painter Murillo († Aug. 3, 1682) and were purchased for a very expensive price. She donated the altar Gospel (Moscow edition, 1759), lined with silver boards, weighing 2 p. 22 lb. to the cathedral Church of the Intercession. and valued at 15,000 rubles. appropriation; a silver and gilded chalice with a paten, a diamond feather, an emerald, and the diamond insignia of the Order of St. The Great Martyr Catherine, granted the highest honor to the Countess, was placed, at her request, on the robe of the miraculous icon. Countess M.R. Panina sent a gift of the Gospel worth 5,000 rubles, weighing 1 p. 30 f., for the sake of daily remembrance of the souls of her deceased parents in God, whose bodies she, her daughter, transferred and placed in this holy place. church 1770, May 18. But the very next year she was buried in the same church, next to the graves of her parents 60 . e) God's providence in the daily life of man “Remembering my past life and observing the present,” a certain Mr. Velichkov reports in one spiritual journal, “I came to the conviction that not only in important cases of life, but also in everyday life, God’s Providence does not abandon a person, and the most insignificant circumstance, overlooked at one time, had meaning and significance in subsequent cases. In order to share my belief with others, I will give several circumstances from my life. Once I was at the all-night vigil in the church in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands (this church is at the top under the dome of the Mozhaisk St. Nicholas Cathedral) and, tired of standing, I wanted to lean against the wall while reading, but, not bringing my shoulder one tenth of an inch to the wall, I decided to look at it... and imagine my horror: I would have leaned against the door, which was not locked, and behind the door there was a hole the width of 2 fathoms leading down to the very foundation, and logs, iron piles, etc. crossed along the way. If I lean my elbows, death is inevitable; I would have crashed before I reached the ground. Another incident happened in Moscow: I came to buy something in a china shop, dimly lit by a lamp, and went up to the counter. The buyer who had preceded me reached over from my side for the change. Wanting to make room, I took a step back and fell into the open hole leading to the basement. My legs, hamstrung, caught on one half of the door; my head lay on the other edge, and the weight of my body pulled me down. The buyer recoiled. I was speechless and just silently extended my hands, asking for help... At that moment, when I felt like I was about to collapse, I heard someone pushing me in the back; one move and I'm saved. The worker who was in the basement, hearing the noise, came running and saved me, pushing me out of the hole in the back. If he had been less smart and baggy, I would have crashed into glassware and stone steps. Who saved me if not the Providence of God? The Lord was apparently present here, fulfilling His words of love for man. I could cite hundreds more cases, but what I said is enough, and I invite each and everyone not to believe in blind chance, not to attribute everything only to themselves and only to other persons, but to believe in the power and authority of the Helper and Patron - God the Creator. Let everyone remember different incidents in his life, and he will be convinced that the most insignificant circumstance is not without the will of God, and if so, then let there be no place for grumbling and despair, and let humility and patience replace them (“Soulful Reading,” 1884, part 1). f) Someone’s participation in our life 1. “In the spring of 1860, my cousin,” writes Count M.D. Buturlin, - General D., while he was in St. Petersburg, he once dined with his friend I.N. K.. and wanting to please the latter’s seven or eight-year-old daughter, invited her father to ride with her in his (General D.) carriage on the occasion of the illumination that was then in the city. The carriage was a two-seater, and therefore only both of the men mentioned sat in it, and the girl had to stand in front of them; The monotony of the quiet ride through the streets tired of the owner of the carriage, and since it was not allowed to leave the row of carriages, he ordered the coachman to stop and got out of the carriage to walk on foot to his apartment, which was located not far from there, at the Konyushenny Bridge on the Moika. But as soon as the girl sat down in the place previously occupied by General D., some carriage, the horses of which their coachman could not hold, rushed across the rows, and the drawbar of this carriage crashed into the window of the carriage door in which I.N. was sitting. K... with his daughter, and, breaking through the raised window glass, entered the opposite window. If this had happened a few minutes earlier, when General D. was still sitting in the carriage, the girl standing between the doors would have been killed on the spot.” “And after this, others say that there are no more miracles. They are not there for those who do not want to notice them - if, having seen them, they do not want to recognize them as such.” (From the book: M. Pogodin. Simple speech about sophisticated things. Publ. 1884) 2. The father of the Moscow professor Kryukov, an art teacher at Kazan University, undertook to paint several images for a rural church on the estate of the landowner Moiseev, but did not have time to complete his obligation and died. The widow asked to give her some money for the work done. The customer replied that he suffered a loss, having obliged to pay another hired painter for the completion more than what he owed the deceased. That's where the matter stopped. Suddenly, Professor Kazenbek (an acquaintance of Moiseev and Kryukov) sees in a dream someone who tells him: “Tell Moiseev to satisfy the widow Kryukov.” Kazenbek did not pay any attention to this dream, when suddenly after a while he sees its repetition with reproach: why don’t you go to Moses? As he told the story at home, he laughed at the incident, but never thought of carrying out the unpleasant task. Finally, he sees the same thing for the third time - and this time with a threat: if Moiseev does not give money to Kryukova, then he will die (he was sick), and if you don’t remind him, then it will be bad for you too. Kazenbek, waking up, felt a fever and was afraid: “No, the joke is bad, I’ll go to Moses and tell him everything.” The sick Moiseev answered: “For mercy, I’m glad to pay five times, just to get well,” and immediately sent some money to Kryukova. He recovered, and Kazenbek’s fever did not return. Kryukova was completely pleased, having received unexpected satisfaction” (from the same place). 3. “In 1872, on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, I was sitting in the office of the village of Novy, and the housekeeper G was there. Suddenly, some insect with a long body and wings flies in, buzzing. Seeing him, I waved my handkerchief and it fell to the floor. The housekeeper wanted to crush him with his foot, but I did not order him and, taking him by the wings with scissors, carried him out. As soon as we crossed the threshold into the hallway, the ceiling collapsed behind us - on the very place where we had been standing for a minute, and even the table at which I was sitting was captured: a layer of alabaster fell, an inch thick, 1.5 square arshins in size” (from the same place). g) Rescue from obvious danger Several years ago I read in one Viennese newspaper, it seems, the Press, with all the details, the following. In one factory, through which a shaft passed, driving various machines by means of belts, there stood one worker; suddenly he heard his name called, he went to his neighbor and asked him what he needed. He positively denied calling him, and at the same moment the machine burst, so that it would probably have killed the worker who had just left it, or in any case, would have seriously injured him. (See: Hellenbach. Man, his essence and purpose. Publ. 1885) h) Saving warning One York vicar writes: “In the autumn of 1858 I was living at Invercagill, in the southernmost part of New Zealand. In those days there was only one inn there, kept by a Dane. There was no village there; The area was the wildest. Two days after my arrival at this hotel, one of the shipbuilders who made the ship on which I arrived from England to New Zealand addressed me, calling me by name. I knew him well because one day during our move he was put in irons for seditious speeches, and I often spoke with him both before and after this incident. When our ship reached the entrance to the port of Nomere, this man, with five or six others of the crew, deserted in the dark night, taking advantage of the whale boat that was with the ship. In the evening I went into the large kitchen of our hotel and found this man and several others there. They sat near the fire, smoking and drinking. The innkeeper was right there and we were all very friendly to each other. It turned out that three or four of those present were also among the deserters, although I did not recognize them at first. They announced that they were leaving tomorrow morning for the island of Ruapuk, where the missionary lived, since one of the company wanted to get married, and there was no pastor nearby on the mainland. I said that I would be glad to see the mission station, and they then said that they intended to stay there an extra day or two, since there were many wild boars on the island, which they could hunt while spending the night in the boat. They said that they had a lot of provisions - meat, fish, bread, etc., in addition to beer and vodka and a couple of bottles of champagne for the wedding breakfast. According to them, it was necessary to leave at about 4 o'clock in order to avoid the tide, which was dangerous at the crossing point. They all really wanted me to join them, and I completely fell in love with this enterprise and promised to go if they called me. I remember getting up to go to bed and saying: “Well, okay! Since I have to be ready before 4 o’clock, I won’t sit any longer.” Then it was about 11 o’clock. They said that everyone would go to bed now and would definitely wake me up: “Don’t be afraid, we won’t leave without you!” I left them with the most determined and firm intention of going with them. The matter was settled, and it was only for this that I went to bed, since otherwise I would have waited at least another hour. I didn’t have a candle with me; I usually lit it in the bedroom. Leaving that kitchen, I walked through the second kitchen to the front of the house and entered the stairs. I went up five steps when someone or something said: don't ride with these people. There was probably no one on the stairs; I stopped and said: why? A voice that seemed to belong to another person, clearly speaking inside my chest (and not in my ears), said in a lowered tone, but with an imperative expression: you must not go. But, I said, I promised. The answer or warning was repeated again: you should not go. But what should I do? They will come for me. Then the same inner voice, which was not, however, part of my consciousness, said especially clearly and expressively: you must lock your door. All this time I stood motionless on the stairs; I didn’t even remember at that moment whether my door was locked: this is clear to me from the fact that, having first thought that I had to go and would go, I then immediately felt a strange feeling of mysterious danger and wondered how I could block the door if it did not have a lock or bolt. Having reached the room, I lit a candle and, looking around, found a strong iron bolt at the door. To prove that it was not a simple feeling of reluctance, I can mention that even here I hesitated whether to lock the door or not - I so wanted to go and so I was accustomed in those days (I was only 19 years old) to act according to my own will in all cases. Finally, some inner push forced me to lock the door and I went to bed. Then the previous excitement gave way to great calm in me, and I soon fell asleep. The first thing I heard - around 3 am (I'm guessing) - was banging on the door, as I expected. I was completely awake, but did not respond. Then I heard voices and the door began to be shaken and pulled violently. I didn’t speak, because I knew that if I had only answered, I would certainly have been convinced. I decided not to go. After the knocking and noise, I heard their gods and curses. But I lay there, hiding. Finally, they gave up and left. I lay there for a while, wondering if this was not, after all, madness on my part, and then fell into a healthy sleep. At about 9 o'clock I went to the dining room, where some military man - a captain or colonel - was having breakfast. When I entered the room, he said: “Did you hear what happened?” - “No, I just got up.” - “Why! “- he said, “some company set out early in the morning from the hotel to Ruapyuk, and their boat crashed on the rocks, and every one of them drowned.” I told him that I almost went with them. “Well, you got off happily,” he said. I told him that I had some kind of warning and that I had locked the door, but did not give all the details. The bodies of two or three of these people washed ashore on the same day, the rest a few days later. None of them escaped, and if I had been with them, I would have died, without any doubt.” (See: E. Gurney, F. Myers, F. Podmore. Intravital ghosts and other telepathic phenomena. Translated from English. 1893) i) A remarkable incident from the life of the peasant poet Surikov The peasant poet Iv., who died in Moscow in 1880. Zakhar. Surikov, whose talent is ranked next to Koltsov and Nekrasov, suffered extreme poverty, which sometimes reached terrible proportions. Since the poet even wanted to commit suicide, only God’s providence saved him from a fatal outcome. It was like this. Surikov’s father, who did not tolerate literacy at all, was constantly indignant at his son, who began writing poetry as a boy. Only the mother rejoiced at her son’s intelligence and patronized his literary work. But then she died. His father married a second time, and young Surikov could no longer live in his father’s house, so that he, already married, was forced to leave his father’s house. Despite some self-confidence, Surikov was still helpless. He lived with his wife and children in a cramped corner of the basement, literally from hand to mouth, with no income. What to do? What to grab onto? A job as a typesetter turns up at a printing house, and the poet takes on an unfamiliar task. Constantly in poor health, he inhaled lead dust for three weeks, suffered chest pain and left the printing house without earning a penny. Dark days have come. Every time I returned home, I saw the tear-stained eyes of my sick wife and hungry children more and more often. Finally, the poor man reached despair. “Suicide is the outcome,” someone whispered to him one dark night, when the rain was lashing at the window of the dark basement, where the wife was crying and the child was thrashing about in delirium. “You’re no use to them anyway! – the same voice did not stop. “Go quickly and commit suicide!” The poet experienced terrible moments: the source of faith seemed to have dried up in his heart, and there was no prayer on his lips. Not remembering himself, Surikov, driven by an unknown force, goes to the bridge, under which the muddy waves of the Moscow River seethed. “There is no one, now you can,” a thought flashed in his head, and he was ready to throw himself from a high bridge, but suddenly he heard his mother’s familiar voice: “My son, stop.” Having enlightened his soul, he stopped. Subsequently, the poet could not tell his friends about this without tears, and everything that he experienced on the fateful night was conveyed in the poem “On the Bridge.” (“The Helmsman”, 1894) i) From “Memoirs of Countess A.D. Bludova" This is what Countess A.D. says. about his great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Shcherbatov, an associate of Peter the Great, under whom he remained continuously throughout the Swedish War, and soon retired after the death of the great Tsar. 1. “With all my soul devoted to the great man, “with whom our earth moved,” intoxicated by the glory of a glorious time, blinded by the brilliance of this new world, which opened before the astonished gaze of the youth of that time in all the seductive charm of science, strength and human pride, in all the licentiousness of morals and in all the revelry of the mind, my great-grandfather was completely carried away by the spirit of the time, or, better said, by the spirit of his half-military, half-court mug, and was carried away, perhaps further than others, into the open abyss of freethinking, almost to the point of denying Almighty God. His portrait remains with us. His dark face, black, intelligent eyes, European-style hair cut, shaved beard, small mustache, German suit - give him some resemblance to Peter I himself; but there is no open and courageous look from Peter. The subtle, slightly mocking expression of cheerful, somewhat narrowed eyes and the smile (far from ideal) of a rather rough mouth in a man who enjoyed his youth without too much discrimination and restraint bear the imprint of skepticism and passion. And yet there is something attractive in this face - this is a remarkable man, this man was constantly with Peter throughout the Swedish War, both at sea, on the galleys, and on the dry route, in the battle of Poltava; and after the death of Peter, he no longer wanted to serve, mourning, in a passionate fit of grief, the commander and king, whom he worshiped and whom he loved as a genius and hero. At what time exactly, I don’t know, whether during the reign of Menshikov or Dolgorukov, Prince Nikolai Petrovich lived quietly in retirement in his family circle (he was married to Sheremeteva), when suddenly, one fine day, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He had nothing on his conscience and could not understand what slander was being leveled against him; Of course, nothing was announced to him. This, however, was the custom of that time, but torture and the death penalty were also considered ordinary things then, in all the diversity of the cruel imagination and cruel morals of those times. And so, cut off from his wife and children, from the comforts of his master’s home, Prince Nikolai Petrovich, innocently accused, languished in the silent solitude of the dungeon, in obscurity both about his loved ones and about the enemies who had killed him, and in anxious anticipation of torture and execution, but did not seek consolation in his forgotten, lost faith, relying only on the proud consciousness of his legal innocence. For a long time, abandoned by everyone, without occupation, without books, without relations with people, he stubbornly clung to himself, like a philosopher and a stoic, against the accidents of life and against human deceit, proudly arming himself with fruitless patience, hopeless contempt for the blows of blind fortune - the classical goddess he read in the verses and prose of imitators of the Hellenic poets. Time passed hard and slowly, and did not bring any change in the position of the imaginary state criminal. One day, after a long, endless day spent in thoughts and guesses about the probably fatal outcome of his fate, the prince fell asleep. The former bright pictures and faces had long since ceased to appear to him, even in his dreams; For a long time now his dreams were confined to the cramped confines of a casemate; Even the sleeping imagination no longer had the power to carry him away from captivity, to lift him up from the aphids. So this time, in a dream, Prince Nikolai Petrovich saw himself in his cramped, damp, prison housing, but the darkness of the dungeon thinned, as the darkness thins in the night before dawn, long before dawn, and he began to breathe more freely. A vague, anxious premonition gripped him; he was expecting something or someone, and the excitement of a long-forgotten hope took possession of him. The door opened without the usual creak, without the irritating sound of the key and locks, and instead of his only visitor - another guard, "a certain ancient, splendid man" appeared before him. His face shone with such purity, compassionate love, such a quiet light and such an atmosphere of peace surrounded him that the sleeper could not give himself an account of the details of the phenomenon; features, clothes - everything slipped away in uncertainty before the luminous expression of love, meekness, pity on this face. The prince looked at him in joyful amazement and remained silent; and then a quiet but sweetly intelligible whisper was heard: “You are not sleeping, Prince Nikolai,” said a harmonious voice, “you are not sleeping, but your eyes are fixed, and you do not see either your position or the fate awaiting you. Your fate is in your hands. You look in vain for the reasons for your imprisonment in anger or the machinations of enemies. People here are blind tools; your sorrow does not lead to death, but to the glory of God. Prince Nikolai, you have forgotten God! Turn, resort to prayer, and the One who loosed the bonds of the holy apostles and opened their prison, He will lead you out of here and return you to your mourning, praying family.” The prince woke up and jumped out of bed; everything was dark, empty and damp in the dungeon as before. There were no traces of a vision, but something extraordinary stirred in his soul; vague memories of childhood and sweet moments of trusting tenderness, when on the first day of the month they served an all-night vigil at home, or when they illuminated the water on the eve of the Epiphany, or when he stood, half asleep, but joyful, next to his mother in their parish with a candle and willow in his hand... “Away with this childishness,” he thought. - Am I really so weak and sunk in this darkness and sorrow that I will begin to believe dreams and pray to icons of saints? And my poor princess, Anna Vasilyevna, would have rejoiced at this cowardice: she so often persuaded me to at least read the “Our Father” with her, when she diligently bowed to the ground in front of her ark, with all the piety of her Sheremetev family.” This is how Prince Nikolai Petrovich laughed off the impressions of the dream; but these impressions haunted him all day, and, remembering the unearthly beauty of the elder who appeared to him, he involuntarily looked for similarities with the familiar faces depicted on the icons on the walls of Moscow churches. However, pride and stubbornness took over, and he did not read a single prayer, did not even say to himself: “Lord, have mercy!” Again the long days dragged on, and nothing happened that could interrupt the monotonous languor of prison life. The impression of the extraordinary dream was already fading from the memory of the prince, who had completely returned to his inconsolable stoicism, when suddenly the same dream was repeated again, in all its details; only the radiant face of the elder seemed to be overshadowed by sadness, and with a quiet reproach he reprimanded the prince for his lack of faith. Prince Nikolai Petrovich was shocked. So much time had passed since the first dream, the memory and even the impression of this dream had been so erased from his memory that the phenomenon could not be attributed to his own imagination. Is there really anything supernatural here? This time he was completely preoccupied, and his thought was incessantly occupied with the vision; but he did not want to submit, humble himself and his pride, cry or pray, and stubbornly persisted. But he no longer knew peace of mind, and a few nights later he again had a wonderful dream. The radiant old man still appeared before him, but the severity of his face struck the prince. “Your eyes are fixed and your heart is petrified, Prince Nikolai,” he said, “and time passes, the deadline is near: repent and pray! You do not believe me, you do not believe in Him who sent me; Perhaps you will believe the material evidence of the truth of my words. When they take you for your daily walk to the ravelin, walking along the corridor, look at the third door from your casemate; An icon is hung above it. Ask the officer to take it off and give it to you, this is the image of the Kazan Mother of God. Take it, pray, ask for the intercession of the Most Pure Virgin Mary. And again I say, believe, ask, and to the one who asks it will be given; You will be released and returned to the family who is praying for you. This is my last visit; You won't see me again. Your destiny is in your hands; choose: shameful death or freedom and a long, peaceful life!” The dream disappeared, and with awakening, Prince Nikolai Petrovich’s thoughts and feelings began to boil. Involuntarily, irresistibly, faith flowed into his soul; and no matter how much he struggled with himself, hope and prayer rose in his heart, although pride did not yet allow words to come to his lips. For a day or two he walked along the corridor and just counted to the third door, but he braced himself and did not look up. However, I couldn’t resist and decided to watch it once. Some small, dark quadrangle seemed to be black above the door; but the prince did not sin against discipline: he did not ask anything from the officer on duty, but this quadrangle pulled and beckoned him to it every day, and at night, guesses about whether this image was really holy, and it was the Mother of God, as he was told in a dream, prevented him from sleeping. Finally, he decided to ask to remove this image and allow him to take it with him. The officer on duty allowed; and when, left alone in his casemate, he began to disassemble and clean the icon, it turned out that this was exactly the image called the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. And this material proof of the truth of the words heard in a dream, or, let’s say better, the holy action of the grace of God’s inexhaustible love for sinful humanity, warmed the heart of Prince Nikolai Petrovich and opened his eyes: he believed, like Thomas, fell on his face, and with the words “My Lord and my God!” his ardent prayer and thanksgiving flowed from the depths of his awakened soul; and peace, and calm, and light poured into the stubborn, confused mind. A few days later the order came to return him to freedom; His release followed without any explanation, just as his arrest had followed before. Prince Nikolai Petrovich took the image with him, made a gold frame on it, and in front of the ark where he placed it, he and his princess read the “Our Father” with the same faith and zeal as Anna Vasilievna herself, the daughter of the pious Sheremetev house. 2. In Moscow there was a strange incident that was told to me (long, long after) by Marya Alekseevna Khomyakova, the poet’s mother, who herself knew both the persons and the incident and was completely incapable of lying. One of our generals, returning from a campaign against the Turks, brought with him a Turkish child, probably saved by him in some dump, and gave him to his friend Durnov. The boy came out smart, affectionate, and kind. Durnov fell in love with him and began to raise him like a son, but did not want to baptize him until he himself understood and studied the truths of the Christian faith. The boy grew up, studied with love and fervor, made rapid progress and brought joy to the heart of his adoptive father. Finally, Durnov began to talk to him about accepting Christianity, about holy baptism. The young man spoke with fervor, even with enthusiasm, about the truths of the faith, with conviction about the Orthodox Church, went with his family to church services, prayed, it seemed, earnestly, but he kept postponing baptism and said to Durnov: “Wait, father, I’ll tell you when it’s time.” So some more time passed, he was already 16 years old, and some kind of change was noticed in him. The noisy gaiety subsided within him; the lively, fearless eyes were filled with sadness; the ringing laughter fell silent, and the quiet smile seemed somehow premature on the blooming childish face. “Now,” he said one day, “I will soon ask you to baptize me, father!” Now it's time soon; but first I have a request to you: do not refuse. Order to buy paints, a palette, brushes; let me order the stairs as I say, and let me, for this one month, not let anyone into my room and don’t go yourself.” Durnov had long been accustomed to not denying anything to his adopted son; as he wished, so they did. The young Turk sat in his room all day, and when it got dark, he would come to Durnov, still reading, studying, talking, but not a word about studying in his room; Only he began to turn pale, and his black eyes glowed with some kind of unearthly quiet fire, some kind of expression of blissful calm. At the end of the month, he asked Durnov to prepare everything for baptism and took him to his room. The palette, paints, brushes were lying on the window; the ladder, which served him as a kind of stage, was moved away from the wall, which was hung with a sheet; the young man pulled off the sheet, and Durnov saw a large holy fresco painted all over the wall, supported by two angels, and on the fresco was the face of the Savior Not Made by Hands, colossal in size, beautifully written. “This is the task that I had to fulfill, father, now I want to be baptized into the faith of Christ; I long to be united with Him.” Delighted and touched, Durnov hurried to prepare everything, and his pupil was baptized with reverent joy the next day. When he took communion, everyone present was amazed by the unearthly beauty with which he was transformed. He spent the whole day in quiet joy and constantly thanked Durnov for all his good deeds and for the greatest of all - for the knowledge of the truth and the acceptance of Christianity, for this indescribable bliss, saying that he was more than his own father for him, that he had not given him temporary life, but eternal life. In the evening, the young man tenderly said goodbye to his named father, hugged him, thanked him again, asked for his blessing; they saw that he prayed for a long time in his room in front of the written Savior Not Made by Hands; then he quietly fell asleep - fell into a sound sleep. The next morning he was found dead in bed, with his eyes closed, a smile on his lips, and his hands folded on his chest. Who will delve into the secret of a young soul? What unearthly voice, intelligible to her alone, told him his fate and called him at the appointed hour to return to the font? Who will explain this inexplicable action of grace, calling to the Heavenly Father in an unknown, mysterious way in the depths of the heart of its chosen ones? Durnov mourned his adopted son with parental love, although he reproached himself for his grief at such a holy, blessed death. The room where the young man died became a chapel, or chapel, where Durnov prayed every day. In 1812, the house burned down, but the wall with the image survived, only the image was very damaged; it was restored, and only one eye and eyebrow remained from the original. However, devout people continued to come to pray here, and subsequently an almshouse was founded for 40 elderly widows and girls, and the room of the young Turk was consecrated into a beautiful house church, open all day, where people come from all over Moscow and still hold prayer services in front of the image painted on the wall. The almshouse is called Barykovskaya, after the name of the founder; and the Church of the Savior on Stozhenka (“Russian Arch.”, 1889, book 1). j) The Lord Himself protects children In the life of the great ascetic of God, the Sarov elder, Fr. Seraphim, we find a striking case of Divine Providence protecting infants. Prokhora, that was the name of Fr. Seraphim in the world was only seven years old; his pious mother, in fulfillment of the will of her late husband, was diligently engaged in the construction of the parish Sergius Church, she herself monitored the work and often climbed to the very top of the building to inspect the building. Once she took with her the seven-year-old boy Prokhor to the very top of the bell tower that was then under construction. Busy inspecting the work, the mother did not notice how the boy walked away from her, stumbled and fell to the ground from a height. Struck by horror, the mother ran away from the bell tower, imagining that she would find her son beaten to death, but what was her joy when she saw him safe and sound: the child was already on his feet! There is no need to say that everyone recognized this rescue of the boy as a special miracle of God and glorified the wondrous power of God, protecting innocent children in moments of mortal danger. Whoever reverently listens to the ways of God's Providence can often see similar manifestations of God's mercy towards children, whose guardian angels, according to the word of the Lord Himself, always see the face of the Heavenly Father and protect children from danger. The word of Scripture came true over the young Prokhor: “They will lift you up in their arms, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Ps. 90:12). Here is another similar story from the life of our famous historian and writer, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. As a ten-year-old boy, one hot summer day he was reading a book under the shade of an old oak tree in the forest, and his old uncle was sitting on the grass not far from him. Suddenly a menacing cloud appeared, lightning flashed, thunder roared and rain poured down. The old man called the boy home. The boy slowly walked with him to the house. The thunderstorm intensified. He had not walked a few steps when a bear ran out of the forest thicket and directly rushed at him. The boy walked thoughtfully and did not see the danger at all. Another minute and he would have been in the clutches of a fierce beast; but at that very moment a terrible thunder struck, such as the boy had never heard before; It seemed to him that the sky above him had collapsed, that lightning seemed to wrap around his head... He closed his eyes, fell to his knees and could only say: “Lord!” - Half a minute passed, he looked and saw in front of him a terrible bear killed by lightning. The boy remained on his knees for a long time; it took him a long time to come to his senses; Finally, he fixed his eyes on the sky, and, despite the black, thick clouds, he saw with his own eyes and felt with his heart the presence of God the Savior there. Tears flowed from his eyes - tears of deep, ardent gratitude to the Lord for saving his life. He himself described this incident and at the conclusion of his story he says: “Reader, believe it or not, this incident is not fiction!..” And here is a wondrous miracle of God’s mercy, which the Lord God was pleased to show in our days over one dying helpless child. It was at the end of 1893, in the vicinity of the village of Sredne-Akhtubinsky, Tsarevsky district, Astrakhan province. The thirteen-year-old boy Grisha, the son of a poor peasant in this village, was a shepherd on another peasant’s farm. The owner sent him with the sheep to a village located 10 miles from the farm. The weather, apparently, was good, and the boy calmly set off along a familiar road, without stocking up on either bread or extra warm clothing. He and his sheep slowly moved forward, and meanwhile, a piercing, cold wind began to rise, which soon turned into a strong, almost unprecedented hurricane. A blizzard, so memorable to all the inhabitants of that area, began, almost unheard of until then, which lasted for three whole days. At first, the boy had the thought of hurrying to get to the village, but then, when the hurricane began to intensify, the wind was hitting him straight in the face, snow flakes were covering his eyes, and the sheep, obeying the direction of the wind, constantly began to stray from the road - the boy realized that any attempt to resist the force of the wind in order to reach the village was in vain. In despair, he began to cry and scream loudly, but the sounds of his voice immediately died in the air, and the helpless boy involuntarily followed the sheep in the direction of the wind away from the road. For the unfortunate child there was no hope of salvation, and he, having lost his way, in his poor clothes had to freeze in the middle of the field. But the Lord God was pleased to save the child. Almost unconsciously, not knowing where, the boy goes after the sheep. A strong snowstorm creates an impenetrable darkness, so that he can hardly see the sheep ahead. Trying to see at least something through this impenetrable darkness, the child finally notices that something is turning black about ten steps away from him. Gathering his last strength, he rushes to this place and sees that it is a small pile of straw, at the bottom of which a depression has been made, as if on purpose, and it is this hole that has accepted the half-frozen child under its roof. Here he rested a little, sheltered from the sharp wind, looked around, remembered his sheep and immediately called them closer to him. He pulled straw for them to feed and caressed the animals. The snow, meanwhile, was rushing with terrible force and speed. The wind was so raging that every minute it seemed to the boy that the entire pile of straw under which he had taken refuge was about to turn over, and he would have to die from the frost... Night fell. The cold was getting worse. It penetrated the child right through. But the Lord unexpectedly sends him guardian friends: this time the unreasonable animals show extraordinary intelligence. As if in gratitude for the fact that the child feeds them and caresses them, they lie down next to him and warm the boy with their warm fur coats. Some of them lick his face and hands, others, placing their heads on him, warm his numb members with their warm breath and, thus, keep him alive. Having warmed up like this, the boy fell asleep with the hope that tomorrow, perhaps, God willing, the snow storm would subside and he would reach his native village. But, alas, the next day the blizzard continued to rage with the same force... What could the unfortunate child do? He was, as it were, doomed to death, buried alive in a grave; he cried bitterly about his parents, whom it seemed he would never see again, about his home, which was now so warm and good... From time to time he crawled out of his shelter and gave food to the sheep, and then again hid under the straw. The second painful night came. The sheep, both during the day and at night, when they were full, lay down next to their shepherd and warmed him as before. The boy did not know how to thank his priceless friends. He kissed them, caressed them, talked to them. He spent that night less calmly. The mournful ringing of bells from the villages of Sredny and Zaplavnoye reached him and often woke him up. The child woke up: the familiar bell reminded him of his mother and father; his poor heart squeezed with pain, and he began to cry, and the blizzard echoed him with its howl. The third day has arrived. The hurricane has subsided somewhat. But the boy no longer dared to think about how to get home. Mental suffering, cold, and most importantly - hunger (after all, for three whole days he did not have a crumb in his mouth!) took away from him all hope of salvation. His strength was falling: he was barely able to give food to his sheep. From weakness, he falls into oblivion, and it seems to him as if they are heating the stove for him, dressing him, wanting to feed him... Suddenly he clearly sees the old man and hears him telling him: “Grisha! Get up, go to the road: there are people driving there; they’ll take you...” The boy makes an effort, rises to his feet and wanders onto the road. The snowstorm has subsided, but the drifts of snow blown by the wind do not give him freedom. He walks, gets stuck, falls, gets up and falls again. Meanwhile, his father had already been looking for him across the steppe for the next day. And so, at that very time, the father saw the child from afar, rushed to him and, unconscious of joy, grabbed him in his arms. The boy recognized his father, but from excitement and weakness he could hardly say: “Father!” and lost consciousness. He woke up when he was already at home; he was ill for a week, then recovered and now tells everyone how the merciful Lord heard the fervent prayer of his parents and miraculously saved his life. (“Astr. Ep. Ved.,” 1894, No. 4.) Yes, the parent’s prayer is strong, but who is this wonderful old man who appeared to the boy and commanded him to go on the road precisely at the time when the father was looking for the dying child? The believing heart thinks: wasn’t it the great merciful Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, a quick helper in troubles and misfortunes? After all, it was in days close to his sacred memory... (See Trinity List, No. 730.) 6. The ways of God's Providence in the conversion of sinners 1. Sometimes the Lord God stops a sinner on the path of lawlessness by some extraordinary incidents in life, which penetrate the soul more deeply the more suddenly and unexpectedly they strike it. The sinner Mary, attracted by curiosity to Jerusalem, goes with others to the church, where the life-giving tree of the Lord's cross was located; but an unknown force denies her entry and removes her from the church threshold. Several times, always with new effort, she renewed her attempts, and just as many times an unknown force pushed her away: the church gates, despite all her efforts, remained inaccessible to her. Struck by the miracle, she involuntarily delved into herself, trying to discover the cause of the strange phenomenon. The grace of God, which was waiting, so to speak, for this moment, illuminated her mind: and she, seeing, on the one hand, the abyss of sin in which she was, on the other, the abyss of God’s mercy, which had hitherto spared her and patiently awaited her conversion, fell in tears of repentance before the icon of the Mother of God, calling on the Most Holy Virgin as evidence of the sincerity of her repentance (see Life. Mary of Egypt, April 1). 2. Most often and most commonly, God admonishes the sinner with various phenomena during sleep. Sleep separates a person's soul from everything visible for a while; that is why the soul of the most absent-minded person in a state of sleep is calmer, and therefore more capable of accepting good impressions. Examples of miraculous dreams that served as incentives for the conversion of sinners are numerous in history. When Abimelech, king of Gerar, took Sarah, the wife of Abraham, to himself, then “God came to Abimelech one night in a dream, and said to him: Behold, you are dying for this woman’s sake, even though you have sung” (Gen. 20:3). Patermufius, a pagan, robber and grave digger, in order to rob a virgin who lived in solitude, at the beginning of the night hid at the top of her house and there, waiting for a favorable time, he accidentally fell asleep. In a dream, a certain light-like man appeared to him, dressed in royal clothes, and, strictly denouncing his atrocities, demanded that he become a Christian and a hermit, threatening otherwise with cruel execution. Frightened by the menacing vision, Patermufius immediately upon awakening received St. baptism and retired into the desert (Thurs.-Min., July 9). 3. Sometimes, finally, as if to experimentally confirm the sinner of what awaits him after death, God temporarily transfers his soul to another world through fainting and, lifting the curtain that hides from us the state of the souls of our dead brethren, shows the sinner what terrible tortures and torments await him beyond the grave. Hesychius Horibit, living among the hermits, long and stubbornly hid his voluptuous heart under his monastic clothes. Neither the admonitions of the brethren, nor the example of a strict life had any effect on the hypocrite: he protected himself from the former with the mask of virtue, carefully concealing his weaknesses; to the latter the cold heart was completely indifferent. The grace of God penetrated, however, even through this crust of hypocrisy: after an hour-long fainting spell during illness, Hesychius spent twelve years in seclusion in the most severe labors of repentance (Prol., October 3). 4. The ordinary and eternal way of working of God’s Providence is the natural way; using small and ordinary means to achieve great and saving goals is a constant law of the wisdom of God. And a person in himself constantly hears the incessant voice of God - this is conscience, which always reminds him of the need to turn to God and leave a sinful life. There was a robber Moses in Egypt; For his extreme physical strength and special arrogance and cruelty, his comrades elected him as the leader of their gang. Moses spent half his life in his shameful profession. It seemed that the heart, hardened by atrocities, was no longer capable of ever accepting the quiet suggestions of God’s grace; but suddenly, during solitude in one cave, an awakened conscience with its torments crushed the heart of Moses: he left his former comrades of his atrocities, secretly went to a monastery from them and there surprised the most strict ascetics with feats of repentance (Chet.-Min., August 28). A robber like Moses in the desert of Ermopolis - David, feeling the reproaches of his conscience and reflecting on his disastrous state, left everything, almost forcibly forced the abbot of one monastery to tonsure himself into monasticism and, through the strictest abstinence and humility, ascended to such a height of spiritual perfection that through the archangel he was honored to receive from the Lord the forgiveness of his sins and the gift of miracles. (Thu-Min, September 6). 5. Another incessant voice of God, calling sinners to repentance, is His holy word, given to us in the Holy. Scripture. How powerful it was in the mouths of the most inspired men is shown by the example of St. apostles One sermon by St. Peter converted three thousand listeners to Christ and brought them to repentance (Acts 2:14–41). Sermon of St. Paul was defeated by the obstinate wisdom of the Hellenes, the effeminacy and voluptuousness of the luxurious Romans, and the violence and stubbornness of the stiff-necked Jews. 6. Visible nature, constantly serving as a witness of His goodness and wisdom, is often a preacher of repentance for people who forget about their Creator. Life of St. The Great Martyr Barbara, from a pagan who became a Christian, sufficiently shows how, through consideration of visible nature, one can come to the recognition of the one true God (Life of the Holy Martyr Barbara. Thursday-Min., December 4). The chronicler Zonar tells about the Greek emperor Anastasia (who ascended the throne of Philippicus, who was blinded by him, and was one of the iconoclasts), that every time there was a clap of thunder, he shuddered to the point of frenzy. Works of art that depict either objects of faith or some touching events from sacred history have a similar effect on the soul. For a long time the Greek philosopher convinced Prince Vladimir to accept the Christian faith; his words did not have a noticeable effect on the heart of the pagan, but one glance at the picture of the Last Judgment completed the victory over his heart. One German scientist, deeply rooted in unbelief, went into the house of a simple peasant and saw a picture depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, on which was the following inscription: “This is what I have done for you! What have you done for Me? A touching image of the Crucified One and the words: “What have you done for Me?” - they shook the scientist’s heart so much that he could not hold back his tears, he hurriedly went to his house and mourned his errors (“Christ. Reader,” 1821, part 4. Page 88, etc.). 7. Unfair oppression from people and so-called failures, drawing people’s attention to themselves, often prompt them to turn to God with sincere repentance. “Together with the cross placed on me,” someone writes about himself, my new life began. I did everything that depended on me, according to the inspiration of human prudence, in order to discover the injustice I tolerated; wrote, explained, asked for trial, consideration. Left unattended and unanswered by people, I resorted to God and began in the depths of my soul to surrender to His holy will. This is how eternally active Love judged for the good of drawing me to Itself, according to the hardness of my heart and with cruel measures. Entering into myself and considering my relationship to my Creator, I saw with surprise that I did not worship God, but the creatures and the world that filled the entire space of my heart, so that there was no place for God; I realized that my pride was offensive to God and was horrified. In a word, I saw my damnation and grabbed hold of the Savior, crying out: “Bless me, Lord, for you have humbled me! Convert me and I will be converted, save me and I will be saved!” The military leader Peter (later called Athonite) was captured by the Saracens and imprisoned. There, looking at his life, he remembered that he had made a vow more than once to devote himself to God, but did not fulfill it through negligence, and began to pray to God with tears. Miraculously released from prison, without returning to his home, he went to Mount Athos (Chet.-Min., June 12). 8. Unexpected meetings with pious people often lead stubborn sinners to repentance. One woman of a bad life, a depraved woman, accidentally met another woman, unknown to her, who was carrying her dead son in her arms. The unfortunate mother, in despair and grief, not knowing what to do, throws the dead baby into the arms of the sinner and, falling at her feet, asks to resurrect the deceased. Struck by this meeting, the sinner involuntarily confesses her sins, considers herself unworthy not only of a miracle, but also of looking up at heaven and opening her lips in prayer to God; but the inconsolable mother, thinking that she is renouncing out of humility, doubles her request. Then the sinner, falling to the ground, confessed her sins in tears and, recognizing herself as unworthy of God’s mercy, prayed that God would have mercy on the sad mother: the baby came to life in her hands, and both women glorified God, who accepts the repentance of sinners (Ch. Min., July 9). 9. The spark of God in a sinful soul. A humble, repentant sinner in the eyes of God is incomparably higher than a righteous man who thinks a lot about his righteousness; humility, according to St. John Climacus, can even make angels out of demons (f. 25. 63). Of the thousands of examples of such conversion of lost sinners, this time we will cite one instructive and touching story, preserved from the times of the formidable Tsar John Vasilyevich and St. Philip the Metropolitan of Christ. There was then a young priest in Vladimir named Timofey. Due to the action of the enemy, he fell into such a grave sin for which, according to the laws of that time, he should have been executed by death. Horrified by his own crime, he hid from his wife and children, disguised himself as a warrior, mounted a horse and fled to the Tatar land, to their then capital, the city of Kazan. There, in despair, he renounced Christ, accepted the Basurman faith and took two Tatar wives. And so, the former servant of the altar of God became a nasty Tatar, the former Orthodox Russian man became a fierce enemy of his homeland: the Tsar of Kazan made him his commander and often sent him to raid the Russian land. Timofey lived in Kazan for thirty years and became a rich and noble Tatar nobleman. But he could not drown out the voice of conscience in his soul: wherever he went, no matter what he did, it tormented him with hopeless melancholy: nothing consoled him, he found no joy in anything: “Apostate, traitor, it would be better for you to suffer execution for your sin than to renounce Christ,” - this is how the voice of conscience sounded in his unfortunate soul. And who knows? Perhaps he cried bitterly, like the Apostle Peter after denying the Lord, when he was left alone with himself; perhaps he sighed with repentance, timidly raising his soul’s gaze to the mercy of the Heavenly Father... And the Heavenly Father had mercy on this unfortunate sinner. Once he was returning to Kazan after a successful raid on Russian soil. Having sent his army forward, he rode alone on his horse. He remembered his grave sin, felt sorry for his native country, and sadness crushed his heart. Seeing no one around him, he sang with heartfelt tenderness his once favorite verse: “Every creature rejoices in You, O Gracious One...” Suddenly a Russian youth runs out to meet him from a neighboring grove. Timofey shuddered from such a surprise and, out of habit, grabbed his sword, but the young man fell to the ground in front of him with bitter tears and begged for mercy. "Who are you?" – Timofey asked him. – “I am a Russian prisoner, I am fleeing from Kazan to Rus'; I was hiding here until the soldiers passed, and when you started singing, I thought that you were Russian too: after all, this is our favorite verse in Rus', we all sing it, glorifying our Intercessor, the Mother of God. So I came out to you, thinking that you were a Russian man...” Here the cruel heart of the apostate was touched: he wept bitterly, got off his horse and began to sob inconsolably, throwing himself on the ground. The young man looked at him with surprise and pity. It was already getting dark when Timofey came to his senses; then the young man asked him why he was crying so bitterly. And the repentant sinner, having eased his suffering heart with tears of repentance, told the young man who he was and how he became a traitor to his faith and native land. The young man was literate and well-read; he consoled him as best he could with the hope of God’s endless mercy, which does not reject any repentant sinner. Timothy said to him: “I adjure you by the Most High God, Jesus Christ, Who came into the world of sinners: create love, go quickly to Moscow, tell everything you know about me, a sinner, to Metropolitan Philip and ask him: is there forgiveness for such sinners? Let him be sad for me and before the Grand Duke, so that the prince forgives me all the evil that I did to the Russian land, devastating it for so many years. And let both of them send me with you to this very place a farewell letter under two seals: metropolitan and grand-ducal; I will be waiting for you here in three months. Work hard for me, my dear brother, for the sake of the Lord: then I will joyfully return to Moscow and settle in some monastery to mourn my grave sins. And God will not leave you for this with His mercy.” The young man promised to fulfill everything; They spent the night in that place and parted early in the morning. Timofey went to Kazan, and the young man went to Moscow. Here he appeared to Metropolitan Philip and told him everything about Timothy. The saint of Christ reported everything to Grand Duke John Vasilyevich, who wished to listen to the story from the young man himself, who had returned from captivity. The young man repeated to the Grand Duke the story of the apostate Timothy. Remembering the word of Christ: He who comes to Me will not be lost, the Metropolitan and the Grand Duke wrote a farewell letter, sealed it with two seals and sent it with the young man to Timothy. The young man arrived at the appointed place on time. He waited here for Timofey for two hours; on the third he climbed a tall tree to see better: was he coming from Kazan? And then he sees: a man on two horses is quickly galloping towards him across the field from Kazan. The young man recognized this rider as Timothy; but, wanting to find out if he had come to meet him, he hid in the bushes. Having galloped to the place, Timofey looked around; not seeing the young man, he jumped off his horse and began to cry bitterly. Then the young man appeared from the bushes; Seeing him, Timofey recognized him from afar, rushed to meet him, began to hug and kiss him, saying: “Oh, my dear, my dear friend! How will I repay you, my faithful one, for your great labors, for the fact that you have shown such truly Christian love to me, an infidel?” Then the young man handed him a letter with two seals. Basurman Timofey quickly tore off the seals and began to read the letter. Tears of joy streamed down his face; he interrupted his reading with deep sighs and prayerful exclamations: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner! God, cleanse my sins and have mercy on me!” Having finished reading, he fell to the ground and said: “I thank You, Lover of Mankind, merciful to sinners, that You have vouchsafed me, the accursed one, to receive forgiveness for my grave sins from the Russian High Hierarch himself!” And with these words the repentant sinner gave up his ghost... For a long time the young man stood in horror over the lifeless body of Timothy; he couldn’t believe that he could die so soon. However, he had to dig a grave and bury his friend. Tired, he lay down to spend the night near a fresh grave. And so, he sees in a dream the deceased Timothy, who thanks him for all his services and says to him: “For your sake, God had mercy on me. Take my horses and everything that remains after me, go home with God; remember me while you live with alms and offerings in the church of God.” The young man got up in the morning, prayed at the tomb of his recent friend, took his horses, on which there was a lot of gold and expensive stones - apparently, Timofey was completely ready to set out on the road to return to his native land - and the young man set off for Moscow. Here he told the Metropolitan and the Grand Duke in detail everything that had happened. He showed them everything that he had brought from Timofeev’s property. And the Grand Duke and the Metropolitan glorified God, and reasoned that, apparently, the Lord accepted the sinner’s repentance and his soul was saved from eternal torment by his tearful repentance, and a story about this was written down for the benefit of those reading, so that none of the most desperate sinners would despair of the mercy of God, which accepts those who repent with true repentance... (See “Trinity, leaf.”, No. 709.) 7. God's providence in punishing criminals 1. Torment of conscience for committing murder. St. Zosima spent a silent life in the Sinai desert. One day a robber came to him and, having confessed his grave crimes, asked the monk to accept him as a monk in order to wash away his sins with tears of repentance. St. Zosima, after testing the sincerity of the repentant, clothed him with the monastic order. Soon after that, he told the newly admitted monk that it would be difficult for him to hide in this place, because many come here and he, as a former robber, might recognize him, therefore he advised him to leave the monastery and himself escorted him to the secluded monastery of Abba Dorotheos. A repentant robber lived in this skete for nine years, studied all the psalms and invariably fulfilled all the skete obediences. After such a long monastic life, he unexpectedly leaves the monastery and returns to St. Zosima, asking him to take the monastic clothes from him and return the worldly ones. Zosima, in bewilderment, asked what made him renounce his monastic life. The former robber told the elder the following: “For nine years now, as you yourself know, I, father, have been in the monastery and fasted as much as possible, remained in abstinence and labor, obeying everything with meekness, silence and fear of God, hoping for God’s mercy for the forgiveness of my grave sins, but I did not find peace and consolation. Every minute I imagine a child killed by me and asking: why did you kill me?.. This seems to me not only in a dream, but also in reality, when I stand in church in prayer, when I approach the Divine Mysteries, when I eat food at a meal with the brethren, when I go somewhere, a child is constantly in front of me, saying the same thing: why did you kill me?.. That’s why I want, father,” the former robber continued, “to go to where I robbed, so that they would take me and put me to death.” St. Zosima, not foreseeing any other outcome to pacify the soul of the robber, released him, and he, having surrendered himself into the hands of justice, was beheaded with a sword and, thus, only with his own blood could he wash away his crime, the painful memory of which no tears and contrition of repentance could erase from his conscience and heart (“Venerable Tale, About the Sublime Saints and Blessed Fathers”). 2. Sometimes it happens that confusion of conscience produces some kind of insanity in the murderer, so that the one who has shed human blood reveals himself to be a murderer and recognizes the direct judgment of God over himself. Here is one such example recorded by history. Theoderic, the barbarian king of the Ostrogoths, when he took possession of Italy, through slander and unfounded suspicion, contrary to the convictions of his conscience, killed Pope John in prison, tortured the famous senator Boethius in terrible torture, and cut off the head of his father-in-law Symmachus. Although he had long been accustomed to murder and blood, he still could not help but feel remorse for shedding innocent blood; he wanted, however, to drown out the judgment of conscience and did not want to admit and repent of the crime. Meanwhile, the judgment of God by the judgment of conscience did its job: Theoderic, from mental confusion and spiritual struggle, fell into a gloomy and weary mood, and then completely lost his mind. One day at dinner, the servants served Theoderic the head of a large fish. It seemed to him that this was the head of the recently killed Symmachus and that she, biting her lower lip with her teeth and looking at him with eyes expressing wildness and rage, was terribly threatening him... Frightened by the unusual phenomenon and trembling as if in a fever, he ran to the bed. He mourned his sin against Symmachus and Boethius, expressing regret for this misfortune, and immediately died. 3. The judgment of God sometimes acts in convicting a murderer through dumb animals and even inanimate things. In the kingdom of Greece, under Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, this is what happened: a traveler walked along a deserted road, accompanied by a domestic dog. A robber attacked the traveler, killed him and disappeared. The animal, a witness to the murder, remained with the corpse of the murdered owner inseparably. Another passerby buried the dead man's corpse; the animal followed its owner's benefactor and remained with him. The new owner was a hotel keeper. A lot of time has passed, and then that hidden murderer enters the hotel; the dog, which, as usual, caresses all the guests, suddenly, to the amazement of everyone, barks and angrily rushes at the stranger and throws itself in his face; She is forbidden, she does not obey and repeats her attack several times. Those who saw this suspected the stranger of hostile relations with the previous owner of the animal and announced this to the court. At the trial, the villain admitted to murder. Or here’s another remarkable case: two comrades were walking together, one decided to take the life of the other in order to take possession of his treasure. The defenseless sufferer in the hands of the villain begged to take his treasure, if only he would not kill him, and swore an oath to keep his villainous attempt a secret; but the villain did not heed the pleas of the sufferer. And so, when he dealt the final, fatal blow to his victim, the sound of a church bell reached them; the dying man called upon this sacred sound in the name of the all-seeing God as a witness to the murder and an accuser of the murderer. With an evil mockery of the powerlessness of the dying man and the unrealizability of his hopes, the villain completed his terrible deed. So what? From that time on, the murderer could not calmly hear the sound of the church bell: every time he heard it, the villain became embarrassed and trembled. Tormented by the consciousness of God's judgment on himself, the criminal was convinced of the need to confess to murder and confessed. 4. The providence of God often punishes the murderer with the kind of death that he used in relation to his victims. A few years after the murder of St. John the Baptist, King Herod of the Jews, both for this inhumane crime and for mocking the Redeemer on the day of His suffering (Luke 23:11), was subjected to the righteous wrath of God. He was revealed like this: having been slandered before the Roman Emperor Caligula by his own nephew - Herodias' brother - Herod Agrippa in supposedly treasonous plans against the Romans, Herod was deprived of all his power and wealth and exiled to prison first in Lyon (Lugdunum) of Gaul, and then to Lerida - a Spanish fortress. Herodias and her daughter (Salome) shared his exile with him, in which they ended their lives in misfortune. Salome died before them. Tradition says that once, in winter, she crossed the small river Sikoris on the ice; In the middle of the river, the ice broke under her, and she sank into the water so that the ice squeezed her neck, and she hung on it with her head, while her body, not reaching the river bottom, swayed from side to side until the ice cut her neck. The corpse sank to the bottom of the river, and the head of the deceased was brought to Herod and Herodias. Thus, God’s justice punished the dancer, for whose sake the honorable head of the Forerunner of the Lord was beheaded! (Sunday Thurs.) “Everyone who takes a knife will die with a knife” (Matthew 26:52). This truth was justified by St. Moses Murin: having been a robber before accepting Christianity, he was later himself killed by one of the robbers who attacked him (Chet.-Min.). If we were more attentive to ourselves, we would see many experiences of this truth in our own lives - we would see not only that every crime is followed by punishment, but that the very instrument and image of our crime is very often the instrument and image of our punishment. Let each of us revere the inscrutable justice of God and, at the admonition of the Savior, let him hastily throw down his knife, so that he does not die with the knife. 5. Examples of God's justice, which revealed secret murders. a) Conviction of a murderer through the prayer of a saint. Many centuries ago, the following event took place: one young merchant, having sold his goods in the city and collected gold, wanted to go home at night. Seeing the collected gold, one robber was overwhelmed with insane envy and, without closing his eyes, lay in wait for the departure of this man. Indeed, after the roosters crowed, he set off, suspecting nothing; and the robber, having warned him and taken a place convenient for an ambush, suddenly rushed at him, struck him and committed murder, adding another crime to one shameful deed: he took the gold from him and threw his dead body at the door of the great ascetic Palladius. (See the story of Theodore about him. Book IV, chapter 26; Nikif. Book XI, chapter 41.) When the day came and word spread about this, everyone who was at the auction got excited and, having gathered, broke down the door of the blj. Palladia with the intention of punishing him for murder. Among them was the one who committed the murder. The blessed man, surrounded by such a great multitude, looking up at heaven and directing his thoughts to God, begged Him to reveal the truth. Having prayed and taken the one lying by the right hand, he said: “Tell me, young man, who struck you, show the culprit of the crime and free the innocent from such ungodly slander!” This word was followed by an extraordinary thing: the deceased sat down and, having examined those present, pointed out the murderer with his hand (see: Nikif. Book VIII, Chapter 42). Then a cry arose, everyone was amazed at the miracle and were amazed at the slander. Having undressed that villain, they found on him a knife stained with blood and gold, which was the guilt of the murder. Blessed Palladius, who had been the subject of surprise before, after this, in fairness, seemed even more worthy of surprise. This miracle alone sufficiently testifies to the boldness of this man before God. (From the book: Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus. History of God-lovers. pp. 92–93.) b) Exposing the murderer to the murdered. Novozybkovsky district, Chernigov province, village of Demenok, peasant Pavel Yankov, who was grazing cattle in the field with the boys, hit one of them, Andrei Penezhenok, for disobedience with his fist on the head so hard that the boy fell unconscious on the ground. Yankov was frightened by the consequences and, thinking by the magnitude of the crime to get rid of suspicion in him, grabbed a knife and cut the stunned boy's throat to the bone... The dead body was found the next day under a bush, near the road where the criminal had taken it. But since this place was located in the same field where cattle were grazed, Yankov was taken into custody on suspicion and subjected to investigation. However, he did not confess during interrogation; no evidence came to light. Meanwhile, after examination by a doctor, the parents of the murdered man began his burial. At the last farewell to the body, the suspect was brought to him. Having looked the dead man in the face, Yankov had just kissed him when blood poured out of the dead man’s mouth and nose. The horrified spectators took this for the discovery of a murderer from above. The heart of the criminal also trembled: he crossed himself, approached his landowner, fell at his feet and confessed to the crime. So the murdered man solemnly denounced the murderer! The event is truly wondrous and amazing: the dead man, by the will of the all-active Lord, silently but eloquently testifies to who killed him... Let us bow before the incomprehensible destinies of the One who spoke to the fratricide: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me” (Gen. 4:10). (From “Moskvityanin”, 1852) c) The cranes discover the murder. In Germany, robbers, having robbed a traveler, set out to kill him. The unfortunate man, who vainly begged them for mercy on his life, saw at the very moment of his death a flock of flying cranes and conjured them to witness this atrocity and reveal it. Having committed the murder, the villains went to a nearby inn to divide the loot. Soon after their arrival there, a flock of cranes landed on the roof of the house and made an extraordinary cry. Then one of the robbers said to the other jokingly: “These, it seems, are the very cranes who are entrusted with convicting us of murder: but they, rightly, will lose their labor; and I boldly bet that no one will understand their speeches.” However, according to the arrangement of God's providence, it so happened that the servant of the house heard these words; he immediately reported to the authorities, who immediately gave the order to seize all the robbers. The command was carried out; they found many expensive things; They began to interrogate them, and they stammered and gave confusing testimony. Meanwhile, the corpse of the murdered man was found, and one of his buckles was with him, and the other was found with the robbers. They could not defend themselves against this exposure, which is why they were condemned to the gallows. Before execution, they confessed to many more crimes and murders. (Extracted from the book “God’s Justice, Miraculously Revealing Secret Murders.” Moscow, 1829 edition.) d) The appearance of the shadow of the murdered woman twice reveals the murderer. In 1690, a certain William Barwick, who lived near the English city of York, drowned his wife in a pond and buried her body under a fence; He assured his neighbors that she had gone several miles away to visit her uncle. After a month, the husband of the deceased's sister, John Loftos, while building a fence, sees a woman walking with incredible haste, looking like Barwick's wife; but since he knew about her absence, he could not think that it was she. The next day, in the same place, he again saw the same image with a pale face, and then he was already convinced that it was really his wife’s sister. In fear, he ran home and told this incident to his wife, who advised him to report this to the parish priest, which he did. The priest ordered him to remain silent until he revealed the secret by taking certain measures. Meanwhile, he sent to the uncle of the deceased to inquire if she was there, and received the answer that she had not been with him for a long time. Barwick was captured, and when he found out how his crime was discovered, this extraordinary incident struck him so much that he confessed to his crime and, as a result, suffered a well-deserved punishment. (From there.) e) Inspiration reveals the killer. In England, someone was killed, and for four years they could not find the culprit of this crime. One day several people came to a tavern to have dinner, and one of them, seeing a merchant selling cattle here, cried out: “Here is the one who killed so-and-so!” - and called the dead man by name. The merchant turned pale and shook so much that he was forced to sit down. They surrounded him and began to ask whether this accusation was true. He fell to his knees and tearfully confessed his crime to everyone. This was reported to the authorities, and the killer, as a result of a court verdict, was hanged. When they asked the accuser on what he based his accusation, he replied that he suddenly felt some kind of involuntary impulse within himself, which he could not resist, despite the fact that he had reason to fear punishment if his accusation turned out to be false. (From there.) f) Manslaughter serves as a reason to punish the malicious killer. In 1611 it happened that when the servants of Glover, the English ambassador in Constantinople, were playing among themselves, one of them accidentally bruised one Janissary to death. The chief of the Janissaries complained to the vizier, who demanded that the ambassador punish the murderer. Glover imagined that the murder was unintentional and that he did not know which of his servants was to blame; however, everything was in vain, and he finally, fearing that there would be an indignation, promised to hand over the criminal, which is why he ordered all his people to gather to find him. Then five Janissaries rushed at one servant named Simon Dibins, and the others unanimously argued that this same man was the murderer, although Dibins was not even in the place where the Janissary was killed. The ambassador, confident of Dibins' innocence, persistently interceded for him and even gave a significant sum for his release; however, seeing that all his efforts were unsuccessful, he was forced to abandon him. On the day of his execution, Dibins admitted to a confidant sent to him by the ambassador that he had once committed a murder in England and retired to Candia; that in the misfortune that has now befallen him, he recognizes the hand of God, punishing his previous crime, and accepts the execution without a murmur. He was hanged on the gate of the ambassador, who, having learned about Dibins's villainy, was very pleased that, in God's wise providence, the malicious criminal was punished instead of the unintentional murderer, who was no longer sought. (From there.) g) The dress of the murdered person exposes the murderer. One woman, named Katerina Ge, was sentenced to be burned for the murder of her husband. The following incident exposed her in this crime: during the interrogation, in front of witnesses, the caftan of the murdered man was presented, which she gave to her neighbor; this dress seemed to her like a headless man, which is why she was so greatly amazed that she fainted; and, having come to her senses, she could no longer lock herself in the crime, although before that she had very boldly defended her innocence. The surprised spectators had to recognize this incident as an act of God's justice. (From there.) 6. Punished blasphemy. A) Recently, the gendarme police of the Zavidovo station of the Nikolaev railway, carrying out an inquiry into the cause of death of the peasant of the Tver province Ilya Andreev Lebedev, 18 years old, who died suddenly on August 2 at the Zavidovo station, discovered the following: when questioned about the cause of death of Ilya Lebedev, the brother of the deceased, Vasily Lebedev, explained that he, along with the deceased and other comrades, walked on July 23 to buy grub in the village of Zavidovo. Not far from the village, they noticed a wooden cross standing in a field, and when they approached it, all of them, with the exception of Ilya Lebedev, bared their heads and devoutly crossed themselves, which only Ilya did not do, who cursed them all and allowed them to utter blasphemous words. They barely managed to take a few steps when Ilya Lebedev suddenly felt severe pain in his legs. Somehow he and others reached the village, and then could barely get home to the railway barracks 502 versts from St. Petersburg. Here Ilya Lebedev continued to complain of pain in his legs and arms, so that he could hardly go to work. On the third day, the pain intensified so much that he could no longer go to work and lay without getting up for 4 days. On July 31, the road supervisor summoned a paramedic from Klin by telegram, but medical assistance did not give Lebedev the desired result. Seeing the serious illness that befell Ilya, and the complete powerlessness of medicine to help him, his brother, Vasily Lebedev, decided to go again to the sick in the village of Zavidovo and serve a prayer service at the cross he had blasphemously desecrated. The railway superintendent got a cart, and all three went on a pilgrimage, but they did not find the priest in the village, as a result of which they limited themselves only to their prayers. Having prayed, they decided to send the patient home, but as soon as they arrived at the Zavidovo station and, having removed Ilya Lebedev from the cart, transferred him to the platform, he immediately died. This case is fully confirmed by the testimony recorded in the official protocol of the inquiry into the death of Ilya Lebedev (Moskov. Leaflet, 1899, No. 216). b) The other day, the St. Petersburg detective police detained a repeat offender, Alexander Pavlov, who committed 16 daring thefts. When asked if it was he who stole a chasuble from one apartment, the detainee stated that he no longer steals chasubles after an incident that happened to him: having climbed into one apartment one day and being seduced by a valuable robe on a large icon placed in the corner of the hall, he put up a chair, opened the icon case and was just prying the robe with a chisel, when suddenly a strong ringing of a bell was heard throughout the apartment. He hurried to leave work and rushed to the door, but it turned out that there was no one in the apartment. Then he again tried several times to take the robe, but each time a terrible ringing sound began to be heard. Then timidity attacked him, and he left the apartment in horror, deciding never to steal robes from icons again. The detective police heard a similar story to this from another desperate thief. Having climbed into the locked apartment and gathered a lot of things into bundles, he began to remove the chasuble from the icon; at that moment the thief saw an officer walk past him into another room. This vision was so real that the thief was attacked by tetanus. There could be no one in the rooms, since both exits from the apartment were locked with hooks. The thief fled from the apartment in horror, leaving bundles of things behind. (“Moscow leaflet,” 1900, No. 147.) 8. The wondrous ways of God’s Providence in converting pagans to Christianity Under this title, in the March book of “Soulful Reading” for 1884, an article was published by a former member of the Altai spiritual mission, Archpriest M. N-va, in which he reports several very remarkable and edifying cases of conversion of Altai pagans to Christianity. Reading the description of these cases, one cannot help but be imbued with deep reverence for the diverse and wondrous ways in which the all-good Lord, “who does not want a person to die, but to turn... and live to be him,” draws him to salvation (Ezek. 33:11). We present the following stories from the mentioned article. 1. In the vicinity of Lake Teletskoye there lived a very famous kom, or shaman, named Cossack in that region. He was a very intelligent man by nature and respected by his people. He was invited more often than his other brothers in the profession to perform rituals throughout that country. The observant Cossack often heard, and even saw himself, that many of his Altai compatriots, even children, despite all the dangers, obstacles, threats and sometimes severe beatings from pagan relatives, still selflessly, uncontrollably strive for baptism, and having been baptized, they become good, hardworking, honest people and almost all live, compared with the unbaptized, in contentment and prosperity. Knowing all this, Kazak often asked himself questions: what does this mean? What kind of Christian faith is this? Isn't it, in fact, real, true faith? A thoughtful Kam reasoned in a similar way while riding one day on horseback through a deserted valley. And then, suddenly, an extraordinary light illuminated the entire surrounding area. In this light, Kam saw some kind of bright, fiery and seemingly six-winged creature, the sight of which struck the Cossack to the depths of his soul and spirit. Kam fell from his horse to the ground and, out of an uncontrollable, involuntary urge, began to loudly confess all the circumstances of his life from his earliest childhood: how he was left an orphan as a child, how he was taught to perform rituals, how over the years he entered deeper and deeper into this demonic business, and how, finally, the demonic power took such possession of him that he was no longer able to resist it. At this time, the Cossack hears that an unknown, wonderful creature that appeared in a fiery light says to him: “If you want to be happy on earth and be saved after death, then believe in Jesus Christ and be baptized; the Christian faith is the one true faith; say the same to your wife and all your relatives.” Then the same extraordinary creature told him all the most important foundations of the Christian faith, and, as Cossack later said, the words he heard burned like fire inside his heart. At the same time, the vast expanse of Altai was indicated to the inner, spiritual eyes of the Kama, indicating the places where Christian churches would be built. In conclusion, the mysterious fire-like creature said: “When they cut the hay, the great bishop will pass here to consecrate the waters of Lake Teletskoye and indicate the places where churches of the one God will be erected.” This ended the vision. The Cossack came to his senses and did not forget anything he had seen or heard: it was deeply embedded, as if burned into his heart and memory. He immediately went to the places indicated to him in the vision and marked them on the trees with rings of horsehair, and then drove home. There he told his wife about his vision, who accepted his story with complete trust and awe. After three days, and also on the way, the Cossack sees a new vision: in the opening sky the shining face of a priest appears to him, in a light robe, an omophorion, a shining cap (mitre) and with raised blessing hands. Returning home, Kam again reports what he saw to his wife and this time, having slaughtered the cattle for dinner, he calls all his relatives, friends and acquaintances to his place. Having treated the assembled guests, the Cossack, despite his title of kama, i.e. a representative of a somewhat pagan cult, addresses them with an exhortation to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to be baptized. There is no need to say how amazed and amazed the pagans who listened to this sermon were: some with anger, others with ridicule, left the yurt of their shaman. The Cossack, meanwhile, orders his family to change their clothes to Russian, the men to cut their braids and everyone to pray to the Christian God. The thought of being baptized haunts Cossack; his conviction in the truth of the Christian religion becomes stronger and clearer in him, and he is fully aware that it cannot be otherwise, that he must be baptized at all costs. A week after the described meeting of guests in Cossack’s yurt, he is visited by a new vision: he sees a wide road from the earth into the very depths of the sky, and its entire length is made up of the colors of the rainbow. Then for some reason the Cossack gets the idea to build a road in the same way. “I’ll work,” says Kam, “God Himself will make it rainbow-colored and bring it to heaven.” He immediately set to work, dug, turned out stones, worked for almost a month and a half and set up a road for quite a long distance. The pagans laugh at the Cossack and finally come to the conclusion that he is crazy, that there is a demon inside him that must be begged and given a price in order to come out. The usual ritual begins over him, for which caring relatives invited several well-known Kams and became so zealous that during the ritual they slaughtered all the cattle of the unfortunate Cossack, while he was not at all crazy and looked with regret at the actions of his relatives, which he could not resist, according to the Russian proverb: power breaks straw. He patiently waited for the hour, which, in his firm conviction, should come and put an end to his trials, opening the way and means to achieve his cherished goal - baptism. Finally, the Cossack hears that the bishop, whom he was told about in a vision, is really coming. Then he boldly announces to his family his indispensable intention to be baptized. But his relatives, recognizing him as crazy, seize him, tie him up and take him 300 miles away to a deserted and rarely visited place. Meanwhile, the Right Reverend - this was Bishop Parthenius of Tomsk 61 - travels around Altai, sanctifies the waters of Lake Teletskoye, rides past horse hair, with which Cossack outlined the places of future churches indicated to him in his vision. The event with the Cossack is conveyed to the archpastor; They send for the latter, but cannot find him anywhere: his relatives are vigilantly and tightly guarding him. But since news among nomads is carried with the speed of lightning, the Cossack also learned that the passing bishop was looking for him. The unfortunate man wept and sobbed bitterly and finally fell dangerously ill. But they still continued to guard him and consider him crazy. So two years passed from his first vision. One of the missionaries, traveling with an evangelical sermon in the vicinity of Lake Teletskoye, remembered that the shaman Cossack lived somewhere nearby; but since it was winter, it was difficult to get to the shaman’s yurt; on the way there was a high mountain and impassable abysses of snow, and at the sight of the missionary the Cossack would certainly have been hidden away. Finally, a person was found who agreed to give the Cossack the news. With him, the missionary sent Kazak a gift and a certificate of kalach, along with an invitation to come and be baptized himself, if he had not changed his previous intention. The messenger got to the Cossack and gave him everything - only the kalach ate, for this is a tempting delicacy for a Kalmyk who has never seen bread. The Cossack, having listened to the messenger, cleverly arranged everything so that, despite the strict supervision of him, he came to the missionary not only himself, but also brought his twelve-year-old son with him. The delighted missionary tells him: “Well, now the Lord is sending you an opportunity to fulfill your long-standing intention: after all, you wanted to be baptized.” “Eh, monk, monk,” answered the Cossack, “I really, really wanted to be baptized two years ago, and what great joy I had in my heart then, but now this joy is gone - the evil shaitan stole it from me.” “Believe,” said the hieromonk, “believe, you will receive this joy, and even greater! Our Lord is good, He is omnipotent: He also raises the dead; Shouldn't he resurrect your joy? Satan with all his hellish powers cannot resist the almighty power of the cross of Christ!” At these words, the Cossack suddenly falls into a frenzy: he rushes about, tears his clothes, moos, whistles, laughs furiously, rolls on the floor, spins, dousing himself with foam. The missionary, in horror, covers him with an icon, sprinkles St. with prayer. water and makes the sign of the cross. The Cossack calms down and becomes quiet. After some time, as if waking up from a heavy, painful sleep, he quickly gets up, boldly and decisively announces to the hieromonk: “Baptize me, baptize me; “By all means, I want to be baptized!” We entered the church. There, on the icon of the Savior, the Cossack recognized the blessing face that had once appeared to him; only, according to him, here it is in the wrong clothes, without a hat, and not both hands are blessing. Falling to his knees in front of the image of the Savior, the Cossack, turning to the missionary, exclaimed: “Pray, monk!” “Pray assiduously as you can,” answered the hieromonk. Both prayed diligently. The missionary took oil from the lamp that was glowing in front of the icons and anointed it in a cross shape on the forehead and chest of the sobbing shaman. "Monk! Monk! “- the Cossack suddenly exclaimed in some extraordinary delight, “my joy, my old joy is entering my heart again!” The Cossack was announced, left in the hieromonk’s apartment, taught prayers and soon baptized with the name Gregory. Following this, the boy, the son of the former kam, and now newly baptized Gregory, expressed a desire to be baptized. But as soon as he expressed his desire, he instantly had the same fit of rage that his father had before baptism. Prayer and the power of the honorable cross again healed this child, and he was catechized and enlightened by St. baptism. The girl, Gregory's niece, comes to visit her uncle. She is offered to be baptized, and she agrees. But as soon as the girl said her consent, she was seized by a demon: she cries, howls, scolds, then runs, begins to spin around the tree, finally falls in exhaustion and a few minutes later, having come to her senses, she says that some horseman, passing by, strictly ordered her to be baptized. The girl was baptized. A few days later Gregory’s brother appears, followed by more relatives, and they also receive St. baptism, so that in a very short time fifteen people from the relatives of the former shaman Kazak are baptized. 2. The hundred-and-ten-year-old Kalmyk Kochoev, with his hundred-and-five-year-old wife Azlya, ran away from relations with the missionaries and, fearing being converted to Christianity, deliberately migrated with his family from Ulala to the Kuznetsk district. But God’s mercy found them there too. The circumstances were so favorable for Kochoev that he involuntarily rushed from place to place and reluctantly had to settle again near the same Ulala from which he fled. There, all the younger members of his family were baptized, but he and his old wife still remained adamant, rejecting the beliefs of the missionaries and the requests of the children and grandchildren who had already been baptized. But then one day the elderly Kochoev saw his newly baptized grandson Konstantin reading the Gospel in a dream. The book shone with an extraordinary light. Some bishop (the old man had previously had the opportunity to see an Orthodox bishop in Ulal) in white shiny clothes, approached Kochoev and told him: “Be baptized, you will read better than him.” Kochoev allegedly agreed and was immediately baptized by the bishop, only without immersion in water, and the bishop put a round golden cross on him, like the sun shining, and gave him from the hands of his grandson a book, which Kochoev himself began to easily read, and the book shone with bright rays, and the old man’s heart felt so joyful and sweet as he could never have imagined. Waking up, Kochoev instantly resolved his many years of stubbornness: he and his wife were soon baptized in Ulala with special solemnity, with the general rejoicing of the entire Ulala baptized population gathered for the celebration (“Vologda Eparch. Vedom.”, 1884, Nos. 7–8). 9. Mysterious admonitions and appeals to the faith of non-believers 1. “My acquaintance with the retired staff doctor Danilov,” reports Fr. Archpriest N. Sokolov, - refers to the first years of my service in Kherson (1832–1834). Priest Pavlovsky, when drawing up the confessional list, demanded that the headquarters doctor Danilov not only be noted as not having attended confession and holy communion for an unknown reason, but be presented as rejecting the sacraments. I did not agree because I did not know him at all, and this was in the first year of my service at the Kherson Cathedral. It was not jealousy, but more curiosity that prompted me to get to know the renegade. It was pointed out to me at one christening. Here I talked with him about scientific subjects and found him very well read and well acquainted with the philosophy of the 18th century. I asked for his acquaintance; he did not refuse and warned me with a visit. Between talking about scientific subjects, I reminded him what consequences threaten someone who is marked as not fasting out of reluctance. “Are you worried about this? In vain. I have been pulled on the lips more than once. board - and did nothing,” he said. “According to the law, I only lose my right as a witness.” I told everyone and I say to you: what should I do when I have neither faith in Christ, nor hope of life beyond the grave, I don’t even find someone to pray to? I see only nature, and that is deaf, dumb and dead.” I responded to this with what I knew from the academic course. Noticing that he was unfamiliar with the history of philosophy, I introduced him to the history of philosophical systems. As far as I could, I developed before him a picture of changing misconceptions and views on nature, on the impossibility of knowing it. He drew attention to how Kant looked at the visible world as a phenomenon and how he recognized the invisible world as an eternally sought-after quantity, an insoluble X; I drew his attention to questions about space and time, presenting them as the ABCs of philosophy. Pyotr Fedorovich Danilov became attached to me, and I found pleasure in seeing his dear Yazykov nieces: ten-year-old Pasha and eight-year-old Dunya. My wife found a pleasant acquaintance with Danilov’s wife. Our houses were on the same street. Danilov, according to his stories, was from the spiritual class. In his last year at the medical academy, he became the leader of opponents of the authorities and before the end of the course he was exiled to Eastern Siberia to fight smallpox, which was killing the Aleuts. In Kamchatka he was hired as a doctor on a ship filled with scurvy. He came with them to Greece and cured everyone in a lemon grove. He was followed by ranks and awards. Married in Nikolaev; had good practice in Kherson. But during the construction of the house, the contractor who took the money and did not complete the work was flogged in the middle of the street. For this he was convicted and dismissed from the positions he held at that time. Danilov had no children; but his brother-in-law, intendant Yazykov, had up to 9 of them. Yazykov’s wife, Nadezhda Petrovna, loved to spend time in society and left her children with nannies. One of the daughters, a three-year-old girl, suffered from the English disease due to lack of proper care. Her belly was large and her legs were thin; She couldn’t walk and they threw her into the kitchen. Danilov arrives in Nikolaev. The next morning he goes to the kitchen to wash. There's a pretty girl crawling around with an English disease. He examined her and, recognizing that it was her niece, caressed her. When he began to wash himself, the girl crawled up to him and kissed his leg. He grabbed her in his arms and, calling for warm water, washed her. She looks: a girl with a beautiful face, a beautiful regular nose, big eyes, long eyelashes, white skin that glows right through, and jet-black hair. He couldn't resist kissing her. Taking her in his arms, he brought her to her parents and began to ask them to give him a sick child. They willingly gave what was worthless to them. Danilov brought her to Kherson and, sitting her on the sand heated by the heat of the sun, fed her with good broths and good milk and, washing her every day in a warm bath, soon brought the child to the point where her belly shrank, her legs became stronger, and she began to walk. It was Pashenka. So that she would not be bored growing up, Danilov also took in her younger sister, Dunechka, a snub-nosed but pretty girl. From drinking large quantities of hot toddies, Danilov developed severe water sickness. After several months of illness, it began to end. In agony, his chin sagged, he was unable to speak or move his limbs. In this death throes he fell asleep. After about 10 minutes the patient wakes up, begins to control all his limbs and speak. Turning to me, he said: “I saw the Lord, He delayed my outcome by revealing a medicine to me, and ordered the same medicine to be sent to Lawrence, who was suffering in the hospital of the prison castle. Give me the papers." A paper was presented, he wrote some kind of prescription and sent it to the pharmacy. “Merciful, He delayed my exodus,” continued Danilov, “I want to bring repentance in the church in front of all the people: let everyone know what a monster I am; I will ask everyone to pray for me.” When he was in his death throes, I walked from room to room, and when I looked into the nursery, Pashenka and Dunechka were on their knees and praying. Apparently, these angels begged the Lord to give the sinner time to repent. The patient even stood up and began to pray. The wife became emboldened and called the children. The children, seeing the dying man on his feet, also began to rejoice. When the powder was brought from the pharmacy, the patient poured it into eggnog (raw egg yolk diluted with rum) and drank it. Having prepared another glass of eggnog with powder, he sent it to prison. Lavrenty, who was sick, actually ended up there. The caretaker, with the doctor's permission, gave medicine to the prisoner Lavrenty the next day, and he soon recovered. With difficulty I could refuse the patient from public confession and with considerable difficulty I managed to persuade him so that it was not I, but old Bazilevich, who confessed and gave him communion. According to my preliminary note, Bazilevich with the Holy Mysteries was already in the hall. When the confessor began confession, the patient demanded that everyone in the house appear. We thought he wanted to ask everyone for forgiveness, but he began to cry out his sins with tears and sobs and said such unnatural abominations that I sent the children away and gave a sign from afar for everyone to leave. Bazilevich hastened to end the confession with permission on behalf of the Lord and began to say prayers for communion. The patient repeated the prayers after him, without getting up from his knees, received the Holy Mysteries reverently, threw himself on the bed and fell fast asleep. In the morning I found him weak but calm. He was sitting on the bed and reading a newspaper. I wanted to distract him from the newspaper to something else, more suitable for his condition, I wanted to talk about soul-saving subjects. But he asked to stop all talk about these subjects. «Я видел Господа, – говорил он, – и мне теперь ничего не нужно». I wanted to know in what form the Lord appeared to him and what he said to him. “Don’t ask,” the patient interrupted me each time, “it’s difficult for me to depict the vision, it’s difficult to express the feelings with which my spirit was then filled; but I saw the Lord and became convinced that He is infinitely merciful, especially towards me, a monster.” As he spoke these words, he was baptized several times. A few weeks later the patient suddenly became weak and died quietly. The rumor about the miraculous conversion of the notorious atheist spread throughout the city. There were a lot of people at the burial. Instead of a sermon, I only told what circumstances accompanied the conversion. In conclusion, he asked the people not to shun and not to condemn those who fall into unbelief, seeking truth through science; The Lord enlightens them when the soul departs from this world, and as the truth Himself, does not leave lovers of truth in the next world (“Volynsk. Eparch. Vedom.”, 1891, No. 27). 2. In the forties of our century, during the abbot of the Glinsk Nativity of the Theotokos cenobitic hermitage, Kursk diocese, Abbot Philaret, an elder of strictly ascetic life, who spiritually renewed this hermitage and planted high asceticism in it, the retired guards colonel Milonov lived in it. He lived simply as a novice and did not accept monasticism; he was, they say, secretly tonsured, but clearly remained in his former rank and was distinguished by a strictly ascetic life, he was a faster and a man of prayer, of which there are few 62. By his own admission, in his youth he was a completely unbelieving person and, while serving in the guards in St. Petersburg, he was distinguished among his comrades by his unbridled morals: everything sacred was nothing to him: he blasphemed the shrine, laughed at every expression of Christian piety, denied the very faith in God and the eternal future of man. According to the custom of young people of that time, he loved revelry and debauchery, and in vain his old mother tried to reason with him, asking him to settle down and become a Christian, not just in name. He did not listen to his mother, but she prayed for him earnestly, for she was a deeply religious and pious woman. And so, her prayer, truly, reached God: the wondrous Providence of God touched the obdurate heart of the daring Colonel Milonov, touched it when he did not expect this time and did not recognize the need for it. One day, after a drinking session with his comrades, Milonov returned to his apartment with a heavy head, lay down to rest, but before he had time to close his eyes, he heard a voice in his room from behind the stove: “Milonov! Take the gun and shoot yourself!” This amazed him greatly; he thought that someone was joking with him, looked around the room and found no one, so he decided that this was just a trick of the imagination, a consequence of the wine fumes of yesterday's drinking session. But the voice was again clearly heard in the same place, and this time it very urgently demanded that he take the pistol and shoot himself. Alarmed, he called his orderly, a soldier, and told him that he had heard another voice unknown to him from behind the stove, ordering him to take a pistol and shoot himself. The orderly, a believer, began to advise his master to cross himself and pray to God, saying that this was clearly a demonic obsession for him. Milonov, who had not been baptized or prayed for a long time, scolded his orderly for such a proposal and only laughed at his superstition. “There is neither God nor demon,” he snapped at the orderly and did not want to listen to him any further. But the orderly begged him to listen to his advice and, when he again heard a voice advising him to shoot himself, make the sign of the cross. “Then you will see, master, that both God and the demon exist: the voice will now stop, for, clearly, it is of demonic origin and wants to attract you to suicide in order to destroy your soul forever.” Having dismissed the orderly and calmed down somewhat, Milonov again heard the same voice from behind the stove and decided to cross himself. The voice instantly fell silent. This made a striking impression on him: he began to think, began to remember his former life; involuntary horror attacked him, and he decided to part with her forever and devote the remaining days of his life to repentance of his sins. Without any hesitation, he resigned, took off his shiny guards uniform, put on a simple sheepskin sheepskin coat and in it walked to Kyiv with the intention of going to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra for repentance. The Lavra authorities, seeing the guard colonel in a simple sheepskin coat, found it difficult to accept him among their brethren and forced Milonov to personally appear to the Kyiv Metropolitan with a request for this acceptance. The Metropolitan was very surprised to see the colonel in beggar's clothing standing before him; but when Milonov openly told him everything that had happened to him and his whole life, the Metropolitan advised him not to stay in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a noisy and urban monastery that would not satisfy his spiritual aspirations, but rather to go to the deserted Glinskaya monastery, to the elder abbot Philaret, and under his experienced leadership to strive there for the salvation of his soul. Milonov did just that, came to the Glinsk hermitage, revealed himself to Abbot Philaret, why and why he came; He was accepted among the brethren, but since his old mother was still alive, and he gave her his colonel’s pension, so as not to lose it and not leave his mother in need, he did not officially enter monasticism, but lived a strictly monastic life. He outlived Abbot Philaret and, under his successor, Abbot Eustratius, he blessedly rested in the Lord in the same Glinsk hermitage, leaving behind in all those who knew him the good memory of a true ascetic and faithful servant of Christ. Thus, the brilliant guards colonel moved into eternity as a humble monk, and one must hope that the colonel’s behavior was redeemed by the monk’s exploits, by the grace of God, who does not want “the death of the sinner” (Ezek. 33:11), but leads everyone to repentance.” (See: Mavritsky. Good journey.) 3. “In 186... in the summer, a young man of about 25 years old came to our village and settled in a clean house,” says one priest. “This gentleman, or, as the peasants called him, “master,” at first did not go out anywhere, then two weeks later I saw him in the church. His physiognomy was one of those that catches the eye from the very first time and arouses curiosity in anyone who just had time to look at it. Despite his young years, his face was wrinkled, wrinkles lay in whole folds here and there and involuntarily said that his youth had not passed without shocks and storms. He began to visit our church often, and not only on holidays, even on weekdays one could see him praying somewhere in the corner, with the faint flickering of a lamp. He always came early, left late, and each time with some special reverence he kissed the cross and took the antidor from me. The appearance of such a gentleman, who came from I don’t know where, I don’t know why and, as I heard, expected to stay with us forever, his unsociability and especially his piety - all this interested me, and I decided to get to know him in any way; but it was quite difficult to get to know him. Summer has passed, now winter is coming to an end... The life-giving rays of the February sun have already begun to disturb the icy crust of the earth. St. Pentecost; The church bell hummed sadly and rarely, calling sinful souls thirsting for cleansing to repentance, and somehow these blows resonated especially well in the soul of a true Christian. It’s already Friday of the first week, and I, significantly tired of confessing to the parishioners, return home and find out that a note has been sent to me from the master: “I ask you, an unfamiliar but respected priest, to come to my apartment this evening.” I was very interested in this short note, and I hurried to go to the unfamiliar gentleman. At my light knock, the door of the secluded house opened, and I met a gentleman with a smiling face on the threshold. “Come here, father, to this room, and I’ll come to you now,” he told me and went into the opposite room. The room I entered was small. The walls, covered with purple wallpaper, had darkened with age; the curtains drawn down over the windows and not letting any light into the room made this small closet seem somewhat gloomy. In front stood a carved Crucifix, and in front of it lay a prayer book laid out. On the table in front of the sofa lay the Gospel in Russian translation, several spiritual magazines, a huge artificial skull and some pieces of paper. I walked around the room for a while and sat down in a chair, waiting for the owner. “Hello, father,” he finally said, entering the room and approaching me for blessing. “Hello,” I answered, blessing him. - Please excuse me for disturbing you at such a time - now it’s already 11 o’clock and you, perhaps, wanted to go to bed soon... “For mercy... why such apologies,” I responded. “As a person, it will be very interesting for me to get to know you, because there is no one here with whom I can talk about anything serious; then, as a shepherd, I must, according to my duty, come to you, because perhaps you need me as a shepherd, as a spiritual doctor. – That’s right: I need you as a doctor... I need your teaching, your warm, sympathetic, instructive word. – I am very, very glad that I can serve you! I ask you to say everything that is in your soul; my job is to share all the needs of my flock, heal their wounds and bring them to the Heavenly Father... - Thank you, thank you, father... so let me ask you for your attention and patience to listen to the story of my short but bad life. When you recognize it, it will be better for you to prescribe one or another remedy for my healing. “My father,” he began, “was a small landowner; in Y... province, D... district, one village belonged to him. In this village, my father had a large house in which he constantly lived and in which I received my initial education. My father was almost always at home and, together with my mother, tried to instill in me the beginnings of all goodness and Christian piety. Both of them loved to tell me various sacred stories, and often, listening to these stories during the long winter evening, I fell asleep where I was sitting. And, my God, what sweet dreams I had then! Everything that I heard that evening was reflected in my dreams, and in my truly innocent imagination, as if in a fog, dear, sacred images from the stories of my parents flashed through. This is how I see it now - the Savior in a crown of thorns, stained with blood, is hanging on a tree, His eyes are full of love, and He asks God the Father to release the tormentors: “They don’t know what they are doing!” And the Mother of God - as I now see - stands at the cross, with a pale face, full of boundless love for her suffering Son - and how much torment and suffering is expressed in Her eyes! All these dreams filled my soul with inexplicable bliss, I experienced a lot of things that are sometimes inaccessible to another person, and some kind of unearthly smile appeared on my face, as my kind mother said. And how much joy they had when they admired me at my crib: “He talks with angels,” they said. My life flowed quietly and smoothly, and I was an exemplary child. I prayed, and my childhood prayer was sincere, fervent and warm - life was good then, and it is impossible now to remember this childhood life without a joyful sinking heart. But this blissful life did not always have to continue: I turned 10 years old, and I entered one of the secondary secular educational institutions. It was hard for me to get used to the new life; in the institution in which I entered, I no longer heard the warm, truly religious instruction that was given to me at every step at home. At first I was religious and prayed often. I prayed... but this prayer was often the reason for the ridicule of my stupid and bad comrades. All the pupils of this institution, without the supervision of God-fearing parents, were terrible blasphemers, and their caustic ridicule rained down on my head for my piety. Time passed, I had no support, and my desire for prayer gradually began to weaken and finally disappeared completely, first because I was afraid of my comrades, then it turned into a habit; I pestered my comrades, and prayer never came to my mind again. Our conversations and conversations were the most dirty, ungodly: mockery of the Holy Scriptures, of worship, of the zeal and religiosity of some priests and ordinary people - that was the constant subject of our conversations. At first I was jarred by all this, then time and society dulled me and this last manifestation of goodness was a remnant of home education. But still, no matter how vulgar I was in this environment, I had the consciousness that I was sinning before God by this, but I continued to do it together with my comrades... Sometimes - this happened very often - I felt the need to pray and even began to pray, it was rather mechanical work, not warmed by my heart, and I felt that something was missing in me... Time passed, I moved to the last grade, and then my fall finally took place, and the previous ridicule of the rituals and religiosity of people turned into complete ridicule of the entire divine religion. Time flew by, and I became a notorious unbelieving madman. The existence of God, the existence of the soul, the future afterlife - I considered all this a product of fantasy and laughed evilly at everything. The cross is an instrument of our salvation, I threw it off myself and looked at it with some contempt. When I stood in church, on the orders of the authorities, how I mocked, how I laughed at the performance of the divine service! When fasting days came, I deliberately tried to eat fast food in order to show complete contempt for church decrees. Holy icons and lives of saints were the main objects of my ridicule. In a word, at that time I was some kind of monster, not a person. But then the time came for me to leave the establishment, and then with all my strength I rushed into the abyss of destruction, and I carried away many pure and innocent souls with me... Yes, for these fallen souls I will have to give a terrible account to the Lord! I tempted them, and the Scripture says: “Woe to that man through whom temptation comes!” Surrounded by godless and depraved comrades and women who had lost shame and conscience, I spent whole nights drinking bottles of wine, and what never happened in these noisy demonic orgies!.. As time passed, I became even more corrupted and was finally mired in the abyss of vice. It seemed - what more: the man was completely dead, and no outside hand could pull me out of this whirlpool; but, to know, there is no sin that overcomes the mercy of God, to know, the Lord does not want “the death of the sinner, but to be converted... and I live to be him” (Ezek. 33:11); if man could not help me, then the omnipotent Lord, Whom I rejected, helped; a special action of His Providence turned me to the true path and called me to moral revival. One year my good parents died of cholera, and it was their warm prayer before the throne of the Most High that must have led to the correction of their lost son. Upon receiving the news of their death, I went to the village to their grave. It’s strange: no matter how I vulgarized, no matter how I laughed at all the holy feelings of a person, still this attachment to parents remained, and the cold, depraved mind yielded to the voice of the heart - the desire to visit the grave, and did not ridicule it. I attribute this to the special action of God’s Providence, because this trip to my homeland was the beginning or reason for my correction. Arriving in my native village, I asked the church watchman where the grave of such and such was, and, without thinking of crossing myself at the church, I went to the indicated place... Now the grave is already 10 steps away from me, now I see a fresh mound, but... suddenly it darkened in my eyes, my breath took away, my head began to spin, and I fell unconscious to the ground. I don’t know what happened to me here, only I regained consciousness in an apartment rented by my servant from a peasant. From his stories I learned that everyone around me thought that I had a stroke, because I was unconscious, with a purple face and foam at the mouth. The next day I got up completely healthy and, no matter how much I racked my brains, I could not explain to myself why I had such a fit. Then I again went to the grave at the same hours of the day, but what was my surprise when this time the same thing happened to me as yesterday! Thinking that I had suffered from an epileptic illness, which periodically returned at certain hours of the day, I stayed at home on the third day, and there was no attack. But when I went on the fourth day, as soon as I began to approach the grave, the previous attack repeated again. Getting up the next morning, I met my servant looking somehow frightened, afraid of me. Later I found out that he immediately decided that there was something evil in these attacks and that I must be too sinful if the Lord did not allow me to go to the grave of my parents. He was happier than me then: he had faith in Providence, faith in God, but I was a pitiful person and did not want to recognize the actions of the finger of God in all this. However, I was rather puzzled by these strange attacks, and I sent for the doctor. The doctor promised to arrive the next day, and while waiting for him, I fell asleep at about 12 at night. In the morning I woke up early and - my God - it’s terrible to remember: I could not move, my tongue did not obey, I lay completely relaxed, my body was all on fire, my lips were dry, I felt terrible thirst and completely lost heart. The doctor came, examined me and gave me medicine. The treatment has begun... At first the doctor prescribed me medicine without difficulty, but then sometimes he stood over my bed for a long time, biting his lips, and then one day, after six weeks of treatment, he wrote to me on paper: “When dealing with a man, I always openly talk about his illness, no matter how dangerous it may be: your illness is inexplicable, despite efforts to discover it; therefore, not foreseeing success from my labors, I leave you to wait until it opens by itself.” Imagine my horror when I was abandoned by human help, which I had only hoped for! Another has hope for higher help, but it has been rejected by my depraved mind. Time passed, my illness intensified even more, pimples appeared on my body, which turned into purulent wounds, from which a foul odor emanated; and I didn't know what to do. I didn't sleep for whole nights and couldn't find peace. And what terrible pictures were painted in my imagination then! So, as I remember now, one day I imagined: a gloomy, damp, stuffy dungeon... the stench does not let you breathe, there is darkness all around... moans, screams and some kind of wild growl are coming from everywhere... I felt scared, a chill ran through my skin, I shuddered and opened my eyes... The candle burned dimly... it was dark in the room, and I forcibly forgot myself. As soon as I began to fall asleep, I suddenly felt another hand in my hand. I shuddered, opened my eyes and - my God - what did I see? My mother stood in front of me. I could not imagine how and how she found herself in front of me. But she died, I thought, how can she exist? Meanwhile, my heart beat at the sight of my dear mother. She was all in white and only in one place was there a black spot; her face was gloomy, and she was all in some kind of twilight. “I am your mother,” she began, “your iniquities and your dissolute life, full of unbelief and atheism, reached the Lord, and He wanted to destroy you, wipe you off the face of the earth. You not only destroyed yourself, but even stained us, and this black spot on my clothes is your grave sins. The Lord, I say, wanted to strike you, but your father and I prayed before the throne of the Most High for you, and He wanted to turn you to Himself not with mercy, because you could not understand this, but with severity. He knew that our only grave was dear to you here, and therefore he did not allow you to go to it, striking you with a supernatural illness, so that you would recognize a higher power over yourself, which you rejected, but you did not turn! Then the Lord sent me to you - this is the last resort for your correction. You did not recognize God, the future life, the immortality of the soul, here is proof of the afterlife: I died, but I appeared and speak to you. Believe in the God you deny. Remember your mother, who, without sparing her life, tried to make you a true Christian.” With these words, her face darkened even more, muffled grave sobs rang out in the room and shook my soul. “Once again I conjure you,” the mother continued, “turn to God. You do not believe and, perhaps, you think to explain my phenomenon by a disorder of your imagination, but know that your explanations are false, and I stand before you with my spiritual being. And, as proof of this, here is the cross you rejected - accept it, otherwise you will perish. Believe - and your illness will be healed miraculously. Destruction and eternal hell are yours if you reject me!” That's what the mother said and disappeared. I came to my senses and saw a small cross in my hand; the whole room smelled of something inexpressibly good. The supernatural appearance of my mother, her requests and curses shook my soul to the deepest depths; It seems that such a revolution has never happened to me, my conscience rose with all its strength, my old convictions collapsed - and in a minute, it seems, I was completely reborn. What a sweet, incomprehensible feeling appeared in my chest, and I wanted to thank God for His mercy, for His gracious treatment of me, but then I heard that someone was coming towards me... I listened, and a footman entered my room, holding a tea cup with water. “Try me, father, maybe it will be easier; “This is holy water from the life-giving cross,” said my lackey, handing me a cup. I gladly accepted his offer and, encouraged by him, drank some water. God! I cannot remember this wonderful moment without tears: I immediately felt healthy, my limbs began to obey, my tongue began to speak freely, only spots remained where the scabs had been, and this confirmed my mother’s words. I got up and my first thing was to pray in front of the image that the footman brought, I didn’t have my own, because I considered it superstition! After that, I went to church and prayed there... And how much sincerity there was in this unfeigned prayer, when the soul could freely express itself before the Lord after long-term slavery in the shackles of sin and serving Satan! Immediately I went to my dear grave... I kissed it, cried, and these tears washed my former life and were the repentance of the prodigal son. The day of my healing - both spiritual and physical - was the 15th of July, and I always celebrate it as the day of my deliverance. After staying there for a few more days, I decided to leave from there to here, because one friend of my violent life had joined the judicial investigators, and I did not want to see him. I won’t go into the world, because I’m disgusted with it. I want to work hard here, to make amends for my old life. Tomorrow you will have communicants, and you, perhaps, will allow me, after confession, to partake of the Holy, terrible and life-giving Mysteries of Christ, because I have not been worthy of this for ten years - you will advise me what I should do to make amends for my previous life.” I talked to this gentleman for a long, long time, I gave him a lot of advice and finally went home. Glory to Thee, merciful God, who showed the light to this man, I thought, walking along the road and heartily rejoicing at the conversion of a sinful soul to the path of truth. (From No. 24 “Lower Ep. Ved.,” 1865, sn. “Soul. Read,” 1866) 5. “Returning to Moscow from Nizhny Novgorod by rail, I,” says Count M. Tolstoy, “saw a monk in the corner of the Vladimir station, carefully reading a book, apparently a prayer book. The appearance of the old man seemed remarkable to me: his gray hair and snow-white beard seemed to contradict the deep, very animated youthful gaze of his large black eyes. When he finished reading and closed the book, I sat down next to him and from the conversation I learned that he was Hieromonk G., the builder of a cenobitic hermitage, going to St. Petersburg on business for his monastery, that he had been a monk for more than 30 years, and in his former worldly life he had been an officer in the Life Guards... regiment. “How did it happen,” I asked him, “that you, from the guard of officers, decided to become a monk?” Is it true that something extraordinary happened in our lives? “I would be willing to give it to you,” answered Fr. G., is a story about my life, or, better to say, about the mercy of God that visited me a sinner, but my story is long. Soon the bell will ring and we will have to part. We are in different carriages. I moved into the carriage with my interlocutor. Fortunately, there was no one there except us, and he told me the following. “It’s sad and embarrassing for me to remember the past,” Fr. began. G., - I was born into a noble and wealthy family; My father was a general, and my mother was a princess. I was seven years old when my father died from a wound received in the Battle of Leipzig; mother died even earlier. As an orphan, I was brought up by my grandmother, the princess. There they found me a French mentor who had fled to Russia from the death penalty. This self-proclaimed teacher did not have the slightest idea about God, the immortality of the soul, or the moral duties of man. What could I learn from such a mentor? Speak French with a Parisian pronunciation, dance skillfully, behave well in society, everything else - it’s scary to even think about now!.. Grandmother, an old lady of the highest circle, and other relatives admired the clever boy, and none of them suspected how much vile debauchery and all sorts of premature abomination was hidden under the beautiful outer shell. When I was 18 years old, I was already a cadet in the guards regiment and a landowner of 2000 souls under the guardianship of my uncle, who was a master of wasting money and taught me this simple art. Soon I became a cornet in the same regiment. Two years later I was engaged to Princess..., one of the first beauties of that time. The day appointed for the wedding was approaching. But God’s Providence was preparing a different fate for me; it is clear that the Lord took pity on my poor soul! A few days before the proposed marriage, on September 15, I was returning home from palace guard duty. It was a beautiful day; I let go of my trotter and walked along Nevsky Prospekt. I was bored, some inexplicable melancholy oppressed my chest, some gloomy foreboding weighed on my soul... Passing by the Kazan Cathedral, I went there: for the first time in my life I wanted to pray in church! I don’t know how it happened, but I prayed earnestly in front of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, I prayed for the removal of some unknown danger, for marital happiness. When leaving the cathedral, a woman in rags, with a baby in her arms, stopped me and asked for alms. Until then, I had been merciless towards the poor, but this time I felt sorry for the poor woman, I gave her money and said: “Pray for me!” Walking further, I began to feel ill, I was thrown into a fever, then into chills, my thoughts were clouded. As soon as I reached the apartment, I fell unconscious, to the horror of my faithful Stepan, who had been with me since childhood and often (but, alas! - unsuccessfully) warned me against many bad actions. I don’t remember what happened after that, I just imagine, as if in a dream, that doctors and some other people were crowding around me, that I had a terrible headache, and everything seemed to be spinning around me. Finally, I completely lost my senses. The unconsciousness continued (as I found out later) for twelve days, and it was as if I woke up. I am aware of myself in full memory, but I do not have the strength to open my eyes and look, I cannot open my mouth and emit any sound, I cannot detect the slightest sign of life, I cannot move a single member. I listen and a quiet voice is heard above me. “The Lord shepherds me and deprives me of nothing. In a green place, there they settled me, on the calm water they raised me. Convert my soul, guide me on the paths of righteousness for Your name. Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 22). And from the corner of the room I hear a conversation between two of my colleagues; I recognized them by their voice. “It’s a pity for poor V..,” says one, “it’s too early for him... What a fortune, connections, a beautiful bride.” “Well, there’s nothing to be sorry about the bride,” answered the other. “I’m sure she married him out of convenience.” And B... it’s really a pity, now there’s no one to borrow from, but you could always borrow from him as much as you need and for a long time... - For a long time! Others didn’t give at all. By the way, his horses will probably be sold cheaply; it would be nice to buy a parader (the best riding horse). - What is this? - I thought, - have I really died? Does my soul really hear what is being done and said next to me, next to my dead body? Does this mean there is a soul in me, separate from the body, an immortal soul? (Poor sinner! This was the first time I came across this thought.) No, it’s impossible for me to die. I feel like it’s hard for me to lie down, I feel like my uniform is squeezing my chest - that means I’m alive! I’ll lie down, rest, gather my strength, open my eyes, and everyone will be scared and surprised! Several hours passed (I could tell the time by the chiming of the wall clock hanging in the next room). The reading of the psalter continued. Many relatives and friends gathered for the evening funeral service. First of all, my bride arrived, with her father, the old prince. “You need to look sad, try to cry if you can,” the father said. “Don’t worry, dad,” the daughter answered, “I think I can control myself, but, excuse me, I can’t force myself to cry. You know, I didn’t love V., I agreed to marry him only at your request; I sacrificed myself for the family...” “I know, I know, my friend,” the old man continued, “but what will they say if they see you indifferent?” This loss is a great grief for us: your marriage would improve our affairs. Now where can you find such a profitable deal? Of course, this conversation took place in French, so that the psalm-reader and servants could not understand. I alone heard and understood... After the funeral service, my ex-fiancée came to say goodbye to me. She pressed her lips tightly to my cold hand and for a long, long time it was as if she could not tear herself away. She was taken away by force, persuading her not to kill herself with grief. Around me I heard the words: “How touching, how she loved him!” O worldly connections, how frail and deceptive you are! Here is the friendship of comrades, here is the love of the bride! And I, a pathetic madman, loved her passionately and believed my happiness in her alone!.. When everyone left after the funeral service, I heard the cry of the kind old man Stepan above me; his tears dripped onto my face. “For whom have you abandoned us, my darling,” the old man lamented, “what will happen to us now!” I begged you - take care of yourself, master! And you didn’t want to listen. Your friends ruined you with wine and all sorts of debauchery. And now they don’t even care about you; only we, your servants, are crying over you!” Together with Stepan, my peasants who lived in St. Petersburg on passports also cried. They loved me sincerely because I did not oppress them and did not increase their rent. In all honesty, I admit that I did this solely out of carelessness: I had plenty of money not only for my needs, but also for all the outrages that came into my head. So, this is where I found traces of sincere love: in the hearts of ordinary people, slaves! It was a long, endless night. I began to listen attentively to the reading of the Psalter, which was completely unfamiliar to me; Never before have I opened this divine, sweet book. “To You, O Lord, I will cry, O my God, that you may not be silent from me... and I will become like those who go down into the pit. Hear, O Lord, the voice of my prayer; we always pray to You, always lift up my hands to Your holy church. Do not attract me with sinners, and do not destroy me with those who do injustice... The Lord is my helper and my protector, in Him my heart trusts and will help me, and my flesh will prosper: and I will confess my will to Him” (Ps. 27: 1-3, 7). “Lord, do not reprove me with Your wrath; do not punish me with Your wrath. As Thy arrows have struck me, and Thou hast strengthened Thy hand upon me. There is no healing in my flesh from the face of Your wrath, there is no peace in my bones from the face of my sin... Lord, all my desire is before You, and my sighing is not hidden from You. My heart is troubled, my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes, and she will not be with me” (Ps. 37:1–4,10–11). The psalm words were deeply etched in my heart, I repeated them mentally and fervently, fervently prayed. My entire past life was spread out before me, like a canvas covered with various impurities. Something unknown, holy, pure attracted me to itself; I made a vow of correction and repentance, a vow to devote my life to serving a merciful God, if only He would have mercy on me. What if I am not destined to return to life? What if this living death does not stop, if I - the living dead - are buried alive in the ground? I cannot now express everything that I felt on that terrible night, unforgettable for me. Let me just tell you, the next day Stepan noticed on my head, between my youthful blond curls, a whole tuft of gray hair. Even after, when my imagination imagined in my dreams this night spent in the coffin, I jumped up like a madman, with tearing screams, covered in cold sweat. Morning came, and the mental suffering intensified even more. I was destined to hear my death sentence. Next to me they said: “Tonight the removal, tomorrow the funeral in the Nevsky Lavra!” During the morning funeral service, someone noticed drops of sweat on my face and pointed it out to the doctor. “No,” said the doctor, “it’s cold evaporation from room heat.” He took my pulse and said: “There is no pulse, there is no doubt that he is dead!” It’s an unspeakable torture to be considered dead, to wait for the moment when they nail down the lid of the coffin in which I lie, when the earth falls on it, and not have the strength to show my life either with a look, or a sound, or a movement! Meanwhile, I felt that my strength was even weaker than yesterday... There is no hope! A terrible despair took possession of me, the blood was pumping into my head, it seemed to me that my insides were shrinking and shuddering, streams of anger and curses were bursting out of my heart... But, apparently, my guardian angel kept me safe: some inner feeling prompted me to pray from the sacred words that I heard while lying in the coffin. “My God, have mercy on me, have mercy on me, I am perishing... I am filthy, unclean, my sins are great and countless, but Your mercy is immeasurable. “Have mercy on me, Lord..., for my bones are crushed!” (Ps.6:3) Give me time to clear my conscience, to make amends for my previous life! I am yours - save me! So I cried from the depths of my soul, overwhelmed by dying anguish. Several more painful, joyless hours passed - and I no longer prayed for a return to life: I asked myself for a quiet death as deliverance from the terrible torment that lay ahead of me. Little by little my soul calmed down in strong prayer: the horrors of slow death in the grave seemed to me a well-deserved execution. I completely surrendered myself to the will of God and wanted only one thing - the remission of my sins. I was in such feelings at the evening funeral service, when the singers sang above me: “I am the image of Your ineffable glory, even though I bear the wounds of sins; be generous to Your creation, Master, and cleanse with Your compassion, and grant me the longed-for fatherland, making me a paradise dweller again.” The funeral service ended, and some people lifted me up along with the coffin. At the same time, they somehow shook me, and suddenly a sigh escaped unconsciously from my chest. One of them said to the other: “The dead man seemed to sigh?” “No,” he answered, “it seemed so to you.” But my chest freed itself from the spasms that were constricting it - I moaned loudly. Everyone rushed to me, the doctor quickly unbuttoned his uniform, put his hand on my heart and said in surprise: “The heart is beating, he is breathing, he is alive! Amazing case! They quickly carried me into the bedroom, undressed me, put me in bed, and began to rub me with some kind of alcohol. I soon opened my eyes, and my first glance fell on the icon of the Savior, the same icon that (as I learned later) lay on the lectern at the head of my coffin. Streams of tears flowed from my eyes and lightened my heart. Stepan stood at the foot of the bed and cried with joy. The doctor sat next to me and tried to persuade me to remain calm. He didn't understand my situation. I didn’t need the doctor’s help at all; my youthful strength was restored quickly. However, I am grateful to him that, at my request, he forbade allowing strangers to see me, so as not to disturb the patient. I spent several days in complete solitude, without seeing a single stranger’s face: the divine songs of David were my joy and food for my soul; from them I learned to know God, love Him and serve Him. Many acquaintances pushed at my door out of curiosity to see a living dead man. My betrothed father-in-law stopped by every day. He apparently tried not to miss a profitable game. But I didn't accept anyone. My first task upon recovery was to prepare for the Holy Sacrament of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. An experienced priest in spiritual life, Fr. M was my confessor. He strengthened my resolve to renounce the world and all worldly attachments. But it was not soon that I could get rid of everyday affairs. First of all, I hastened to refuse the honor of being the son-in-law of a noble prince and the husband of a beautiful princess. Then he retired, released my peasants as free cultivators, sold all his movable property and put the money to good use; transferred other estates to the legal heirs. A whole year passed in such worries. Finally, free from earthly cares, I could seek a quiet refuge and chose the good part for myself. I visited several monasteries and settled in the desert where I am now living out my life. I released my faithful Stepan and offered him a monetary reward sufficient to provide for his old age, but he did not accept the money and with tears asked not to send him away. He wanted to die in my presence, spent the rest of his life in our monastery and died without taking monastic vows. “How can I, an unworthy sinner, be a monk! - he said. “It’s enough for me that I was honored to live with the servants of God.” Venerable Fr. G. concluded his story with the following words: “In me you see a wondrous experience of God’s mercy. In order to snatch my soul from the dark sleep of sin, the Good Lover of Mankind allowed me to pass through the vale of the canopy of death and enlightened my eyes on the grave bed, so that I would not sleep into eternal death!” (From the book: Gr. Dyachenko, Archpriest Good Word, g. 3.) 6. The Moskovskie Vedomosti published an article by Mr. Sergei Nilus, under a somewhat strange title: “On how an Orthodox man was converted to the Orthodox faith.” The article contains the confession of a secular intellectual, how he came from unbelief and various misconceptions to the light of truth. Very vividly and, as they say, warmly written, signed with his full name, dedicated to a famous person (V. M. Vasnetsov), it has signs of not some kind of fictional story, but was real and, in any case, truthfully and well depicts the mental and moral state of the majority of modern intellectuals, showing them the way out of this pitiful and disastrous situation. “I was born in 1862,” writes Mr. Nilus, “in a family that, on my mother’s side, considered many progressive people in its midst, in the spirit with which the sixties were generally distinguished. Born noble landowners, and large ones at that, they, thanks to this connection with the land and the peasant, avoided the extreme manifestations and hobbies of the seventies, but they could not avoid the general, so to speak, platonic-revolutionary spirit, so great was the charm of ideas, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom... and, perhaps, freedom and action. Of course, the solid food of politically colored conversations contributed little to the development in me of religious, as they said then, dreams, and I grew up in complete alienation from the Church, connecting it, in my childhood imagination, only with my old nanny, whom I loved madly, and with the majestic ringing of the Moscow “forty forties”, when, especially with the first frame exposed, in the soft, cheerful spring air it poured in wide, a mighty wave into cramped city rooms refreshed after a long winter and beckoned with it to the open spaces of villages, fields, noisy streams among the green grass - in a word, to the world of God from the stone walls of modern urban lies and conventions. I didn’t know the prayers, I went to church by chance, I learned the law of God from teachers who were indifferent, and even downright hostile to the word of God, as an inevitability of the inexorable curriculum of the gymnasium, and throughout the gymnasium course I studied it poorly. After all, it was not the main subject either. So I, an Orthodox youth, walked in the knowledge of God to the university, where, of course, there was no time for such a “trifle” as Orthodoxy. But under all the spiritual abomination accumulated over the years of freedom of religious education in the life of home, school and, finally, public life - the silent but loving lessons of Moscow, the village and the nanny, the Christian, to a certain extent approaching true Christianity, the endless kindness of my mother, who constantly did good things for her neighbor with the modesty characteristic only of Christians - all this did not allow the spark in my soul to go out, though barely flickering in my spiritual darkness, a spark of vaguely conscious love for God and His Orthodoxy. I deliberately emphasize the word Orthodoxy, because, in rare moments of prayerful upsurge, my soul strove only for it. Neither the majesty of Catholic worship with the spiritual power of famous organs, the beauty of the voices of opera singers, with all the theatricality of the atmosphere of a cardinal's service, not to mention the pitiful allusions to worship in Protestant churches - nothing attracted my prayerful attention. I was then drawn to the poor rural church of our black earth outback, with its no-brainer, simple “father-farmer”, with the same, if not more simple, “sexman-owner”. It seemed to me somehow involuntarily, precisely against the will of a mind always prone to pride, that sometimes in their “weakness” the power of God was invisibly perfected. But rarely did I have these vaguely joyful moments, rather moments of spiritual communication, conversations with the Eternally Existing One, until a wondrous thing happened... When I was still in the fourth grade of the Moscow 1st pro-gymnasium (now the 7th gymnasium), before the onset of final exams (at that time there was no fifth grade yet and we were considered “graduates”, which we were quite proud of), in anxiety for the success of their completion, I made a vow, in the presence of a friend with whom I was especially friendly then, to go, as I then put it, to “Trinity-Sergius”. Of course, I set success in the exams as a condition for fulfilling this promise. The exams went almost brilliantly, others passed, and still others, and finally the gymnasium was completed, and the university was passed, but not only did I never think about the vow, but, it seems, I would laugh in the face of anyone who reminded me of it. So a lot of time passed. It’s scary to say how it went, or better yet, how it was carried out! Of course, it’s scary for a Christian. Life was, in a word, fun! If a story had not happened to me here, which marked a deep, indelible furrow in my hardened soul for the rest of my life and forced me to preserve the “person” in myself, I, of course, would have perished irrevocably. At the end of the course at Moscow University, I was abandoned - voluntarily, it’s true, but abandoned nonetheless - as a candidate for judicial positions under the prosecutor of the Erivan District Court, in the town of Bang Norashen, Sharuro-Dara-Lagez district. Once, for some urgent seizure or search, I had to rush almost at a march. The road, or something like a road, ran along the rocky shore of Arpachaya, completely strewn with sharp stones of all shapes and sizes. A whole convoy galloped behind me: a translator, two Cossacks, two or three chaparas (zemstvo guards - they are also the protectors of robbers) and a village elder. Did I want to look younger, or was it just the way it was, I just hit my horse with my whip, whooped and, bending down, rushed off with such speed that I immediately threw my team back several dozen fathoms. And then something unimaginable happened... I only remember, and even then vaguely, that I flew up somewhere, I remember - either horse legs above my head, or something shapeless, but terrible; dust... again as if I was flying somewhere into an abyss... When I came to my senses, I looked around - I couldn’t figure out anything. It turned out that during all the mad galloping, my horse stumbled and turned over its head. I did the same, flying over my head and under the horse. The Cossacks later said that only a miracle could save me. Be that as it may, after all this puzzle my right hand ached for two or three days, and that would have been the end of it if... I didn’t immediately remember the unfulfilled vow. Why a long-forgotten childhood vow came to my mind - I’ll leave it to people who study the human soul from the point of view of modern science to guess. There will be, of course, hunters who will say: a concussion from a fall - and a person from normal has become abnormal, but there will also be those who have it and who will think about it. Years passed again, and again, as if to prove my “normality,” which had not changed in the least from the fall, I still did not fulfill what I had promised to the saint of God, but my heart was no longer as calm as before. More and more often, as if like fiery letters suddenly lighting up in the darkness of my soul, the terrible word “oathbreaker” began to emerge. I left the service a long time ago and settled down to manage the village. During one of the Holy Weeks, I, who had not fasted for seven years or more, not without a feeling of false shame in front of my “intellectuality”, more, perhaps, out of condescension towards the “prejudices” of the smaller brethren, who honored me with election to the church elders of our rural church, said what is called - through a stump into the log, took communion, not without some, however, strange for me at that time, incomprehensible, secret awe, which for a long, long time I did not want to admit to myself, and after communion I felt as if renewed, somehow more cheerful; the soul experienced something long familiar, dear; Moreover, something so inexplicable - sweet and at the same time solemn... It seems to me that this is how a falcon, exhausted in long-term captivity, first lazily, reluctantly, spreads its heavy wings. One hesitant swing, another, a third... and suddenly! The wondrous joy of a half-forgotten free flight both into the depths and breadth of the azure skies, in the endless wave of the ethereal sea! Then I was granted only the first, uncertain flap of my spiritual wings. But the secret, unknown power, once given to the wing, could no longer remain inert. Something was ripening in my soul: a thirst for prayer began to visit more often, vaguely conscious, even sometimes forcibly drowned out by everyday worries, my own distrust of my spiritual mood, partly even some kind of dull malice, from somewhere, as if from outside, creeping into my restless soul. But the unfulfilled vow rose up before me more and more persistently, sorrowful, indignant. I will never forget that sacred awe, that spiritual thirst with which I drove up from Moscow on the Yaroslavl Railway train to the spiritual stronghold of the throne and homeland. The entire long-suffering, humble history of the Russian land, it seemed, was unfolding its yellowed, days-worn pages with an invisible hand. A simple monk led me through the shrines of the monastery, the first one I met at the gates of the monastery, reverent, quiet and humble; He also led me to the shrine, where the incorruptible relics of St. Sergius rest. There were quite a lot of people praying. Another hieromonk served a common prayer service for everyone. I knelt down and for the first time in my life surrendered to the wonderful feeling of prayer without the philosophies of the evil one. I asked the monk to forgive my spiritual weakness, my unbelief, my apostasy. Involuntary, blessed tears began to boil in my soul; I felt as if I was going somewhere out of myself, but... suddenly, raising my head and looking towards the saint’s shrine, I saw on the wall, behind the glass guarding his schema, under the schema the face of an old man with a stern, angry look menacingly fixed on me. Not believing my eyes, I took them to the side, continuing to pray even more fervently, but as if some invisible force again forced me to look at the same place - and again, but more clearly and as if even more sternly, the stern eyes of the schema-monk flashed at me. Horror seized me, but I stood in front of this stern face, no longer taking my eyes off it and never ceasing to pray even more intensely, and I saw - I claim that I did not hallucinate, but saw, I actually saw - how the stern gaze gradually softened, how the face of the wondrous old man became more benign, how everything became lighter and more joyful for my shocked soul, and how gradually under the schema the wonderful image became foggy, disappeared and finally disappeared... When the prayer service ended, everyone went to venerate the relics of the miracle worker; I went too, already calm and joyful and somehow light in a special way. I have never experienced such lightness, purely physical, before. It was as if a heavy, long-standing oppression that had been pressing on my shoulders for a long, long time was lifted from me by an omnipotent, powerful hand. With special reverence I kissed the holy relics, kissed the glass that protected the schema... These few hours spent in the shelter of the holy monastery, this vow of the days of green youth, finally fulfilled, this wondrous prayerful mood, sent down from above, through the prayer, I believe, of the monk, the miraculous vision given to me - made such a turning point in my spiritual life that this turning point in itself is nothing less than a miracle that clearly happened to me. I believed. Yes, I believed and, God knows, the feeling with which I returned from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was filled with such unearthly warmth, such complete spiritual humility, such love for God, such submission to His holy will, so in those minutes I knew Christ, my Redeemer. It seemed that my earthly soul had become a celestial being. The sweetness is indescribable! I longed for achievement. But the Lord judged differently. And, my God! How pitiful and how unworthy this other thing was! And how quickly it happened! How different, how alien and downright hostile it was to the great feeling carried away from the Lavra! Having ascended to heaven, I was directly cast down to hell. How did this happen? There can only be one answer to this: I was given into the hands of the evil one. The demon took possession of my soul by God's permission. I came to St. Petersburg full of the same wonderful mood. But within a few days I was already in the hands of the evil one. In an unfamiliar city, I found an unfamiliar, but intimate company of people no less idle than I was at that time... And what happened here! In my entire life I have never seen or indulged in such gloomy revelry, gloomy indeed, because even in the midst of uncontrollable orgies, in rare moments when I was alone with myself, I literally bathed in my own tears. I saw the abyss opened under my feet, I saw the ominous darkness of its bottomless mouth and did not lose consciousness for a second that, obeying some formidable, ominous force, I was flying headlong in an uncontrollable flight to where there is no return. I have never experienced such horror of moral death that gripped my soul in my entire life. Fortunately, the temptation did not last long. Less than a week passed, I again received the gift of prayer, and with it the feeling of faith and Christian happiness of communion with the Lord returned to me, although far from the previous degree experienced in the Lavra. My mental state was exactly like after a serious, fatal illness: the illness passed, but weakness remained, oppressive, depressing. I was no longer the same person, but I didn’t become a new person either. The world and its pleasures lost meaning for me - I somehow fell behind people, but the emptiness they left in my soul could not be filled. This state lasted for about a year. Again, circumstances against my will pulled me to St. Petersburg. It was February days, and February that year was fierce, with snowstorms. The second or third week of Lent has arrived. A few days before my departure, I felt some strange dryness in my throat that I had never experienced before. I remember that on the evening of departure I complained about this to my fellow doctor. He looked at my throat, said that there was nothing in my throat, and with a light heart I went to St. Petersburg. After the second bell, the priest entered the compartment and took his place. I involuntarily bowed to the man who came in - such a glorious impression was made on me by his open, youthful and sweet face. The priest turned out to be the monk-treasurer of one of the monasteries in central Russia. He told me something from his past. For the last five years of Father Ambrose Optinsky’s life, he was his cell attendant. Incessant stories poured out about the life of this wondrous light of Russian Orthodoxy. Near St. Petersburg, when my whole soul seemed to dissolve before my dear interlocutor, I expressed a desire to go to Kronstadt, but at the same time I expressed doubts about the possibility of seeing the great Kronstadt shepherd. “I beg you, my dear, go to Father John, stay in his House of Diligence, tell the psalm-reader of the priest, under whose charge this house is located, that Father Ambrose from the Lyutikovsky Monastery sent you to him. He knows me and will probably be useful to you. Go, go, don’t hesitate!” Then our train approached the platform of the St. Petersburg station, and we hugged and said goodbye almost in tears. May our meeting be blessed! The day of my arrival in St. Petersburg, Friday, was also the minister’s reception day. From twelve o'clock in the afternoon to the hour of reception, that is, until four o'clock, I had just enough time to find a room, wash myself, put myself in proper order and be ready to go on business. To my great horror, the closer the appointment time approached, the worse and worse my voice became. The hoarseness, only partially noticeable when talking with Father Ambrose, became more and more indecent: my voice was falling with every minute. A slight chill began to run treacherously down my back, my head began to feel lightheaded—I felt unwell, steadily intensifying. By four o'clock I was already feeling so bad that with great difficulty, overcoming everything, I got into a cab and went to the ministry. I returned home completely ill, with amazing chills and a headache that seemed to split my head in two. According to the most ordinary human logic, I should have gone to bed in such a state and sent for a doctor, which I probably would have done, but some force above the disease, above all logic, carried me away to Kronstadt that evening in the bitter cold. In the carriage of the Oranienbaum train, sitting by the almost red-hot stove, I was shivering in my coat with the collar raised, as if in a bitter cold, in a draft wind, but the confidence that nothing bad would happen to me, that, despite the seeming madness of my journey, I would be healthy, did not leave me for a minute. However, I was getting worse and worse. Somehow, more with the help of facial expressions than words, I hired a one-horse wagon at the Oranienbaum station and, as I was in a light coat, set off on a 12-mile journey, in 18-degree frost, along the icy seaside open to all winds to Kronstadt, which blinked from afar in the darkness of the night with the bright electric light of its lighthouse. I ordered myself to be taken to the House of Industriousness. The streets of Kronstadt were deserted when my sick, poor body was pounding over their potholes, but the closer I got to St. Andrew’s Cathedral, the livelier the city became, and already at the cathedral itself we were met by a human wave of more than one thousand people, silently and solemnly spreading through all the streets and alleys adjacent to the cathedral. “Everyone is coming from confession, from the priest,” said my driver, taking off his hat and earnestly crossing himself three times at the open doors of the church. The kind assistant gave me a room he had prepared “for honored visitors,” ordered me to bring a samovar and tea, and, wishing me health, left me alone. I asked the woman who brought the samovar to wake me up for matins no later than 3 o’clock in the morning, locked myself in and began to pray. Where did this prayerful mood come from? It seemed that all the long-hidden power of repentance burst out and spilled out in the incoherent words of a hot, literally burning prayer, in a stream of uncryed, accumulated tears of old, painful, unresolved grief. I forgot everything in these wonderful moments: time, space, the illness that broke me - I was all ablaze with that love, that burning and at the same time sweet repentance, which no spiritual powers of a person can give on their own and which is sent only from above, by a path invisible and incomprehensible to the unbeliever. The illness, which seemed to have retreated from me during prayer, attacked me with particular fury when, at about twelve o’clock at night, I lay down to rest until Matins. It was as if an unknown hostile force was tearing all my limbs and throwing me around the bed, scorching me with unbearable heat and my soul with a chilling chill. I felt that I was beginning to delirium, like a seriously ill person. So I rushed about in semi-oblivion until three o'clock. At exactly three o'clock in the morning there was a knock on my door: - Almost everyone has already left for matins - get up! I got up, put on my coat and went out. In the white, frosty twilight of the winter night, a blizzard swirled in clouds. Drowning in the snowdrifts that had accumulated overnight, I barely made it to the cathedral. There were already a lot of people standing at the locked doors. I stood in the crowd and stood for a long time, and the people kept coming, the human wave of those thirsting for Christ’s consolation grew and grew. I stood there until half past five and... didn’t make it until the opening of the cathedral. In a semi-fainting state, a cab driver I met along the way took me to the House of Industriousness. I barely made it to my room - it was locked. No servants, no tenants - the whole house seemed to be extinct. Exhausted, I lay down on the stone stairs and lay there until someone’s merciful soul passing by took me to an unlocked common room, where I fell into a painful sleep on someone’s unmade bed. I woke up when it was already dawn. It was about nine o'clock. Soon pilgrims from the cathedral began to gather. A short sleep cheered me up so much that I reached the psalm-reader’s apartment without outside help. His kind wife received me with sympathy, treated me kindly, gave me tea and kept condoling with me about how I got so sick in a foreign city and how I would talk to the priest if I saw him, with such a complete loss of voice. At about ten o'clock the psalm-reader came. He warmly and affectionately grieved about my health and upset me with the message that the priest was feeling so bad, his hand was so sore that when asked if he would come to the House of Industriousness, he replied: “When I arrive, then you will see.” Less than an hour had passed since the psalm-reader arrived from the cathedral; one of the servants came running from below, out of breath: “Father has arrived!” How the psalm-reader took me downstairs, how he arranged for me there in the room next to the one where the priest entered, I don’t remember. I only remember the feeling of expectation that something great was about to happen to me, something that would open my spiritual eyes, that would make me a different person. And this great thing actually happened. With a quick, energetic gait, the priest entered my room. The psalm-reader followed him. He took one look at me... and what a look it was! Piercing, enlightening, piercing, like lightning, both my past and the ulcers of my present, penetrating, it seemed, even into my very future. That’s how I seemed to myself naked, so I felt ashamed of myself, of my nakedness... How I survived the prayer service, I don’t remember. He approached the cross, and the psalmist said: “Here, father, a gentleman from the Oryol province (here he mentioned my last name) came to you for advice, but fell ill and lost his voice. - Familiar name! How did you lose your voice? Got a cold, or what? With these words, the priest let me kiss the cross, placed it on the lectern, and with two fingers of his right hand he ran three times across my throat, and... a miracle happened to me. The fever left me at that very moment, and my voice returned to me immediately, fresher and clearer even than usual. For more than half an hour, on my knees, falling at the feet of the desired comforter, I told him about my sorrows, revealed to him my whole sinful soul and brought him repentance for everything that tormented my heart. This was my first true repentance in my entire life, repentance not before myself, but before God, my appointed spiritual father. For the first time I learned, comprehended with my being the sweetness of this repentance and for the first time I accepted with all my heart that God, namely God Himself, through the lips of the shepherd He blessed, sent down His forgiveness to me when Fr. John: - God has a lot of mercy for you - God will forgive. Here only, about. John, because of that unspeakable joy, because of that sacred trembling that my soul truly experienced, I comprehended the whole mystery of confession. I did not understand this with my mind, but I perceived this secret with my whole being, with all my spiritual renewal. That faith, which was so stubbornly denied to my soul, despite my visible conversion at the relics of St. Sergius, only after this heartfelt confession took up a bright flame in me. I recognized myself as a believer and Orthodox. The great significance of confession from a confessor became clear to me, first of all as a renunciation of one’s pride, humble and reverent repentance not only before the face of man, but before God Himself. From that time on, I recognized myself as a convert to the Orthodox faith, and only from that time on did I understand that outside the Church and the sacraments established by it, according to the covenant of Christ, there is no Christianity, there is no salvation. Life, so funny and pitiful, so aimless, like the work of a squirrel in a wheel, received for me both meaning and the deepest significance. (See “Church Veda.”, ed. Under the Holy Synod, 1900, No. 15–16.) Appendix A. God's providence for man and especially for pious people “Are not five small birds sold for two assars? And not one of them is forgotten by God. And even the hairs on your head are all numbered. So, do not be afraid: you are worth more than many small birds” (Luke 12:6-7). Thus, Jesus Christ consoled His disciples with a reminder of God’s providence. God's special providence for man in general is clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures. God gives existence and life to every person: “In Him we live and move and we are” (Acts 17:28). “Thy hands make me and create me,” says the righteous man to God (Ps. 119:73). God gives souls to people, as the wise one says: “... the spirit will return to God, who also gave it” (Eccl. 12:7). “God... gives breath to the people who are on it (the earth), says the prophet, and spirit to those who walk on it” (Is. 42.5). God provides for all circumstances of human life. “He is a spectator of human affairs,” says Job (Job 34:21). “For in His hand are we and our words, and every mind, and art in deeds” (Wis. 7:16). God also provides for the free deeds of man. The Wise One teaches: “It is from the Lord that a man’s feet are straightened: but how can a mortal understand his own ways” (Proverbs 20:24). “Every man is righteous to himself, but the Lord rules the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2). “The Lord destroys the councils of tongues, sweeps aside the thoughts of people, and sweeps aside the advice of princes” (Ps. 33:10). “If you take counsel, the Lord will destroy you, and the word that you speak will not abide in you, for God is with us” (Isaiah 8:10). God provides for all people: “...as His sun shines on the evil and on the good,” Christ the Savior teaches, “and it rains on the righteous and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). God especially provides for human societies: He gives kings and leaders to peoples and tribes. “He... makes kings and deposes,” says the prophet (Dan. 2:21). “Every tongue gives its leader” (Sir. 17:14). The Wise One says: “Hear ye therefore, O kings, and understand, learn to judge the ends of the earth:... For the power is given unto you from the Lord, and the power from the Most High, Who shall prove your deeds, and test your thoughts” (Wis. 6:1-3). God governs kings and guides them according to His intentions: “Through me kings reign,” says God, “and the mighty write the truth” (Proverbs 8:15). “Like the rush of water, so is the heart of a king in the hand of God: even if it desires to convert, it will turn away” (Proverbs 21:1). And all subordinate authorities are also from God, according to the teaching of the Apostle: “There is no authority except from God: but the existing authorities were created by God” (Rom. 13:1). All Holy Scripture, as Divine revelation, and all the construction of the salvation of the human race, as in the Old Testament, i.e. before the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, so in the New Testament, i.e. upon the coming into the world of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, are great works of special Divine providence for man. But just as in this visible world the light and warmth of the sun shed their beneficial power especially on objects that are open before the sun and not obscured by anything from it, so in the moral world, between people, the light and warmth of God’s favor and the gifts of saving grace are especially poured out on those whose minds and hearts always turn to the unsetting, eternal sun - the Lord God, whose souls are always open to receive the grace of God. Holy Scripture clearly reveals God's primary care for pious and virtuous people. In the psalms we read: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him and will deliver them. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their sorrows. The Lord is near to those who are broken in heart, and will save those who are humble in spirit. Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver me from all of them. The Lord guards all their bones, and not one of them will be broken” (Ps. 33:8,18-21). Jesus Christ, instilling in His disciples hope and trust in God’s special care for them, teaches: “Do not worry about your soul, what you eat, or about your body, what you put on. - The pagans of this world are looking for all of these: your Father knows that you demand these. Seek rather the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock: for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:22:30–32). The Apostle Peter teaches: “The message of the Lord is to deliver the godly from adversity” (2 Pet. 2:9). The Apostle Paul writes: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). In another message: “For this we labor and are reproached, because we live by trust in God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful” (1 Tim. 4:10). Holy Scripture offers us many examples of special Divine care for pious and holy people. To explain the truth, let us point out some examples. Have you heard how God saved righteous Noah from destruction during the Flood? While all his contemporaries perished in the waters of the flood for their sins, Noah and his family floated on the waters in an ark, prepared in advance by the command of God (Genesis 7). God showed His great care over righteous Abraham. In order to raise Abraham to be the father of believers, God called him from his fatherland to an unknown land, led him among foreign nations, repeatedly revealed His will to him and reinforced him with His great promises. So God was merciful to Abraham, because Abraham obeyed Him in everything and was afraid to violate the will of God in anything (Gen. 12-22). Have you heard about the chaste Joseph? How wonderfully God provided for him! The brothers, out of envy, sold young Joseph to foreigners. Joseph became the slave of an Egyptian courtier and, slandered for the virtue of chastity, was imprisoned. Apparently Joseph died. But God did not abandon him, and Joseph rose from prison to second place as king; Joseph saves Egypt and his family from starvation. Joseph himself, comforting his brothers, revealed to them the wonderful Divine care for him like this: “Do not grieve, let it be cruelly revealed to you that you are selling this: for God has sent me before you to live” (Gen. 45:5). “You conspire against me with evil; God conspires against me for good, so that it may be as it is today, and people may be filled with many people” (Gen. 50:20). The stories about the holy apostles and apostolic men, martyrs, confessors, holy fathers, shepherds and teachers, ascetics and many holy men and women clearly testify to the wondrous ways of Divine care for His saints. Read the Holy Scriptures, read the lives of the saints, and you will see the many different ways of the wise and all-good Divine care for God’s chosen ones. (See: Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev. Taught on the Orthodox faith. Book 1, ed. 1877) B. Is it fair to say that what happens will inevitably happen? “Many are the ranks, but few are the chosen” (Matthew 22:14), - with these words the Lord concludes the parable about the marriage of the king’s son. We are all called to the Kingdom of Christ: servants, it is said in the parable, have gathered everyone, both evil and good (v. 10). The division between good and evil is left to the king himself. The judgment of the unworthy will come later. God wants everyone to be saved, and salvation or eternal destruction depends on our will. When they talk about a person who died without repentance, who died from drunkenness or who took his own life out of despair, one often hears such judgments: “what will happen, it cannot be avoided,” “it’s written in the family,” “it’s destined for him,” or even: “apparently, it’s God’s will...” But does the merciful Lord Himself foreordain eternal destruction for someone? Is it really pleasing to Him for people to die a bestial death? No! This is a lie; this is a blasphemous judgment, and to think so is a grave sin. Listen to what God Himself testifies about Himself, saying through the prophet: “I do not want the death of the sinner, but that the wicked should turn from his way, and I live to be him” (Ezek. 33:11); He wants “all man... to be saved, and to come into the understanding of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), and it is not the will of God that even one person should perish (Matthew 18:14), which means that the Lord gives His grace to all sinners. God does not take away our freedom in the matter of our salvation: this is true. He doesn't save anyone by force. But man dies by himself. Before you is life and death, salvation and destruction: choose what you want. “If you are willing and listen to Me, says the Lord, you will destroy the good of the earth. If you do not want, you will listen to Me; you will girdle your sword” (Isa. 1:19-20). Everyone has been given the means of salvation. The Lord offers His grace to everyone, and if anyone rejects it, of course, he perishes, but no one is to blame for his death except himself. God foresees which path you will take, whether the path of His commandments or the path of sin, and therefore, of course, He knows everything and your future destiny. This is how St. teaches us about this. Church: “Since God foresaw that some would use their free will well, and others poorly, therefore He predestined some to glory, and condemned others. Whose merits and virtues, whose disposition God foresaw, His rewards were predetermined.” When you are sick, isn't it true that God knows whether you will be healed or die? But for this reason, will you not call a doctor to you, will you not take medicine, will you do nothing for your healing, and will you wait with folded hands for either your recovery or your death? In that case, you would be very unwise. It is another matter for God to foresee your recovery or death - this, of course, is true; and it’s another thing to think that this very foreknowledge of God produces either health or death - this is a lie. So it is in the matter of salvation. Of course, God foresees you either in heaven or in eternal torment, but what follows from this? When we look in the mirror, then what we really are is how we see ourselves there: if we are good, then we are good in the mirror, and if we are bad, then we are bad in the mirror. Thus, in His most perfect foreknowledge, God sees us as we are in reality and as we will be at the end of our life: if we are righteous, then we are written in the book of life with the righteous, and if we are sinners, then our names are in the book of death with sinners. So, whether you are righteous, beware lest you fall into sin: then you will be blotted out from the book of life, and the definition of your salvation will be replaced by the definition of your torment. Are you a sinner? Hasten to repent of your sins: then your name will be written in the book of life. Both are in your hands, and God’s decree is consistent with your deeds and will. God's will is always ready, the matter lies only in your desire. God wants you to be saved, so do you, and thus you too will be predestined to eternal life. (See: G. D-ko, Archpriest Daily Teachings in the Word of God.) B. Conditions under which one can notice traces of divine Providence The ways of God are mysterious: “they are as distant from our ways as heaven is from earth” (Isa. 55:9); but the ways of Providence for the human race are especially incomprehensible. Therefore, from those who wish to see traces of Providence in their lives, it is required, firstly, constant and strict attention to their life and the Providence of God; secondly, a true and pure view of life and Providence. In fact, there are so many people who are completely inattentive to their lives! Like careless sailors, they are happy that the ship of their life is sailing along the stormy stream of time, without taking the trouble to know how it changes its direction, what winds it uses, what piers it should enter, whether it is in danger, whether there is damage anywhere? One would think that these people relied on Providence for everything, just as swimmers rely on an experienced helmsman, and that is why they are so careless. No, they don’t even think at all about themselves: the mechanical execution of certain tasks, entertainment, communication, games - that’s their occupation! Example, habit, addiction, willfulness - these are their rules! Knowledge from hearsay of certain truths of faith, presence, on occasion or necessity, at the performance of a small number of sacred rites - this is their religion! Judge for yourself: can one expect such people to find traces of Providence in their lives? In some people, apparently the opposite happens, but in reality it is the same: that is, they show great attentiveness to their lives, but lack attention to Providence. For such people, thinking about their own lives is their favorite subject; they do not leave a single case unattended; they delve into the beginnings and consequences of all the changes that happen to them, they extract rules for their behavior from everything, they know the art of living in all its secrets, they can tell and explain their story from infancy: these are their perfections! But here are the shortcomings: they never considered this story in relation to the Providence of God and would be surprised to hear that without it it is just as little possible to explain the life of each person as the existence of the world... According to such people, everything that happens to them is either the fruit of their prudence, or a play of passions, or a matter of suddenness and chance; The recognition of the impossibility of explaining anything by these reasons seems to them a shameful weakness of the mind. Judge for yourself, can we expect that these people, distrustful and afraid of Providence, will find it in their lives? No, that’s not what God’s holy men did! We are amazed at how they saw the Lord in all the paths of their lives, and we think to explain this by the fact that the Providence of God participated in the adventures of their lives in a special way. Without rejecting this, - for the Lord Himself calls them His associates and friends (John 15:14-15; James 2:23), - it must be said that the holy men were all extremely attentive to the ways of God. Let's look at one David. Like the king, how many worries, enterprises, works, sorrows does he have? However, what is he thinking about on his royal bed at a time when all Israel and all nature are silent and at rest? He reflects on the fate of God's truth, on how the Lord raised him from the flock to the throne of Israel. “At midnight we rise,” he says to God, “to confess... about the destinies of Your righteousness” (Ps. 119:62). And he rises at midnight when, in his own words, he had already “praised” the Lord “on the seventh day” (Ps. 119:164)! Here is an example to imitate, here is a rule to follow! We must love the ways of the Lord, and they will become noticeable to us. “Give a lover,” says St. Augustine, “and the beloved will be revealed.” If we constantly observed our lives, had a childlike trust in that saving truth that without the will of God, not a single hair falls from our head, then how many times, when thinking about our fate, that same mind of ours, which now misunderstands, is at a loss, does not know what to do - how many times would it itself stop our attention, saying: “Look, this is the hand of God! It was she, the Almighty, who warded off this or that calamity from you, laid down this or that barrier in front of you, and saved you from those evils that burdened thousands like you! It was she, the wise one, who led you unharmed through so many dangers and difficulties, placed you in a place where you can not only be calm and happy yourself, but also edify the happiness of others! It was she, the all-merciful One, who bestowed upon you so many unexpected joys, so many undeserved gifts, compensated for so many seemingly irreparable losses, warmed and nourished your infancy, curbed and corrected your youth, blessed and overshadowed your courage.” “But there are,” someone will say, “very attentive people who, with all the zeal of children, would like to see and kiss the fatherly hand of Providence, but are deprived of this happiness.” Indeed, there are such people; but there are other reasons in relation to them: it can be said affirmatively that in such people there is a lack of a timely, faithful and pure view of Providence. And, firstly, when do they mostly turn to the ways of Providence and seek consolation in them? When they are struck by some kind of disaster, when they find no consolation in anyone or anything on earth, when the mind is confused, the feelings are darkened, the heart is suppressed by grief, that is, those moments in which they often forget themselves, which are considered incapable of thinking about ordinary things, those very moments are chosen to reflect on the ways of Providence. It is true that in times of grief we need more than ever the comforting confidence in Providence; but it is equally certain that we are then least able to follow in the footsteps of Providence. Are there many Davids who, being in the midst of the fire of temptation, would have retained all faith, could have remained calm contemplatives of the fatherly love of God even when it is hidden under the guise of anger and enmity? This holy art is the fruit of long-term experience; we do not have it and, meanwhile, we dare to do what is possible and useful for only the experienced. No! In advance, you must accustom yourself to find consolation in Providence. When the mind is bright, the feelings are light, the heart is peaceful: then one must reflect on one’s life and learn from it the destinies of God’s truth. Such moments for the most part follow fervent prayer: therefore, prayer should serve, so to speak, as an approach to these reflections. Whoever acquires skill in this holy work, like David, will not fall among temptations. Without this, during times of disaster, it is better to seek consolation from others than to rely on one’s own reflection on God and His Providence. How else do you want to see the action of Providence in your life? Usually more or less miraculous: everything natural, simple, universal is first excluded from the circle of these actions. As if the realm of heavenly Providence consisted of nothing but miracles and extraordinary things! As if what seems unusual and rare to us were the same for God Himself! In this case, we are not like ourselves: usually we love to explain everything, and then we want to see the inexplicable; we are upset if we do not see the reason for something, but here we are unhappy that we see it! And what is the need, how was help provided to us: was an angel or a charitable person sent from heaven? – it is enough if we are saved. The Israelites, dying of thirst, would not have had to thank God if He, without bringing water out of the stone, had shown it to them among the stones? Everything is natural in the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, but the Savior presents them as a striking example of God’s fatherly care for creatures and man (Matthew 6:26–30). No, wanting to see traces of this care in our lives, we must first free ourselves from addiction to the miraculous; otherwise it can be said about us: “an evil generation... seeks a sign, and a sign will not be given to it” (Matthew 12:39). We will be pleased if we are given the opportunity to see in the adventures of our lives at least small traces of God, who benefits us, and we will leave it to Moses and David to talk with Him face to face. The Lord has already created many miracles for all of us: He brought us out of insignificance, redeemed us with the blood of His Son, sanctified us with the Holy Spirit, and we have not yet paid anything for these miracles. There is only one miracle that we should expect in life from the Lord and that He expects, perhaps, from us - this is the correction of our heart, the renewal of our life, the spiritual resurrection. If anyone does not find this miracle in his life, then woe to him, woe to him! What other shortcomings are those who seek traces of Providence in their lives exposed to? For the most part, his actions are limited to himself, and in himself - to temporary benefits, bodily life. What need is it that our well-known disaster was very instructive for others and some, taking advantage of our experience, turned to the right path? If we ourselves have not felt any significant benefit from it, then is this really enough for us not to see Providence in it? What does it matter that some sad cases were true healing for our souls, they tore before our eyes the veil behind which our spiritual destruction was hidden, and returned to us virtue, long lost? If they upset our external state; if the lesson they taught is associated with damage to our health or honor: then these cases are not from God, they befell us without providence. These are the rules of judgment of our pride, of our inattention to the good of our neighbors and to our own good of our soul! Is it possible that God’s Providence should conform to them? Is it really because “our eye is evil” (Matt. 20:15), and He needs to stop being good? No, the love of God is higher than all of us and therefore embraces all our brethren, through the misfortunes of one he teaches others, with the happiness of some he edifies all, in order, thus, to unite us all again, who are constantly breaking the union of unity. With so many reasons preventing us from seeing traces of God's Providence in our lives, is it surprising that many do not see it? They don’t see because they don’t know their life well, they’re not attentive to themselves; they do not see, because they stop at the surface of events, do not penetrate to their foundation, where the hand of Providence is hidden; they do not see, because they want to see when the gaze is darkened, not where it should be, not in the form in which Providence reveals itself; Finally, they do not see, because judgment about the ways of Providence is controlled by pride and passions. Let us free ourselves from these shortcomings, in judging the ways of God we will unswervingly follow the opposite rules, and we will soon learn from experience that the Lord is not far (Acts 17:27) from each of us (from Prop. Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson). B. God's Providence in the World History of the Human Race 1. Traces of God's providence in the ancient history of peoples Let us turn first to biblical history. Let's take the example of Joseph's brothers. Personally, they were animated by one goal - to get rid of their brother Joseph, the love for whom on the part of their elderly father aroused in them indomitable envy. And they really achieved their goal when they sold the poor young man to the Ishmaelites, in turn, the Ishmaelites profitably resold the young man they bought on the banks of the Nile and, therefore, also achieved their goal. Neither one nor the other was aware that by achieving their goals they were contributing to some higher goal, and in particular, for the brothers this highest goal was even undesirable, even if they were aware of it. Having shown extreme inhumanity towards their brother, they most of all, of course, wanted to never meet him again, much less in such conditions under which they would be dependent on him. And yet, that’s exactly what happened. By selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites, they unconsciously fulfilled the highest will of Providence, which sent its chosen race to Egypt, so that there, having been brought up in the depths of the most civilized people in the world (and without fear of merging with it, because the Egyptians were strongly alienated from all other peoples as unclean), it could grow into a whole people, and then take its world-historical position in humanity as a light for it. Of course, God, as the omnipotent controller of the destinies of individuals and peoples, could achieve this goal directly - by commanding, for example, Jacob to move to Egypt. But then the omnipotence of God would act in a directly overwhelming manner, and the historical process would be simply mechanical. Meanwhile, in reality, the event took place in such a way that in it private human goals, achieved by a person’s own self-determination, led to a higher goal completely freely, and therefore the historical process in this case takes on a moral character. And only such a process can be called completely historical, in contrast to a mechanical process - in an inanimate or animate, but not rational world. The superiority of the moral process over the mechanical process lies in the fact that it is precisely an educational system. After all, the essence and task of education is to allow a person to deviate from the highest goal, thereby providing him with the opportunity to experience the results of his actions, and in the end, leading a person to a certain goal, to give him the full opportunity to evaluate his previous actions from a higher, moral point of view and thus subject them to the impartial judgment of both his own conscience and history. One can imagine what a great lesson Joseph’s brothers learned from all the vicissitudes of their meeting with their once sold brother, when he appeared before them as the great ruler of a powerful monarchy, how loudly their conscience spoke in them, reproducing before them the atrocity they had once committed: it was not without reason that they feared even after that Joseph might take it into his head to take revenge on them (Gen. 50:15) for the evil that had once been done to him. But Joseph, in his answer to them, solemnly expressed the principle of the historical process from the highest providential point of view when he said to them: “Fear not: for I fear God. Behold, you have plotted evil against me; but God turned this evil into good in order to accomplish what is now: to preserve the lives of a great number of people” (Gen. 50:19–20). The last expression has a particularly significant meaning: by selling Joseph, the brothers thereby committed something like killing him - at least for themselves and their father; Meanwhile, this bloodless murder ultimately led to the fact that through it, not only the lives of the brothers themselves were saved during the famine, but also the lives of an entire people in Egypt - during the famous seven-year famine. Of course, in order for this great result to be achieved, a whole series of intermediate events had to take place, which from a certain point of view seem completely random. In fact, it may seem coincidental that when the brothers were wondering how to get rid of Joseph, a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants appeared on the horizon, which gave the brothers the idea to take advantage of this opportunity. By chance, apparently, the Izmalilites sold Joseph to the court dignitary Potiphar, in whose house he had to meet with a mistress of dubious morality, who, moreover, after a certain failure in achieving her goal, slandered the innocent young man and, of course, with the heartless malice of a woman deceived in her base calculations, insisted that Potiphar subject him to merciless punishment, depriving him of his freedom through imprisonment. All this is apparently accidental, and from a simple human point of view there is nothing providential here. But, as Bossuet says, what appears to us to be an accident is in reality the intention of a higher Mind. And indeed, if we take this fact in its entirety, we will see how all these accidents formed an amazing chain of facts that necessarily led to the final goal that was in mind. After all, if the Ishmaelite caravan had not shown up on that very day, the brothers’ embitterment could have led directly to the murder of Joseph. Then, if the Ishmaelites had sold Joseph not to Potiphar, but to some ordinary Egyptian, the entire subsequent series of events would not have happened: Joseph would not have met with a voluptuous mistress, would not have been thrown into a privileged prison, would not have met there with the disgraced dignitaries of Pharaoh, would not have interpreted their dreams, he would not have been brought to the attention of Pharaoh, he would not would have become the minister of Egypt, would not have made grain reserves during the harvests and would have died during the ensuing famine, and with him his brothers, his elderly father and the mass of the Egyptian people would have died. If all this happened just the opposite, then all these accidents clearly indicate that they were based on a higher Reasonable force, which was able to reconcile what at a simple glance seems to be an accident with what even at a simple glance already turns out to be a reasonable necessity. And this force, of course, is nothing more than the providential will of God, which directed everything towards a predetermined goal in a way that did not in any way affect the personal self-determination of the people acting in this complex event. To assert after this that a simple game of chance took place here (as any theory that does not recognize the idea of ​​Providence must assert) would mean to assert that from clay taken at random and thrown into the air some artistic sculptural work could someday “accidentally” be formed. Through exactly the same series of “accidents,” the liberation of the chosen people who grew up on the banks of the Nile from Egyptian slavery took place. In fact, the people who were intended to be the bearer of the great truth of redemption for its dissemination among humanity apparently perished in Egypt: the cruel despotism of the pharaohs invented more and more new burdens in order to undermine the strength of the young people, crush their vitality and turn them into their eternal free slave. There was even a bloodthirsty law issued about the death of all newborn boys, and of course only the hopeless despair of Amram and Jochebed prompted them with the idea - to put their newborn son in a basket and lower it into the river in a thicket of papyrus reeds, so that if he were to die, it would be better for him to die a death unknown to them than to be killed in front of his parents. And of course this poor boy could have died from many deaths: he could have been drenched in water, suffocated in his diapers, and finally devoured by the first crocodile that happened to be nearby; but none of this happened, but what happened was that the poor boy was found by the king’s daughter, who took pity on him, adopted him and gave him a brilliant education, “initiating him in all the wisdom of Egypt” (Acts 7:22). And since this boy was none other than Moses, the great liberator and legislator of the people, who, in order to accomplish his great work, had to personally confront the Pharaoh and fight with the most learned priests and sages of Egypt, then this whole series of accidents clearly reveals the rational will underlying them, directing everything towards a certain reasonable goal. This rationality of the will is especially clearly revealed in the fact that the miraculous coincidence of these accidents did not occur in the life of anyone else, but namely Moses. And other parents probably resorted to all sorts of methods to save the lives of their newborn babies, but not one of them was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh; and even if one of them had been adopted or in some way accepted at court, still, not possessing the indestructible originality of the genius nature of Moses, he would easily have turned into an ambitious courtier, for whom personal interests would have been above everything in the world, he would have become ashamed of his origin from a miserable and despised people, he would have completely renounced him, and, of course, he would have turned out to be a court flatterer or a high-society zero, and not a great savior of the people and the wisest legislator in the world. If here, too, simple chance was at work, and not the all-wise Reason, which knows how to create a harmonious plan for world government from a random kaleidoscope of facts, to assume this means to assume that St. Isaac’s Cathedral could be accidentally formed from a random volcanic shaking of granite mountains... We take these examples from biblical history, because this story more clearly depicts the ways of God's Providence in the destinies of man than the history of any other people. But parallel facts can be pointed out from the history of other nations. At the same time, first of all, it should be noted that the action of Providence is by no means limited only to the chosen people. It extends to all humanity, although not to the same extent. Just as the sun, illuminating the entire earth, pours out all its warming and illuminating power onto some countries, while allowing others to use only the reflection of weak and indirect rays, so the Providence of God does not extend its guiding action equally, but to the extent that a certain people stands closer to the center of spiritual truth, to the sun of religious truth, without leaving, however, without the highest help in achieving the highest good, not a single people in the history of mankind. Sound theological thought has never denied the position that the pagan peoples, who fell away from the true God and served idols in their blindness, were not completely abandoned by God and Providence also led them, albeit in other ways, the paths of error, to the common goal of humanity. The difference between them and the chosen people was only that the pagan peoples, as those who had voluntarily fallen away from God, were left more to their own devices in order to fully discover what apostasy could lead to, in order to drink to the bottom the bitter cup of their sinful passions, to experience by experience all the helplessness of man in the state of his abandonment by God, and as a result of this, consciously and with a feeling of deep moral repentance, again come to the search with their own mind that God who was once rejected by him. And the entire history of the ancient pagan world provides striking proof of this. The entire history of peoples should present only a picture of disparate goals, constantly colliding with each other and mutually suppressed - in purely selfish calculations. But in reality, this story does not represent such bleak chaos. On the contrary, we see that although individual peoples pursued exclusively their own national interests, at the same time each of them unconsciously worked for another, higher goal. Some higher will invisibly guided them in such a way that, according to their consciousness, they worked only for themselves and achieved only their goals, at the same time they worked for all of humanity and achieved its highest ideal goal. Now it can no longer be seriously disputed that the entire history of the ancient world represented a preparation for Christianity and that the efforts of peoples were unconsciously directed towards this very goal. The Assyrians, for example, while waging their bloodthirsty wars, of course had in mind only the satisfaction of their greed and predation; but at the same time, for the first time, by force of arms, they began to bring together and unite hitherto completely separated peoples, and in this regard they were already working in the interests of humanity. The Egyptians also developed material culture and developed their wisdom, of course, only for themselves, as a result of which they even avoided the entire world around them in every possible way. But this culture, however, became a universal property, since the surrounding peoples, out of greed or envy, sought to take advantage of its fruits: formidable warriors plundered Egypt and took with them huge amounts of treasures, which formed the basis for the material development of their own countries. The Phoenicians traded out of their national interests, and meanwhile, serving as commercial intermediaries between distant and alienated peoples, they paved the way for unity between them, brought them closer together, excited competition in productivity and promoted general mental development. What enormous significance these greedy and, in general, extremely unscrupulous traders had for the universal human goal (they enjoyed such a bad reputation among all ancient peoples) is shown by the fact that these very traders were the first to develop (from Egyptian or Babylonian signs, this is still an unresolved question in science) an alphabet that formed the basis of the alphabets of the entire civilized world. The rapprochement of peoples, begun by the conquerors and continued by the traders, needed a stronger basis, corresponding to the nobler aspirations of the peoples, and this basis was worked out by the Greeks, who, possessing high artistic instinct and the power of philosophical thinking, developed an expressive, harmonious and precise language, capable of expressing the deepest shades of thought and feeling, and created the deepest philosophy, capable of embracing the most sublime truths. They developed their mental treasures only for themselves, seeing in them the pride and glory of their national genius and considering other peoples incapable of them. But this national egoism was destroyed by Alexander the Great, who, again guided by a purely national task - to take revenge on the Persians, undertook a great campaign in Asia, and this campaign was of enormous importance for the spread of Hellenism in all its forms among the peoples of this vast continent. The Greek language and Greek literature became fashionable throughout the educated world, and any thought embodied in Greek form could quickly become the property of all educated, reading humanity throughout the East. The West still remained on the sidelines, but it too was soon introduced into the universal family of nations. There the Roman people appeared and with miraculous speed developed extraordinary power - a people who valued the external legal order above all else in the world. And it was precisely this external legal order that was now most needed by the world, which had reached a high degree of culture, but had not developed universal human law and, divided into unequal political groups, was waging a terrible self-destructive war. And so the Roman eagle, flapping its mighty wings, set out to conquer the world, and after a few centuries the robber den on the banks of the Tiber grew into the world capital. All peoples, both the civilized East and the still barbaric West, bowed before this eagle and submitted to the legal order he introduced everywhere, by virtue of which all mutually destructive wars ceased and peace established itself everywhere. Having brought Greece within the boundaries of its conquest, subjugating it to its weapons, Rome itself was captivated by its culture and, thus, joined the universal culture. And in precisely this way, the ancient world came to the point that it was all united both spiritually and politically: all the boundaries that had previously divided the world, which served as an obstacle to the mutual communication of peoples, were now eliminated; every word in Greek could be spread throughout the world, and every preacher, taking advantage of the rights of Roman citizenship, could travel freely throughout all countries, taking advantage of the excellent military roads on land and the regular voyages of ships at sea. It is clear that only a conscious will could, out of the chaos of international egoistic relations, create such wonderful conditions for the spread of truth, and when the lies of the pagan worldview itself were revealed by philosophers who undermined faith in the gods and created a spiritual void in the people, which they longed to fill with the truth, then it was in a remote corner of despised Judea that the One who was the truth and the light of the world was born, and the prepared peoples bowed before Him with reverence. Thus, we see how the purely national, egoistic goals of individual pagan peoples of antiquity served in the hands of a higher will as a means of preparing the ancient world for Christianity as a universal goal. To achieve this goal, of course, many different means were required, and these means always turned out to be extremely expedient, even in those cases when they, apparently, should have had just the opposite meaning. In fact, what seems to be common between a war undertaken out of a purely national feeling of vengeance and the unification of peoples on the basis of a common highly developed culture? Meanwhile, this was exactly the result of the Greek hero’s campaign into the depths of Asia - against the Persians. The Romans, first of all, of course, were guided in their aggressive activity by a thirst for power and greed - motives that were not at all suitable for establishing peace on earth; and meanwhile, their conquests led to the unification of all peoples under one legal order, which truly brought peace to the earth. There are many such examples that could be cited, and they show how the highest will knows how to use even means that are completely contrary to it to achieve its goal. Then, in the very process of this enormous preparatory work, there are moments when the whole fate of the world, so to speak, hung in the balance, and if something had happened differently, the entire further course of history could, and according to human reasoning should, take a completely different direction. In fact, Alexander the Great’s campaign in Asia was decisive for the triumph of Greek culture in the world; and meanwhile, this campaign might not have been carried out if one insignificant accident had not happened, namely, if in 337, during his wedding feast, Philip of Macedon had not slipped and fallen. During this feast, as is known, Philip, irritated with his then-grown son Alexander, rushed at him with a drawn sword and undoubtedly would have stabbed him, but from an impetuous movement he slipped and fell, and this incident saved the life of the greatest hero in the world. But if this insignificant accident saved the world from the greatest genius, which was so necessary for achieving a great world goal, then another accident prematurely took him away from history. This accident was a premature death, which, as we know, killed him at the age of 32, when he, having just completed his conquest of the world, began to build a plan for the founding of a world monarchy. His death was mourned more than once by both ancient and modern historians, who rightly pointed to this terrible enemy, who very often slays people with his scythe at the very moment when they, having achieved the goal of their life, are thinking of taking advantage of the fruits of their terrible efforts. If Alexander had not died at such an early age, he would certainly have completed the work he had undertaken, would have founded a powerful monarchy, which he would have handed over intact to his successor. The entire subsequent story could have taken a completely different direction. But death with one blow destroyed all possibilities - and if you look carefully at the course of historical events, then this was in all respects for the better for humanity. In fact, if Alexander had really founded a universal monarchy, then this monarchy, as consisting mainly of the countries of the East, would necessarily have become despotic - with its usual arbitrariness and lack of justice; even if the Greek element had triumphed in it, even then the Greek incapacity for political organization would have manifested itself in full force and an endless confusion of political passions, intrigues and rivalries between its separate areas would have begun. Finally, a politically united Hellenism would of necessity meet with Rome, the East would collide with the West, and from this collision of two great conquerors the foundations of the world would be shaken, and during the gigantic struggle many cities and entire nations would perish. All these disasters were eliminated by one accident - the death of Alexander, and as a result of this everything happened exactly as it should have happened according to the plan of the historical movement: the grandiose plan of the eastern world monarchy collapsed, Alexander's successors divided among themselves the great spoils of the brilliant conqueror, weakened themselves extremely and, feeling their political and military insignificance, no longer set any aggressive plans, but placed their honor in what was an unconscious, but main task Alexandra, they became passionate admirers and disseminators of Greek culture, which they introduced everywhere. When they thus completed the work of Hellenism, then Rome could, without any difficulty, often just by fear of its name, introduce them into the sphere of its world monarchy with its legal order, which was supposed to establish human justice on earth as a preparation for the manifestation of Divine truth. Finally, there was another great moment in this process when the fate of the world hung in the balance. It was in 216 that a life and death struggle was taking place between Rome and Carthage. Carthage, in the person of its military genius Hannibal, apparently gained an advantage, and Rome stood on the brink of destruction. Had he taken one more step, Rome would have perished, and with it the entire Roman civilization would have perished; the civilizing people who established the principles of their rights throughout Western Europe, by which it largely lives to this day, would be swept away from the world-historical field; its semi-savage peoples would have become slaves of Carthage, which would have introduced into them the destructive poison of its commercial exploitation, its dishonest policies and its immoral, corrupting cult. In a word, the entire fate of the Western world would change radically. But this did not happen - and simply because the Carthaginians themselves, in their incomprehensible blindness, because of their party accounts, did not give adequate reinforcements to their victorious hero in time and thereby saved the great Western civilizer, and dug a historical grave for themselves. Truly, one can say with Bossuet that “God from the heights of heaven holds in His hands the reins of all kingdoms,” and when He wants to overthrow a kingdom, He blinds the wisdom of man and confuses its advice, so that the peoples themselves irresistibly strive towards their destruction. (Extracted in abbreviation from the brochure: A. Lopukhin. Divine Providence in the history of mankind.) 2. Traces of God's Providence in the destinies of modern humanity First of all, we can point to the self-evident fact that the modern Christian world, being more mature, enjoys much greater freedom of self-determination in its life than the ancient chosen people, who in essence were under the yoke of the law, which determined its entire life - down to the smallest detail. This is obviously the highest level of the educational process. In accordance with this stage of maturity, the person being brought up is given more opportunities to draw lessons for himself from his own everyday trials on his own, since it is precisely this upbringing that deeply captures the whole being of a person than external instructions and rules. And the whole of Christian history is precisely a continuous series of similar educational trials for mankind, which usually end in a deep and fruitful lesson for him. Thus, already from the first centuries of Christianity we are faced with the fact that, abusing freedom, the masses of Christians deviated from the truth of the Gospel and fell into all sorts of sectarian nonsense, inevitably accompanied by extreme licentiousness and a decline in morality. But this sad experience immediately caused a reaction, and its fruitful result was that the essence of Christian doctrine was precisely and in detail defined at the Ecumenical Councils. When, however, the Ecumenical Councils were not able to curb the ecclesiastical and speculative self-will of the peoples who were not yet sufficiently imbued with the spirit of the Gospel, and throughout the East the pernicious religious and moral ferment continued, manifested in the multitude of sects that arose and disappeared, which boldly tore apart the Church and abused freedom, then a stronger measure turned out to be necessary. To cleanse the Church from the sectarian and moral filth that had accumulated in it, a scourge was needed, which, in the person of the false prophet, accomplished its cleansing work. Just as a storm clears a stagnant atmosphere, so Islam, sweeping like a storm throughout the East, cleansed the Christian world from the miasma that had accumulated in it, absorbing into itself all the elements unsuitable for the Church. At the same time, Islam, representing a new form of legal yoke, was, as it were, deliberately created in order to represent by its very existence the deepest contrast to Christianity, clearly demonstrating all its advantages as a kingdom of freedom 63. From this educational and providential point of view, the disintegration of Christianity into communities hostile to each other also becomes understandable. The origin of various religious forms is sufficiently explained partly by the inability of the human mind, in its alienation from the authority of faith, to embrace the truth of Christianity in its entirety and partly by the abuse of Christian freedom - in the preference of national-cultural interests to the interest of universal truth. From this side, the division of Christianity is therefore evil, or at least an expression of spiritual weakness. But from a higher point of view, it is not without deep meaning and is one of the essential elements in the education of Christian self-awareness. In each of the main faiths, one of the aspects of Christianity was especially expressed, and as a result could receive such a development that it could not have had in the absence of division. In fact, in Roman Catholicism the external legal side of Christianity developed with extraordinary force to such an extent that the Roman Church, during the period of its highest development, was able, by purely external authority, to restrain and suppress the crudest passions of wild and civilized barbarians, and thereby undoubtedly rendered an enormous service to modern culture, unanimously recognized by historians. On the other hand, Protestantism, being a necessary counterbalance to the excessive development of the papacy, had its own special educational significance. The internal, speculative side of Christianity especially developed in him, and in those periods when the Orthodox East froze in its mental life under the terrible oppression of Islam, and the Roman Catholic West under the all-suppressing authority of the papacy, Christian speculation freely developed in the Protestant world, and although it deviated from the strict principles of universal Christianity, however, despite this, it provided the richest food for spiritual Christian life, and the fruits Even Orthodox peoples have used and continue to use Protestant theology, especially in the fight against Roman Catholicism. At the same time, both Western faiths, representing two extreme opposites in the understanding of Christianity and, therefore, two one-sidedness, must of necessity wage a constant struggle, and from this polemical struggle the one-sidedness of both of them is logically revealed, the need to find a comprehensive synthesis for them, and this synthesis for any serious and impartial mind turns out to be a view identical with Orthodoxy, as is reflected in many of the newest works and even entire movements like the Old Catholic 64. Hence, Western faiths, each promoting the development of Christian self-awareness on their part, constitute educational steps towards understanding the incomparable treasure of universal Orthodoxy, for which at the same time they often serve as motives that stimulate life activity. And more than once it turned out from experience that the Orthodox themselves were only just beginning to understand and appreciate Orthodoxy when they became acquainted with Western faiths and had the opportunity for comparison. And among Orthodox peoples, the activity of Orthodox thought and life has always been especially elevated in those periods when they had to come into close contact with heterodox peoples and defend themselves from their attacks, either with weapons in their hands, or with pen and ink, in the field of spiritual competition. The division of the Christian world then reflected another most important aspect of the providential education of humanity. Although the entire Christian world is the chosen one, a light for the pagan world, however, just as in the ancient chosen people there were special chosen ones who were more in line with the idea of ​​election than the rest of the people, for whom they served as an example and reproof, so among Christian peoples the very idea of ​​education requires a special chosen one who would serve as the light and embodiment of the universal truth of Christianity in all its fullness. Although the Western peoples remained essentially Christian, they largely allowed themselves to be carried away by their earthly ideals, to which they sacrificed universal truth. As a result, they began to prosper more in material earthly culture, and the image of Christ for them too often began to be obscured by the idol of national interests. The very plan of education required putting up a counterweight to them - in the person of a people who would value Christ most of all in the world, even if this temporarily placed them below other peoples in the successes of earthly culture. What kind of people they are, only history can answer. But, of course, this is a people who embodies not the one-sided, but the universal truth of Christianity, namely the Orthodox people. And good for the people who will understand in time their highest purpose in history and, with their free initiative, will contribute to the goals of their election, and not renounce the highest calling entrusted to them - in the name of vague cosmopolitanism. The present world is in the process of education, and no one can say what awaits it in the future. But one thing undoubtedly strikes the observer of historical destinies, namely, that if Orthodoxy is the light of the Christian world, then the people who bear it had and have to experience the rod of punishing love and truth most of all. In fact, the Orthodox East with its peoples experienced historical adversity most of all, and while the Western peoples could live and develop freely, the Orthodox peoples languished under the heavy yoke of the Asian barbarians, who fell upon them with all their weight as the foremost guardians of the Christian world. For centuries, Orthodox Russia languished under the Mongol yoke, and for centuries, Orthodox Greece languished, and even now, in its main part, it is under the Turkish yoke, which also weighed on the Balkan Slavs. No human logic is able to fully explain this mystery of providential economy in its entirety, and in this regard, the ways of God are inscrutable. But we are not left in complete ignorance, and already now one edge of the mystery has clearly been raised by history. And here, first of all, the great truth is revealed that God punishes him and loves him. His chosen ones are subjected to the most difficult trials in human eyes, which, however, constitute a benefit both for them and for the whole world. The same thing was reflected in this fact. The Orthodox Byzantine Empire was subjected to the heavy yoke of Mohammed, who raised the crescent moon on the most majestic churches of Christianity and imposed a heavy yoke on the Orthodox peoples for entire centuries. But if you look closer, it was not without very good results. Thus, after the conquest of Constantinople, escaping the cruel yoke of the barbarians, masses of Greek Orthodox scholars moved to the west and there, with their Orthodox learning, they fertilized the dead scholasticism of Latinism and undoubtedly contributed to that great revival of the sciences and arts, which led to the impulse of the Western world to throw off the yoke of Latinism and restore a purer Christianity, closer to the universal truth. This was a net boon for the Western world. But the disaster was not without its good, and at the same time deeply important, side for the Orthodox East itself. Under the heavy yoke, he stopped his spiritual development and began to guard the treasures of Orthodoxy entrusted to him with greater devotion. Alienated from intercourse with the West, he remained aloof from its harmful influence in many respects, became inaccessible to the encroachments of the papacy and, in complete integrity, just as Egyptian antiquity in all its integrity was preserved in stone tombs, preserved ancient Orthodoxy until the present day, when it is destined to once again enter the field of world-historical life. Along with Orthodoxy, the Orthodox peoples of the Greco-Slavic world also retained their historical vitality, and of course it is not by chance that the amazing phenomenon that those of the Slavic peoples who for entire centuries languished under the heavy Turkish yoke are now again appearing in the field of world-historical life - free both politically and spiritually, while their Western brothers, who were not under this yoke, are now in political and spiritual slavery, in every way In this case, they have neither political nor religious independence, being absorbed by the heterodox West. Even more strikingly, the same side of providential education appears in the fate of the Orthodox Russian people. In many respects, this is a long-suffering people in the full sense, and the rod of supreme love and truth has often punished them in history with extraordinary severity. In the very flowering of his youthful strength, when everything seemed to promise him a great and bright future, he was crushed and crushed by a wild Asian horde, which imposed its heavy yoke on him for entire centuries. A cry of despair spread throughout the Russian land, and its wisest sons were at a loss about the mystery of the inscrutable ways of Providence, and even today many historians see in the Mongol yoke nothing but great evil, which continues to affect life even now. Meanwhile, one has only to look at this disaster from a different, higher point of view, and everything will appear in a different light: the grave disaster will turn out to be a loving punishment that has brought wonderfully good and great fruits. In fact, the Mongol invasion caught the Russian people at the very moment when Slavic strife had brought them to the most disastrous political disunity, when the principalities were exhausting each other in endless civil strife and when dangerous attempts had already begun to interfere with foreigners in their internal affairs. It's clear what this could lead to. The heterodox West would not fail to lay its treacherous hand on these principalities, weakened by mutual enmity, and this would inevitably be followed by spiritual slavery, to which the Western Slavs were subjected. Then, undoubtedly, it was much better to give your body into slavery in order to save your soul, and the Russian people were plunged into such and such physical slavery by the Mongols. Of course, the suffering of the Orthodox Russian people was severe, and the cry of the chroniclers, mourning the smoking ruins of cities and villages, cannot help but touch the hearts even now. And yet, out of this great disaster came great good. Under severe testing, discord ceased, Rus' began to gather itself, found a stable center of gravity in Moscow, and, more and more drawing its popular forces towards this center, it grew into a powerful state, before which the Western peoples stopped in amazement and Islam trembled. Russia has become exactly what it now is, that is, a powerful guardian of the universal truth of Christianity, while the Russian people, being the bearer of universal truth in their church life, begins to reveal in the face of the world strength and power that arouse the involuntary surprise of the heterodox West, which is becoming obsolete in its one-sidedness. (See brochure: A.P. Lopukhin. “Divine Providence in the History of Mankind.”) Appendix A. Divine Providence and Science The Christian teaching about the Providence of God not only does not contradict sound natural scientific concepts about the world, but is also required by them. This should say not only: a) about natural, but also about b) supernatural Providence. a) The essence of the first type of Providence, or natural Providence, assumes the immutability and indestructibility of the natural order in nature or its laws given by the Creator, their complete inviolability. We find an excellent explanation of this type of Providence from Prof. V.D. Kudryavtseva: “If we must recognize a supremely intelligent Being as the legislator of the world, then isn’t it natural to assume that the laws given by Him, as the most reasonable, will be constant and unchanging, and that He will rule the world with the help of the same laws that are given to Him, and not by violating and constantly changing them. Divine world rule with the perfection of the Divine cannot be conceived otherwise than with the possible exact preservation of those laws and forces that exist in nature, with the implementation of the idea and purpose of the world under the conditions that determine the normal order of things. So, the natural conformity of the world, the invariable dominance of physical laws, the independence of the actions of rational beings - all this cannot shake the thought of Providence. We must imagine providence not only in the form of intrusions of supernatural power into the natural course of things, but as a gradual and harmonious implementation of the rational purpose of the world with the independence of its forces and laws. We must look for traces of the Divine world government not in supernatural events alone, but first of all and mainly in the ordinary law-conforming order of physical and spiritual nature” (Elementary Foundations of Philosophy. 2nd edition. Moscow, 1891. pp. 187–188). All these thoughts find full recognition among the best representatives of exact science. b) Incorrect explanations of the second type of Providence, supernatural, or miracle, in theology gave science reason to fear the disruption of order in nature under the supernatural influence of God on it. But this fear becomes unfounded in view of the now established concept of a miracle, which excludes any thought about its opposition to nature; on the contrary, it presupposes nature as one of its necessary constituent elements. In particular, the inviolability of this order of nature under supernatural Providence is so thoroughly demonstrated in apologetics and Christian philosophy that here it is enough to briefly indicate the results obtained. It can be clarified by a) an analogy with human activity in nature... “That (miracles) by their existence do not violate the conformity of laws (of nature), the clearest proof of this is the arbitrary actions of man on nature. In relation to the natural flow of nature, they are also something unnatural, i.e. unconditioned by nature itself and in relation to it, external and accidental, however, they do not violate the life and harmony of nature. A man, for example, cut down a tree; the death of a tree at a given moment is not at all something predetermined by the natural course of the laws of nature; it is a random phenomenon - a fact, forcibly, so to speak, introduced into the law-governed course of the world; but did this in any way disrupt the order of nature? Has it stopped in its flow? Has this new phenomenon produced a new series of changes in nature that interrupt its harmonious movement? Whether a tree is cut down or remains in place, the world remains whole and unharmed. The same thing will obviously happen if we assume, for example, that the tree was not cut down by a human hand, but suddenly fell and died by the action of some supernatural force; no change or disorder will occur in nature” (V.D. Kudryavtsev. Initial foundations of philosophy. p. 190). “You claim that nature is immutable and that with my prayer I can neither change nor delay the course of events. Is this true? Why do you, who reason in this way, make, for example, movements? Why are you looking for food? Why do you sow? Why are you building? Each of your actions is an obvious contradiction to your system. You claim that you cannot change nature and its laws, but you yourself change it every minute. You lift, for example, a stone and by this alone you violate the law of gravity, which kept it on the ground. You impart a new life to a sick and almost decayed member, which should transform it; you are grafting into a tree a branch that nature could never have reproduced on its own; you transform into an instrument of work and life those brute forces that, if left to themselves, would bring destruction everywhere; you extract from the poison itself the element which delays death: you do all this. You constantly and incessantly influence the world and people. I will say more: you sometimes resist even God Himself with your self-will and arbitrariness, and meanwhile, when I want to pray, you stop my impulses, opposing the immutability of nature to my prayer” (Bersier. Conversations, ed. 2nd. St. Petersburg, 1890. Pp. 198–199). – b) The relationship of a miracle to the natural order of nature is explained by analogy and from nature itself. By a miracle, or the influence of the highest Divine power on nature, the forces of nature are not destroyed, but are only overcome and, like lower ones, are subject to a higher and greater force. We constantly observe a similar phenomenon in nature itself under the form of the so-called neutralization of forces, a constant phenomenon that does not entail any disruption of order in nature. It consists in the fact that when two dissimilar forces meet, one gives way to the other and is paralyzed by it; Thus, chemical forces neutralize gravity to a certain extent; vital, or organic, forces - lower chemical (which determines the life of the organism); Usually the force of chemical affinity is neutralized by the forces of electricity, heat and light; Thus, by passing an electric current through water, water is decomposed into its constituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen (i.e. the force of chemical affinity connecting them ceases to act) 65, which is achieved by heating also water in its gaseous state, i.e. pair; carbon dioxide is decomposed by the action of heat into carbon monoxide and oxygen (Carpenter, p. 75); Thus, examples of the decomposition of complex bodies by the action of light are also well known in photography and in the plant kingdom - the decomposition of carbon dioxide by plants under the influence of light, when oxygen is released and carbon becomes part of the plant (Carpenter, p. 75). The agreement of the doctrine of supernatural Providence with the scientific view of the immutability of a given order in nature is thus undeniable. But there must be something more to say than this. The idea of ​​Divine Providence in general, in both its forms, is not only not denied, but is assumed by the data of scientific cosmology as the basis on which it ultimately rests if it wants to have the appearance of a definite, integral worldview. Its center of gravity lies in the doctrine of matter and force, and, briefly, in its essential features, natural-scientific cosmology can be presented in the following schematic form. Matter is “something” (x) extended, complex, or divisible, impenetrable, accessible to a certain extent to external senses. Motion and rest (relative) are states of matter. The main types of the first state of matter, i.e. movement, the essence of movement is molar (moving mass) and molecular (body particles). The cause of changes in matter, or better yet, of its movements, is force. There are as many forces as there are types of changes (phenomena), or forms of motion, in matter. All changes, or states, of matter are reduced to motion, and therefore the main force is the force of motion. The essence of this main force is the “Unknown” for science, but close to faith, the Absolute Origin of all things, the First Power or Supreme Power, i.e. Deity (Prime Mover, in Aristotle’s beautiful expression). Only in the action of this force can science indicate the final source of the actions of the finite forces of nature. Yes, she must do this if she does not want to contradict one of her basic laws, which states that every force is activated or detected under the influence of an external or other force on it (the law of the transition of potential energy into kinetic). If so, then, without the assumption of an absolute and self-acting force, our thought in the final explanation of the activity of forces in nature (its life) would be placed in a logically impossible position: we would have to assume an infinite series of finite forces mutually conditioning each other - which is absurd. However, and regardless of the specified scientific law, the explanation of the order prevailing in nature and history by mechanical causality alone, i.e. the action of extremely heterogeneous, often hostile forces and elements, in any case, in no way coordinated into an integral unity and acting independently of each other, is impossible for scientific thought without the assumption of a supreme and highest reason that controls everything. Finally, it is impossible not to pay attention in conclusion to the fact that science cannot and does not have the right, without contradicting its principles, to deny (as well as affirm, however) the doctrine of Providence by its own means: it only has access to the observation of facts in their external causal connection, and not their final, or internal, basis, from the point of view of the doctrine of Providence, lying outside the realm of mechanical causality in the unknown to us realm of higher theological causality. (See: Svetlov, priest, professor of theology at Kiev University. The experience of an apol. exposition of Orthodox Christian doctrine. T. I. Ed. 1896) B. Divine Providence and Human Freedom The image of Divine Providence changes depending on its objects: it is different in relation to an inanimate and unreasonable creature, another – in relation to a rational creature of the earth, i.e. to man (and angels). True, in both cases - both in the realm of morally rational and in the realm of irrational nature - God's Providence does not destroy the action of natural forces and laws of both realms of phenomena, for everything here is accomplished or created by the combined action of the providential will of God and the natural forces of creation; But otherwise the unreasonable creature submits to the will of the Divine, otherwise the rationally free creature. The unreasonable creature unconditionally submits to the intentions of Divine Providence; man’s subordination is conditional, it is conditioned by his freedom; in the first case, the law of physical necessity remains in full force; in the second, the law of moral necessity prevails, where the creature is not forced, but is encouraged to fulfill the plans of Divine Providence, in such a way that its freedom remains inviolable. However, with a deeper study of the question of the relationship of Divine Providence to human freedom, difficulties very naturally arise in recognizing the inviolability of human freedom before Divine Providence. From the teaching about the objects of Divine Providence or from its comprehensiveness and from the omniscience of God, the conclusion necessarily follows that from eternity God has predetermined, both in general and in the smallest details, the course of things in history and nature; and from the power of God (“every word of God fails” (Luke 1:37)) it follows that the Divine plan, to which the entire course of events in the world is subordinated, will certainly be realized and is being carried out, i.e. that everything must obey him with unconditional necessity, not excluding man. On the other hand, the integrity of human freedom seems to be impossible in connection with the unconditionality of Divine definitions, in view of the fact that a rationally free creature can with conscious persistence oppose its weak will to the absolute will of the Divine (especially in the kingdom of evil spirits). From the comparison of these two sides of the question, a dilemma arises, apparently solvable in no other way than by denying either Providence to preserve freedom, or freedom to preserve Providence; This dilemma says that by recognizing Providence freedom is destroyed, and by recognizing freedom Providence is destroyed. The natural outcome from this dilemma is given by the correct concept of freedom in general and of human freedom in particular (so much so that the dilemma itself does not exist with a correct concept of this). The difficulty is significantly reduced when freedom is clearly distinguished from arbitrariness and is understood as the ability of the will to choose for activity the determinations or motives that are provided to it in countless numbers from everywhere (in the nature of the spirit, body, in society, external nature, etc.). If our freedom consists only in submission, independent of our choice, to certain impulses (excitements) acting on it, then, obviously, its voluntary submission to the highest and only valuable impulse - the Divine will - is not a denial of freedom; on the contrary, only by subordination to the absolute, truly valuable will of the Divine does our will ascend to the level where it becomes truly free and rises above slavery to creation. In a deep and clear knowledge of the truth of life, i.e. the Divine will acting in history and in nature, and in complete, voluntary, joyful submission to it out of love for its incarnation in Christ lies the only means of liberating the human will from the state of slavery of the creature into a state of reason and freedom. “If you continue in My word,” said Jesus Christ, “then you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31–32). “I no longer call you slaves; for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father” (John 15:15). So, God’s Providence cannot be accompanied by a denial of the free will of those who strive for true freedom; as for others, they still do not have it - they do not have true and complete freedom. However, they (that is, people who do not strive to achieve freedom by coordinating their will with the Divine will and who do not know how to pray: Thy will be done!) - and they are not completely deprived of freedom in the lower, purely psychological meaning of the word. If Providence limits the freedom of their actions, then the freedom of desire always remains with them. “The freedom of a created being,” one theologian rightly notes, “consists not so much in performing actions as in the desire for actions that are possible under circumstances. So, when God denies the means for fulfilling the will, He does not limit the freedom of desire and only withholds the consequences of desire” 66. In this, in real earthly conditions, the essence of freedom (freedom to desire) is believed by the Christian religion, according to the teachings of which God imputes to a person not so much actions as moods and motives, or intentions when performing them 67 ; This is what freedom comes down to in practice or in experience, which is well known to everyone and which is beautifully expressed in one place by Shakespeare: “Our will and the will of fate diverge so much that we rarely succeed in fulfilling our intentions. Thought is our property; its fulfillment does not depend on us” (Hamlet, act 3, scene 2) 68. Everything that has been said about the relationship between Divine Providence and human freedom is based on the word of God. It expresses separately two thoughts: firstly, that actions and events and the entire life of individuals and peoples are carried out according to a plan predetermined from eternity by Divine Providence, so that in the end, in the realm of the moral and rational (history) “from Him, and by Him, and in Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36); secondly, the planned course of historical and private-individual events according to eternal predestination does not exclude some place for human freedom; the foreknowledge of the absolutely clairvoyant mind of God has assigned a place in the plan of world government to human freedom - in such a way that it is coordinated with it in detail and is designed to preserve it without prejudice to the final result, or goal, of the plan. Freedom is preserved, in addition, by the above-mentioned way of “knowing the truth” and other unknown and incomprehensible ways for us. a) The first thought, that the final direction of events in life is from the Lord, is expressed differently, for example: “lots are cast on the floor, but all its decisions are from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). “As I have thought, so it will be; as I have determined, so it will come to pass” (Isaiah 14:24). - “I know, Lord, that a man’s way is not in his will, that it is not in the power of the one who walks to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23; see also: Eph. 1:11; Is. 22:11). It is also expressed figuratively or by comparisons, so human life, the whole person is compared, for example, with what clay is in the hands of a potter, and Providence - with the hands of a potter who can make of it what he wants - and this is a very common comparison (Rom. 9, 18-21; Isa. 45, 9-11; Jer. 18, 1-10; Sir. 333, 13 ); they are also compared to an ax, a saw, a rod in the hands of Providence (Isa. 10:15). b) The second idea, that the plan of the Divine world government is not drawn up unconditionally independently of the fact of human freedom, - on the contrary, it takes it into account and is consistent with it, expressed in the same varied ways - in the idea, for example, about the conditionality of God's predestination in general (Rom. 8:22-29; 1 Pet. 1:2; Sir. 23:27-29; 39:31; Jer. 26:13). If God predetermines the fate of people (the salvation of some and the destruction of others) according to foreknowledge of how they will live, that is, the nature of their freedom, then this means that He has a providential plan in relation to this freedom of people. (See: Svetlov, priest, professor of theology at Kiev University. The experience of the apol. exposition of orthodoxy. Christian doctrine.) “Historical and statistical description of the Kharkov diocese.” Department III, Moscow, 1857, pp. 12–15. Field Marshal, Count Z.G. Chernyshev † August 29, 1784 Count P.I. Panin † April 15, 1789 Archimandrite Melchizedek received this information in 1818 from Countess A.R. herself. Chernysheva. “Historical and statistical description of the Kharkov diocese”, dep. III, pp. 16 – 17. Sn.: Arch. Gregory. Collection for loves. spirit. reading. Rev. Parthenius ruled the Tomsk diocese from 1854 to 1860. He cared a lot about the Altai mission. He died in 1873 as Archbishop of Irkutsk. Milonov was personally known by the rector of the Svyatogorsk hermitage, Archimandrite German, who laid the beginning of his monastic life in the I Linsk hermitage under Abbot Philaret. He enjoyed Milonov’s trust, and according to Fr. Herman, the correct information about him is given here. From the same point of view, it is not difficult to understand the significance of the fact that such old cultural countries as China and India remained outside Christianity. In them, the Christian world, as it were, deliberately preserved a clear example of the spiritual and generally cultural state to which the pagan world could come on its own and beyond which it was unable to go, and this state, in comparison with the state of the Christian world, best shows what great significance Christianity has for humanity. In view of this importance of Protestantism in the system of religious education of the Christian world, it becomes possible to explain the apparently accidental death of the invincible armada, which was supposed to suppress the Protestant peoples of the north, by the intervention of a higher will. In the minds of the Protestants themselves, this explanation is beyond any doubt. See: Dr. Helmholtz. Law of conservation of force. Kharkov, 1865, pp. 20 – 21. This phenomenon is known under the name of electrolysis, see: Carpenter. Energy in nature. Publ. lectures. Per. from English St. Petersburg, 1885. Pp. 100 onwards. Arch. Filaret Chernigovsky. Orthodox dogmatic theology. Chernigov, 1864. T. 1, p. 244. Blzh. Augustine expresses this thought well when he says: “You (Lord) reward people not because you do through them, but according to what they sought” (Confessions. Book 9, Chapter 8). And these, strictly speaking, are no longer our intentions, but the intentions of Providence. 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