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In the Holy Gospel, the Lord Himself says: Be wise as serpents and simple as doves (Matthew 10:16). The wisdom of the serpent, according to the saying of the interpreters, is that when a snake is beaten, it most of all preserves its head, so a Christian in adversity and difficult circumstances must most of all preserve the faith, secondly, the wisdom of the serpent consists in the fact that when a serpent wants to throw off its old skin, it crawls through a tight hole, otherwise it cannot throw off its old skin; Likewise, a Christian, if he wants to be taken away from the old man, must follow a narrow path according to the teaching of the Gospel. Pigeon integrity consists of kindness and forgiveness of insults or annoyances and the like (2, part 2, p. 180). [I once told my father about one family that I was very sorry for all of them: they did not believe in anything, neither in God nor in the future life; it is a pity precisely because they, perhaps, are not to blame for this themselves, they were brought up in such unbelief, or there were other reasons 12. Father shook his head and said angrily: “There is no excuse for atheists. After all, the Gospel is preached to everyone, to everyone, even to the pagans; Finally, by nature, we are all from birth endowed with the feeling of knowing God, therefore, it is our own fault. You ask whether it is possible to pray for such people. Of course, you can pray for everyone” (3, p. 231).] Some... renounced faith in God out of imitation of others and out of false shame. And here’s a case: one of them didn’t believe in God. And when, during the war in the Caucasus, he had to fight, in the midst of the battle, when bullets were flying past him, he bent down, hugged his horse and read all the time: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” And then, when, remembering this, his comrades laughed at him, he renounced his words... Yes, hypocrisy is worse than unbelief (1, part 1, pp. 102–103). Arm yourself with faith, with which the machinations of the opposition are crushed (13, p. 74). You might be interested in: