436. Ответ Обществу Любителей Духовного Просвещения, на избрание Попечителем оного

(September 11th; published in Readings of the General L.D.P. 1863 and in the Wanderer 1864) Greetings, Fathers and Brothers, your new voluntary union, into which you have been brought together and united by your love for spiritual enlightenment, which contains love for God, for faith, for piety, for the Orthodox Church, love for your brethren who are also aware of the need and have a desire to deepen and expand their spiritual concepts, but do not have the means and benefits for this - finally, in general, love for the children of the church and the desire to provide spiritual help to people who, with some warmth of faith, need the pure light of truth, or pursuing the ghost of truth and dreams of well-being, but deprived, or depriving themselves, of life by faith and the hope of bliss. I have no doubt that this is how you understand your real union: and in this sense, with hope, I call upon him the blessing of the Father of lights. Let us recall some of the features with which spiritual enlightenment, or what is the same thing, spiritual wisdom, is depicted by the Apostolic word: “wisdom from above is first pure, and then peaceable, meek, and submissive” (James 3:17). Let us not think that this is higher than your present enterprise, because the Apostle speaks of “wisdom and from above.” “Every good gift and every perfect gift... comes from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Not only the perfect “Lord gives wisdom,” but also in the little firstfruits “from His presence knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6). So, those who work in favor of true enlightenment must keep in mind and in consideration the features that distinguish true wisdom, so that the product of their labor does not turn out to be disfigured, and so that instead of true wisdom, false wisdom does not appear among them. Christian wisdom must be pure - pure in its source, in its motives and purpose. Its pure source is God - His word, contained in the sacred scriptures, clarified by church definitions, teachings and spiritual experiences of God-wise men. Its pure goal is also God - His knowledge in Christ, and blessed pleasing to Him. Active attention is needed to protect this purity from the impure influences of an unhumble mind, which itself wants to be the source of truth, - which does not recognize its limits before the infinite and incomprehensible, which, finding the eternal truth old, having the motivation of curiosity and the goal of vanity, indiscriminately chases after the new, and, as a guiding principle, follows the spirit of the time, even if it was the time before the flood - which, being lazy to work hard to emerge into the true realm of the spirit, plunges into matter, and here gets bogged down. Christian wisdom is peaceful, and those who strive for it must be peaceful. He must be peaceful within himself, not agitated by passions. Only in quiet, and not disturbed water, is the image of the sun reflected: only in a quiet soul, undisturbed by passions, can the highest light of spiritual truth be reflected. A lover of wisdom also needs to be peaceful in relation to others, “not to be content with words,” as the Apostle teaches, “for no purpose, for the ruin of those who hear” (2 Tim. 2:14), and if you need to stand for the truth against those who attack it, you should do this with calm firmness, without irritation, so that you can then say to yourself in your conscience: “be peaceable with those who hate the world” ( Ps.119:6). Wisdom Christian meek. It seems that at this time it is especially necessary to remind those who claim to enlightenment or to serve enlightenment about this quality. The spirit of censure is breathing violently in the field of Russian writing. He spares neither persons, nor titles, nor institutions, nor authorities, nor laws. What is this for? - They say: for correction. But we see censure fought with censure, doubled and tripled attacks, and neither side promises to improve. What is really going to happen if everything is burdened and everyone is burdened with blame? – Naturally, there is a decrease in respect, trust, and hope for everything and everyone. So, does the spirit of reproach create or destroy? Arrows of censure are flying at our title from different directions. Let us accept their “armor of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14) and try to respond to fair censures, if possible, with correction, and to unjust ones with patience. It is regrettable that even within our camp the “lords of shooting” have appeared, who sometimes “lash” a bow against their brothers (Gen. 49:23), in periodical publications and in books. You, brothers, do not and will not allow such things to happen. You will not forget the words of the Wise One: “A gentle man is a physician to the heart” (Proverbs 14:30), since, on the contrary, a cruel word does not heal, but adds illness to illness. Christian wisdom is kind. She preaches and grants freedom: but at the same time she teaches “to be subject... to every... authority for the Lord's sake” (1 Pet. 2:13). The current wisdom talks a lot about freedom; but often forgets about obedience to the Lord for the sake of it, and produces disobedience. The zealots of true enlightenment must raise the spirit of the people from slavish baseness and spiritual numbness to the free disclosure of their abilities and strengths: but at the same time, affirm them in obedience to the laws and authorities established by God, and protect them from self-will, which is the madness of freedom. These are the thoughts that I encountered when you, Brothers, entered a new field of activity, close to which you placed me by your election. What will I say in response to this election? – It is no longer time for me to promise you satisfactory activities in relation to your Society; and therefore, perhaps, it would be fair to refuse your election. However, I do not refuse because I cannot, in my heart, remain alien to you. To the best of our ability and ability, we will take care of the common cause and each other. You might be interested in: