13. Слово на восшествие на престол его величества государя императора Александра Николаевича (Наше благоденствие зависит и от нас, но определяется верностью и непоколебимостью начал, которых держимся. Это понятие о Боге, о всем тварном, о человеке, о мире с его началом, продолжением и концом)

Nowadays we do not need to look far for lessons of edification and subjects of interview. On the day of his accession to the throne, the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor gave it to us in his first word to all his faithful subjects. Remember. There, prescribing the complete program of prosperity that he wishes for the people, the Sovereign Emperor especially wanted to imprint in the minds of everyone the idea of ​​​​its foundation, the most durable, indicating it in a living, enlightened and active faith. It is this lesson that naturally comes into focus every time the accession to the throne of the Sovereign Emperor is celebrated. Let’s focus our attention on it a little. Although I am sure that you are not thinking differently, I will, however, offer you two or three thoughts and, for my part, with the goal of reviving this truth on the day from which new beneficial orders began for us. First thought: Prosperity is conditioned by good fruit and the success of our actions. The success and fruit of our actions depend on the faithfulness and firmness of our steps or decisions. The fidelity and firmness of steps and decisions are determined by the fidelity and steadfastness of the principles that we adhere to. “A man is double-minded,” says the Apostle James, “unsettled in all his ways. Doubt is like the turbulence of the sea, tossed and tossed by the winds” (James 1:6,8). Whoever wanders (is drawn) here and there with his mind, what lasting good can be expected from him? – So, the initial beginning of all good, or the fruitful arrangement of our paths, is the ordering of our mind, or its establishment in true and sound principles. By this I mean true concepts about the Supreme Being and His relationship to us and to everything created, about ourselves and everything around us, about the world with its beginning, continuation and end, about our present and the future awaiting us. The totality of sound concepts about all this, like light, will illuminate all our paths, and no one who walks in it will stumble. The question now is, where can we get such concepts? – Don’t expect them from your mind. And everyone’s own experience, and the experiences of those around us, and even more so the history of the mind, do not allow us to believe him. If correct concepts about everything are possible for us, then this is only when we are taught by God. God is the source of being; in him is the source of all knowledge. And He did not hide this hidden wisdom of His from us. The Spirit of God introduced the minds of the apostles and prophets into the treasury of the wisdom of God; they drew from there and proclaimed to us, proclaimed wisdom, which none of the princes of this century - geniuses - knew or could know. What remains for us now? – All that remains is to take all the truths proclaimed from the face of God and imprint them on the mind. We have natural principles of knowledge and cognition that constitute the nature of the mind. As soon as the mind begins to act, it certainly acts according to these principles. Now we need to bring God-revealed truths into the mind so deeply that they dissolve with it and, together with its natural principles, begin to constitute its nature, so that no matter what occasion our mind begins to act, it would act not only according to natural principles, but also according to God-revealed principles. Divinely revealed truths, in short, are what they proclaim! - God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created everything and provides for everything, saves us, the fallen and perishing, in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church, cleansing us here, so that for the sake of the little work here, after death he may rest us in eternal peace. This is a brief outline of the image of the wisdom of God, or the image of sound words, as the holy Apostle calls it. Take this and imprint it in your mind, and then, whatever you begin to judge and whatever you begin to cognize, judge everything and cognize everything as required by the indicated basic concepts, as initial principles. Whether you want to know the world, or a person, or history, or something else, convey God-revealed truths everywhere and trust everything with them - accept what agrees, reject what does not agree. The consequence of this will be that the entire area of ​​our knowledge will be permeated with God’s truth, which will give it unity, harmonious agreement in all parts and hence unshakable firmness. Then our mind will no longer be blown away by every wind of teaching. Now apply this conclusion to life. – Who lays down or preserves the principles of state life, establishes social and family orders, builds and manages all kinds of enterprises – both small and large? - The mind, according to the principles that formed in it. Since the mind is now firmly and firmly based with its principles on unshakable God-revealed truths, then everything that comes from it will be true, strong, unshakable and, therefore, beneficial and saving. “Now if you want the people to faithfully move towards their happiness, confirm them in the holy Orthodox faith and keep it in them.” -What happened that the nations fell into confusion? - asks the prophet David. - And he answers: they rebelled against the Lord and His Christ - and fell into disarray. This, I believe, sufficiently explains one side of the truth that the foundation of prosperity lies in faith. I'll offer you another idea. Each of Us has a task that we must fulfill with our lives; families and clans have their own tasks; societies and states are their own. And no one will argue that the happiness and well-being of the people, as a family and as an individual, depend on the fulfillment of their task. Prosperity can be achieved after this very simply: find out your task and complete it. How can you keep up with this? We do not set tasks for ourselves, and it is not chance that imposes them on us. They are set and imposed on us by the all-ruling right hand of God. It defines every particular and combines them all into one common thing, constituting the imprinted book of God’s providence, according to which everything that exists and happens is directed... What is this? - someone will say. All the mechanism? For who can resist the will of God? - Don't be embarrassed! The all-ruling right hand of God has two laws for its actions: it acts differently on the material world and differently on rational creatures. The material world flows according to the forces and laws established in it towards the direction indicated to it steadily. There is no room for arbitrariness here! Only for the sake of higher moral goals does the Divine beck sometimes suspend, accelerate or change this flow for a time, in a certain place and case, leaving it everywhere else unchanged. Not so in relation to intelligent creatures, for whom the material world is only a place of development, a field and a stage of action. Here the Lord appoints both private and general goals; but it does not bind anyone to achieve them, but expects rationally free creatures to recognize these goals themselves and freely determine themselves to achieve them. Those who enter into God's intentions are pleased and blessed. Those who do not want to enter into these intentions and evade them are rejected and suffer. But this deviation of some does not ensure that God’s intention remains unfulfilled. Some did not fulfill them, others will take their place to fulfill them. If these do not fulfill them, third and fourth ones will be called until, finally, those who will faithfully fulfill them appear. The immutability of the laws of God's providence regarding rational creatures consists in the immutability of goals, and complete arbitrariness, complete freedom and, therefore, variability are left in their executors. The whole task, therefore, of both individuals and entire societies and states is to enter into God’s intentions and fulfill them, to get on the path of God’s providence and follow it. The people, faithful to the instructions of God, are blessed and prosperous, stand and grow stronger; a people that ceases to be faithful to him weakens as they become unfaithful, just as they stand and continue to live as they remain faithful. How to get on the path of God's providence? – Faithful fulfillment of God’s will and devotion to His leadership. The will of God is set forth in the holy faith of Christ: walk according to the instructions and requirements of this faith - and you will walk in the will of God. The habit of this walk will produce in us a similar disposition to the will of God, and from this similar disposition the ability to listen to God’s beckons is formed, the faithful to which finally ascends to that blissful state in which “God is active... both to will and to do good will” (Phil. 2:13). This is how it happens in each person, and in the whole people, when he is zealous to be unswervingly faithful to the holy will of God in Christ Jesus. “I will dwell in them and walk around, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16) says the Lord. A people devoted to God and faithful to God always has a pillar of cloud - a sure indicator of movement and camps2, and the direction of the path. I believe that this explains another side of the truth that the basis of prosperity is in living and active faith. In conclusion, I will try to eliminate one injustice that spoils and makes even the most tireless concern for prosperity fruitless. There are people who limit happiness to external well-being alone and believe it in the completeness and perfection of material life. These are those who do not believe in a primeval paradise and do not expect a future, but want to establish it here - on earth, for the duration of their stay on it. Look how fragile this foundation is! Everything material is fluid. Wanting to install it is the same as wanting to solidify air. Here is a house full of all good things; but lightning from the sky or a spark was carelessly dropped, an hour or two - and there was nothing left. There is a ship on the sea, and on it all the property of the owner. But a storm arose - the ship was destroyed and the owner on the board was thrown ashore with nothing. Here is a rich field, promising a harvest; but a cloud came and in one hour everything was knocked out. Inde - hundreds and thousands of cattle are walking, in which all the property of the owner; an evil wind will come and the cattle will fall in a short time. So it is in everything: in health, in the family environment, in relationships, in places of service and in degrees - everything flows; and to rely entirely on any of this means to rely on nothing. If there were no other foundations, everyone who relies on the material, if they lose it, must be completely upset and fall. Job – what didn’t he have? “But his peace and happiness did not rest on material things. Why, when there is nothing left, he stands firm, although the weakness of nature, in the form of his wife, strongly attempts to shake him. He had another foundation in himself, a trustworthy one, and he appeared strong. Those who do not have the same foundation either lose their minds or take their own lives. One zealot for the people's welfare says this about himself: I felt sorry for the people around me, and I wanted to make them happy. I thought: I will invent a way to bring him prosperity. Having contentment, he will be peaceful, calm and cheerful. That’s right, I arranged it so that contentment in my neighborhood rose. But this did not bring happiness, peace and tranquility to my people - and grumbling, envy, quarrels, murders, confusion, and enmity increased along with contentment. It was bitter for me to see this! But then one day I meet a disabled person. He moved from the church to the almshouse. Deep calm and joy shone in his face, and I wanted to know the secret of his life. From a conversation with him, I became convinced that he was definitely genuinely happy, but not with the happiness here, but with the one that he confidently expected in another life. According to my strength, he said, I run away from sins and do good; I repent of my sins to the Lord and try to atone for them with all my efforts, and especially by patiently enduring everything that happens to me, and I believe that the Lord will not deprive me of His mercy. After this conversation, I completely changed my thoughts about making the people happy. There is no happiness on earth. Kindle faith in a person in the future life, indicate the correct conditions for obtaining bliss in it and assure him that, no matter how insignificant a state he may be in, this in no way deprives him of the opportunity to fulfill these conditions and be worthy of blissful eternity. This is the attitude of a person - he will be happy, no matter how bad his external affairs go. Set up a whole people this way - the whole people will be happy, no matter how meager in external prosperity they may be. This is the conclusion that experience has led a reasonable person to! There is no need to explain that such a mood can only be expected from the power of living and active faith. He who believes in the Lord undoubtedly longs to be where the Lord is, Who said: “Where I am, there also will My servant be” (John 12:26). The conditions for this are maintaining the holy faith, cleansing the heart from passions, for which the same faith provides methods and strength. These conditions are fulfilled in the soul, which is always in the power of man. As for things to do, they are limited by possibilities. A glass of water, a mite, a word in an internal, godly mood receives a dignity that is eternally valuable. Is there anyone who would not be able to do this and the like? Is there anyone who could not put himself in a state of happiness, following the instructions of the holy faith? Why does the spread and strengthening of living faith among the people mean strengthening their happiness and contentment? Weakening of faith is a diminishment of this happiness. Behind this comes heaviness and despair, leading to confusion, disorder and the search for happiness in upheavals, which often do not have a specific goal - the fruits of one dull dissatisfaction with oneself and one’s condition. You see for yourself what those who directly or indirectly weaken the foundations of faith and life in themselves or others do: they destroy themselves and prepare the death of others, and sometimes of the entire people. This is the whole secret of the people's happiness and prosperity! Let us pray to the Lord that He will forever preserve these truths imprinted in our hearts, and give us the opportunity to actively comply with the care of our Most Pious Sovereign for the establishment of our well-being on the solid and unshakable foundation of our holy faith. Amen. You might be interested in: