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040 - Book Six Chapter One · Brothers Karamazov

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Speaker 1: Chapter forty of The Brother's Karamatzo by Fayodor Dostoyevsky, translated
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Speaker 1: by Constance Garnet. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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Speaker 1: domain recording by Tony Addison, Book six, The Russian Monk,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one, Father Zossima and his visitors. When with an
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Speaker 1: anxious and aching heart, Alyosha went into his elder soul,
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Speaker 1: he stood almost astonished, instead of a sick man at
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Speaker 1: his last gasp, perhaps unconscious as he had feared to
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Speaker 1: find him, He saw him sitting up in his chair,
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Speaker 1: and though weak and exhausted, his face was bright and cheerful.
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Speaker 1: He was sir rounded by visitors and engaged in a
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Speaker 1: quiet and joyful conversation. But he had only got up
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Speaker 1: from his bed a quarter of an hour before Alyosha's arrival.
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Speaker 1: His visitors had gathered together in his cell earlier, waiting
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Speaker 1: for him to wait, having received a most confident assurance
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Speaker 1: from Father Paisi that the teacher would get up, and,
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Speaker 1: as he had himself promised in the morning, converse once
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Speaker 1: more with those dear to his heart. This promise and
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Speaker 1: indeed every word of the dying elder Father Paisi, put
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Speaker 1: implicit trust in if he had seen him unconscious, if
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Speaker 1: he had seen him breathe his last and yet had
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Speaker 1: his promise that he would rise up and say good
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Speaker 1: bye to him, he would not have believed, perhaps even
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Speaker 1: in death, but would still have expected the dead man
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Speaker 1: to recover and fulfill his promise. In the morning, as
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Speaker 1: he lay down to sleep, Father Zassima had told him positively,
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Speaker 1: I shall not die without the delight of another conversation
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Speaker 1: with you, beloved of my heart. I shall look once
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Speaker 1: more on your dear face and pour out my heart
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Speaker 1: to you once again. The monks who had gathered for
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Speaker 1: this probably last conversation with Father Zassima had all been
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Speaker 1: his devoted friends for many years. There were four of them,
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Speaker 1: Father Joseph and Father Paissi. Father Mihaiel, the warden of
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Speaker 1: the hermitage, a man not very old and far from
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Speaker 1: being learned. He was of humble origin, of strong will
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Speaker 1: and steadfast faith, of austere appearance, but of deep tenderness,
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Speaker 1: though he obviously concealed it as though he were almost
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Speaker 1: ashamed of it. The fourth, Father Anthem, was a very
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Speaker 1: old and humble little monk of the poorest peasant class.
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Speaker 2: He was almost.
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Speaker 1: Illiterate and very quiet, scarcely speaking to any one. He
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Speaker 1: was the humblest of the humble, and looked as though
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Speaker 1: he had been frightened by something great and awful beyond
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Speaker 1: the scope of his intelligence. Far the Zossima had a
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Speaker 1: great affection for this timorous man, and always treated him
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Speaker 1: with marked respect, though perhaps there was no one he
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Speaker 1: had known to whom he had said less in spite
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Speaker 1: of the fact that he had spent years wandering about
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Speaker 1: Holy Russia with him. That was very long ago, forty
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Speaker 1: years before, when Father Zossima first began his life as
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Speaker 1: a monk in a poor and little monastery at Gastroma,
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Speaker 1: and when shortly after he had accompanied Father Anthem on
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Speaker 1: his pilgrimage to collect arms for their poor monastery. The
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Speaker 1: whole party were in the bedroom, which, as we mentioned before,
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Speaker 1: was very small, so that there was scarcely room for
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Speaker 1: the four of them, in addition to poor Firy the novice,
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Speaker 1: who stood to sit round Father Zossima on chairs brought
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Speaker 1: from the sitting room. It was already beginning to get dark.
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Speaker 1: The room was lighted up by the lamps and the candles.
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Speaker 1: Before the icons, seeing Alyosha standing embarrassed in the doorway.
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Speaker 1: Father Zassima smiled at him joyfully and held out his hand. Welcome,
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Speaker 1: my quiet one, Welcome, my dear here you are too.
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Speaker 1: I knew you would come. Alyosha went up to him,
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Speaker 1: bowed down before him to the ground and wept. Something
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Speaker 1: surged up from his heart. His soul was quivering. He
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Speaker 1: wanted to sob. Come, don't weep over me yet. Father
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Speaker 1: Zassima smiled, laying his right hand on his head. You see,
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Speaker 1: I am sitting up talking. Maybe I shall live another
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Speaker 1: twenty years. Yet, as that dear good woman from Vishigoa,
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Speaker 1: with her little Lizavetta in her arms, wished me yesterday,
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Speaker 1: God blessed the mother and the little girl, Lizavetta.
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Speaker 2: He crushed himself.
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Speaker 1: Poor Firy, did you take her offering where I told you?
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Speaker 1: He meant the sixty kopecks brought him the day before
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Speaker 1: by the good humored woman, to be given to someone
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Speaker 1: poorer than me. Such offerings, always of money gained by
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Speaker 1: personal toil, are made by way of penance, voluntarily undertaken.
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Speaker 1: The elder had sent poor Firy the evening before.
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Speaker 2: To a widow whose house had.
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Speaker 1: Been burnt down lately, and who, after the fire, had
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Speaker 1: gone with her children begging arms. Poor Firy hastened to
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Speaker 1: reply that he had given the money as he had
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Speaker 1: been instructed from an unknown benefactress. Get up, my dear boy,
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Speaker 1: the elder went on to Alyosha, Let me look at you.
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Speaker 1: Have you been home and seen your brother? It seemed
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Speaker 1: strange to Alyosha that he asked so confidently and precisely
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Speaker 1: about one of his brothers only, But which one? Then?
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Speaker 1: Perhaps he had sent him out both yesterday and to
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Speaker 1: day for the sake of that brother. I have seen
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Speaker 1: one of my brothers, answered Alyosha. I mean the elder
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Speaker 1: one to whom I baree down. I only saw him
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Speaker 1: yesterday and could not find him to day, said Alyosha.
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Speaker 1: Make haste to find him. Go again to morrow and
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Speaker 1: make haste. Leave everything and make haste. Perhaps you may
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Speaker 1: still have time to prevent something terrible down yesterday to
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Speaker 1: the great suppering in store for him. He was suddenly
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Speaker 1: silent and seemed to be pondering. The words were strange.
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Speaker 1: Father Eosaf, who had witnessed the scene yesterday, exchanged glances
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Speaker 1: with Father Paisi. Alyosha could not resist asking father and teacher,
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Speaker 1: he began with extreme emotion. Your words are too obscure.
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Speaker 1: What is this suffering in store for him?
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Speaker 2: Don't inquire.
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Speaker 1: I seemed to see something terrible yesterday, as though his
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Speaker 1: whole future were expressed in his eyes. A look came
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Speaker 1: into his eyes, so that I was instantly horror stricken
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Speaker 1: at what that man is preparing for himself. Once or
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Speaker 1: twice in my life I've seen such a look in
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Speaker 1: a man's face, reflecting, as it were, his future fate.
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Speaker 2: And that fate.
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Speaker 1: Alast came to pass. I sent you to him, Alexei,
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Speaker 1: for I thought your brotherly face would help him. But
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Speaker 1: everything and all our fates are from the Lord. Except
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Speaker 1: a corn of wheatful into the ground and die, it
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Speaker 1: abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
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Speaker 1: Remember that you, Alexei, I've many times silently blessed for
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Speaker 1: your face. Know that, added the elder, with a gentle smile,
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Speaker 1: this is what I think of you.
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Speaker 2: You will go.
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Speaker 1: Forth from these walls, but will live like a monk
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Speaker 1: in the world. You will have many enemies, but even
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Speaker 1: your foes will love you. Life will bring you many misfortunes,
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Speaker 1: but you will find your happiness in them, and will
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Speaker 1: bless life and will make others bless it, which is
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Speaker 1: what matters most well, That is your character, Fathers and teachers.
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Speaker 2: He addressed his.
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Speaker 1: Friends with a tender smile. I have never tilt the
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Speaker 1: day told even him why the face of this youth
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Speaker 1: is so dear to me? Now I will tell you
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Speaker 1: his face has been, as it were, a remembrance and
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Speaker 1: a prophecy for me at the dawn of my life.
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Speaker 1: When I was a child, I had an elder brother
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Speaker 1: who died before my eyes at seventeen. And later on
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Speaker 1: in the course of my life, I gradually became convinced
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Speaker 1: that that brother had been for a guidance and a
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Speaker 1: sign from on high for me, For had he not
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Speaker 1: come into my life, I should never Perhaps so I
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Speaker 1: fancy at least have become a monk and entered on
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Speaker 1: this precious path. He appeared first to me in my childhood,
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Speaker 1: and here at the end of my pilgrimage, he seems
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Speaker 1: to have come to me over again. It is marvelous,
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Speaker 1: Fathers and teachers, that Alexei, who has some though not
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Speaker 1: a great resemblance in face, seems to me so like
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Speaker 1: him spiritually that many times I have taken him for
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Speaker 1: that young man, my brother, mysteriously come back to me
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Speaker 1: at the end of my pilgrimage as a reminder and
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Speaker 1: an inspiration, so that I positively wondered at so strange
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Speaker 1: a dream in myself. Do you hear this?
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Speaker 2: Porfiry?
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Speaker 1: He turned to the novice who waited. Many times I
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Speaker 1: have seen in your face, as it were, a look
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Speaker 1: of mortification that I love Alexei more than you. Now
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Speaker 1: you know why that was so. But I love you too,
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Speaker 1: know that, and many times I grieved at your mortification.
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Speaker 1: I should like to tell you, dear friends, of that
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Speaker 1: youth my brother, for there has been no presence in
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Speaker 1: my life more precious, more significant and touching. My heart
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Speaker 1: is full of tenderness, and I look at my whole
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Speaker 1: life at this moment as though living through it again.
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Speaker 1: Here I must observe that this last conversation of father
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Speaker 1: Zossima with the friends who visited him on the last
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Speaker 1: day of his life has been partly preserved in writing.
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Speaker 1: Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamatz wrote it down from memory some time
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Speaker 1: after his elder's death, But whether this was only the
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Speaker 1: conversation that took place them or whether he added to
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Speaker 1: it his notes of parts of former conversations with his teacher,
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Speaker 1: I cannot determine. In his account, Father Zossima's talk goes
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Speaker 1: on without interruption, as though he told his life to
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Speaker 1: his friends in the form of a story. Though there
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Speaker 1: is no doubt from other accounts of it that the
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Speaker 1: conversation that evening was general. Though the guests did not
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Speaker 1: interrupt Father Zossima much, yet they too talked, perhaps even
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Speaker 1: told something themselves. Besides, Father Zossima could not have carried
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Speaker 1: on an uninterrupted narrative, for he was sometimes gasping for breath,
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Speaker 1: his voice failed him, and he even lay down to
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Speaker 1: rest on his bed, though he did not fall asleep,
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Speaker 1: and his visitors did not leave their seats one sor twice,
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Speaker 1: for conversation was interrupted by Father Paisse's reading the gospel.
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Speaker 1: It is worthy of Note two that no one of
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Speaker 1: them supposed that he would die that night, For on
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Speaker 1: that evening of his life, after his deep sleep in
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Speaker 1: the day, he seemed suddenly to have found new strength
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Speaker 1: which kept him up through this long conversation. It was
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Speaker 1: like a last effort of love, which gave him marvelous
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Speaker 1: energy only for a little time, however, for his life
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Speaker 1: was cut short immediately. But of that later I will
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Speaker 1: only add now that I have preferred to confine myself
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Speaker 1: to the account given by Alexei Fyodorovitch Karamatzov. It will
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Speaker 1: be shorter and not so fatiguing, though, of course, as
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Speaker 1: I must repeat, Alyosha took a great deal from previous
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Speaker 1: conversations and added them to it. Notes of the life
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Speaker 1: of the deceased priest and Monk the Elder Zostima, taken
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Speaker 1: from his own words by Alexei Fyodorovitch Karamatzov. Biographical notes
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Speaker 1: A father, Zossima's brother, Beloved.
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Speaker 2: Fathers and teachers.
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Speaker 1: I was born in a distant province in the north,
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Speaker 1: in the town of v My father was a gentleman
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Speaker 1: by birth, but of no great consequence or position. He
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Speaker 1: died when I was only two years old, and I
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Speaker 1: don't remember him at all. He left my mother a
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Speaker 1: small house built of wood, and a fortune, not large,
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Speaker 1: but sufficient to keep her and her children in comfort.
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Speaker 1: There were two of us, my elder brother, Markel and I.
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Speaker 1: He was eight years older than I. Was of hasty,
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Speaker 1: irritable temperament, but kind hearted and never ironical. He was
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Speaker 1: remarkably silent, especially at home with me, his mother, and
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Speaker 1: the servants. He did well at school, but did not
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Speaker 1: get on with his schoolfellows, though he never quarreled, at
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Speaker 1: least so my mother has told me. Six months before
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Speaker 1: his death, when he was seventeen, he made friends with
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Speaker 1: a political exile who had been banished from Moscow to
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Speaker 1: our town for free thinking, and led a solitary existence there.
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Speaker 1: He was a good scholar who had gained distinction in
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Speaker 1: philosophy in the university. Something made him take a fancy
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Speaker 1: to Markel, and he used to ask him to see him,
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Speaker 1: the young man who had spend whole evenings with him
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Speaker 1: during the winter till the exile was summoned to Petersburg
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Speaker 1: to take up his post again at his own request,
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Speaker 1: as he had powerful friends. It was the beginning of Lent,
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Speaker 1: and Marquel would not fast.
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Speaker 2: He was rude and laughed at it.
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Speaker 1: That's all silly twaddle, and there is no God, he said,
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Speaker 1: horrifying my mother, the servants, and me too, for though
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Speaker 1: I was only nine, I too was aghast at hearing
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Speaker 1: such words. We had four servants, all serfs. I remember
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Speaker 1: my mother sulling, one of the four the cook Aphemia,
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Speaker 1: who was lame and elderly, for sixty paper roubles and
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Speaker 1: hiring a free servant to take her place. In the
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Speaker 1: sixth week in Lent, my brother, who was never strung
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Speaker 1: and had a tendency to consumption, was taken ill. He
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Speaker 1: was tall, but thin, and delicate looking, and a very
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Speaker 1: pleasing countenance. I suppose he caught cold anywhere. The doctor
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Speaker 1: who came soon whispered to my mother that it was
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Speaker 1: galloping consumption that he would not live through the spring.
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Speaker 1: My mother began weeping, and careful not to alarm my brother,
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Speaker 1: she entreated him to go to church to confess and
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Speaker 1: take the sacrament, as he was still able to move about.
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Speaker 1: This made him angry, and he said something profane about
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Speaker 1: the church. He grew thoughtful. However, he guessed at once
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Speaker 1: that he was seriously ill, and that that was why
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Speaker 1: his mother was begging him to confess and take the sacrament.
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Speaker 1: He had been aware, indeed, for a long time past,
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Speaker 1: that he was far from well, and had a year
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Speaker 1: before coolly observed at dinner to our mother and me,
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Speaker 1: my life won't belong among you. I may not live
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Speaker 1: another year, which seemed now like a prophecy. Three days passed,
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Speaker 1: and wholly weak had come. And on Tuesday morning, my
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Speaker 1: brother began going to church, doing this simply for your sake, mother,
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Speaker 1: to please and comfort you, he said. My mother wept
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Speaker 1: with joy and grief. His end must be near, she thought,
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Speaker 1: if there is such a change in him. But he
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Speaker 1: was not able to go to church long. He took
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Speaker 1: to his bed, so he had to confess and take
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Speaker 1: the sacrament at home. It was a lad Easter, and
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Speaker 1: the days were bright, fine, and full of fragrance. I
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Speaker 1: remember he used to cough all night and sleep badly.
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Speaker 1: But in the morning he dressed and tried to sit
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Speaker 1: up in an arm chair. That's how I remember him, sitting,
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Speaker 1: sweet and gentle, smiling, his face bright and joyous. In
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Speaker 1: spite of his illness. A marvelous change passed over him.
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Speaker 1: His spirit seemed transformed. The old nurse would come in
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Speaker 1: and say, let me light the lamp before the Holy Image,
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Speaker 1: my dear, and once he would not have allowed it,
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Speaker 1: and would have blown it out.
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Speaker 2: Light it, Light it, dear.
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Speaker 1: I was a wretch to have prevented you doing it.
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Speaker 1: You are praying when you light the lamp, and I
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Speaker 1: am praying when I rejoice seeing you, so we are
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Speaker 1: praying to the same god. Those words seemed strange to us,
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Speaker 1: and Mother would go to her room and weep, but
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Speaker 1: when she went into him, she wiped her eyes and
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Speaker 1: looked cheerful. Mother, don't weep, darling, He would say, I've
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Speaker 1: longed to live, yet long to rejoice with you, and
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Speaker 1: life is glad and joyful. Ah, dear boy, how can
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Speaker 1: you talk of joy when you lie feverish at night,
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Speaker 1: coughing as though you would tell yourself to pieces?
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Speaker 2: Don't cry?
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Speaker 1: Mother, he would answer, life is paradise, and we are
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Speaker 1: all in paradise, but we won't see it. If we would,
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Speaker 1: we should have heaven on earth. The next day, every
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Speaker 1: one wondered at his words. He spoke so strangely and positively.
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Speaker 1: We were all touched and wept. Friends came to see us,
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Speaker 1: dear ones. He would say to them, what have I
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Speaker 1: done that you should love me?
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Speaker 2: So?
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Speaker 1: How can you love any one like me?
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Speaker 2: And how was it?
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Speaker 1: I did not know? I did not appreciate it before.
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Speaker 1: When the servants came in to him, he would say, continually,
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Speaker 1: dear kind people, why are you doing so much for me?
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Speaker 1: Do I deserve to be waited on. If it were
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Speaker 1: God's will for me to live, I would wait on you,
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Speaker 1: for all men should wait on one another. Mother shook
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Speaker 1: her head as she listened. My darling, it your illness
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Speaker 1: makes you talk like that, Mother, darling, he would say,
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Speaker 1: there must be servants and masters. But if so, I
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Speaker 1: will be the servant of my servants, the same as
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Speaker 1: they are to me. And another thing, Mother, every one
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Speaker 1: of us has sinned against all men, and I more
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Speaker 1: than any. Mother positively smiled at that, smiled through her tears.
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Speaker 1: Why how could you have sinned against all men more
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Speaker 1: than all robbers and murderers have done that? But what
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Speaker 1: sin have you committed yet that you hold yourself more
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Speaker 1: guilty than all? Mother, little heart of mine? He said
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Speaker 1: he had begun using such strange caressing words at that time,
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Speaker 1: Little heart of mind, my joy, believe me. Every one
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Speaker 1: is really responsible to all men, for all men, and
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Speaker 1: for everything. I don't know how to explain it to you,
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Speaker 1: but I feel it is so painfully even. And how
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Speaker 1: is it? We went on then, living, getting angry and
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Speaker 1: not knowing. So he would get up every day more
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Speaker 1: and more sweet.
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Speaker 2: And joyous and full of love.
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Speaker 1: When the doctor, an old German called Eisenschmidt, came, well, doctor,
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Speaker 1: have I another day in this world? He would ask, joking,
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Speaker 1: you'll live many days. Yet the doctor would answer, and
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Speaker 1: months and years too, Months and years, he would exclaim,
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Speaker 1: why reckon the days? One day is enough for a
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Speaker 1: man to know all happiness? My dear ones, why do
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Speaker 1: we quarrel, try to act shiny each other and keep
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Speaker 1: grudges against each other. Let's go straight into the garden,
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Speaker 1: walk and play there, love, appreciate and kiss each other,
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Speaker 1: and glorify life. Your son cannot last long, the doctor
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Speaker 1: told my mother as she accompanied.
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Speaker 2: Him to the door.
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Speaker 1: The disease is affecting his brain.
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Speaker 2: The windows of his room.
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Speaker 1: Looked out into the garden, and our garden was a
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Speaker 1: shady one, with old trees in it which were coming
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Speaker 1: into bud. The first birds of spring were flitting in
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Speaker 1: the branches, chirruping and singing at the windows, and looking
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Speaker 1: at them and admiring them. He began suddenly begging there
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Speaker 1: forgiveness too, birds of heaven, happy birds, forgive me, for
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Speaker 1: I have sent against you too. None of us could
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Speaker 1: understand that at the time, but he shed tears of joy. Yes,
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Speaker 1: he said, there was such a glory of God all
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Speaker 1: about me, birds, trees, meadows, sky. Only I lived in
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Speaker 1: shame and dishonored it all and did not notice the
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Speaker 1: beauty and glory. You take too many sins on yourself.
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Speaker 1: Mother used to say, weeping, mother, darling, it's for joy,
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Speaker 1: not for grief. I am crying, though I can't explain
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Speaker 1: it to you. I like to humble myself before them,
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Speaker 1: for I don't know how to love them enough. If
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Speaker 1: I have sinned against every one, yet all forgive me too,
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Speaker 1: And that's heaven. Am I not in heaven now? And
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Speaker 1: there was a great deal more I don't remember. I
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Speaker 1: remember I went once into his room when there was
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Speaker 1: no one else there. It was a bright evening, the
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Speaker 1: sun was setting, and the whole room was lighted up.
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Speaker 1: He beckoned me, and I went up to him. He
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Speaker 1: put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my
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Speaker 1: face tenderly, lovingly. He said nothing for a minute, only
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Speaker 1: looked at.
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Speaker 2: Me like that.
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Speaker 1: Well, he said, run and play, now, enjoy life for
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Speaker 1: me too. I went out then and ran to play,
27:31
Speaker 1: And many times in my life afterwards I remembered, even
27:35
Speaker 1: with tears, how he told me to enjoy life for
27:39
Speaker 1: him too. There were many other marvelous and beautiful sayings
27:44
Speaker 1: of his, though we did not understand them at the time.
27:48
Speaker 1: He died the third week after Easter. He was fully conscious,
27:53
Speaker 1: though we could not talk. Up to his last hour,
27:57
Speaker 1: he did not change. He looked happy, his eyes beamed
28:01
Speaker 1: and sought us. He smiled at us, beckoned us. There
28:06
Speaker 1: was a great deal of talk even in the town
28:08
Speaker 1: about his death. I was impressed by all this at
28:12
Speaker 1: the time, but not too much so, though I tried
28:16
Speaker 1: a good deal at his funeral. I was young then
28:20
Speaker 1: a child, but a lasting impression, a hidden feeling of
28:26
Speaker 1: it all remained in my heart, ready to rise up
28:31
Speaker 1: and respond when the time came.
28:34
Speaker 2: So indeed it happened.
28:40
Speaker 1: B of the Holy scriptures in the life of Father Zossima.
28:48
Speaker 1: I was left alone with my mother. Her friends began
28:52
Speaker 1: advising her to send me to Petersburg, as other parents did.
28:57
Speaker 1: You have only one son now, they said, and have
29:01
Speaker 1: a fair income, and you will be depriving him, perhaps
29:04
Speaker 1: of a brilliant career, if you keep him here. They suggested,
29:09
Speaker 1: I should be sent to Petersburg to the Cadet Corps,
29:13
Speaker 1: that I might afterwards enter the Imperial Guard. My mother
29:18
Speaker 1: hesitated for a long time. It was awful to part
29:22
Speaker 1: with her only child, but she made up her mind
29:25
Speaker 1: to wit at last, though not without many tears, believing
29:30
Speaker 1: she was acting for my happiness. She brought me to
29:33
Speaker 1: Petersburg and put me into the Cadet Corps, and I
29:38
Speaker 1: never saw her again, for she too died three years afterwards.
29:43
Speaker 1: She spent those three years mourning and grieving for both
29:47
Speaker 1: of us. From the house of my childhood, I have
29:51
Speaker 1: brought nothing but precious memories. For there are no memories
29:56
Speaker 1: more precious than those of early childhood in one's first home,
30:02
Speaker 1: and that is almost always so if there is any
30:05
Speaker 1: love and harmony in the family at all. Indeed, precious
30:10
Speaker 1: memories may remain even of a bad home, if only
30:14
Speaker 1: the heart knows how to find what is precious. With
30:18
Speaker 1: my memories of home, I count too my memories of
30:23
Speaker 1: the Bible, which child as I was, I was very
30:27
Speaker 1: eager to read. At home, I had a book of
30:31
Speaker 1: scripture history then with excellent pictures, called a hundred and
30:38
Speaker 1: four Stories from the Old and New Testament, and I
30:43
Speaker 1: learned to read from it. I have it lying on
30:46
Speaker 1: my shelf. Now I keep it as a precious relic
30:50
Speaker 1: of the past. But even before I learned to read,
30:55
Speaker 1: I remember first being moved to devotion or feeling. At
30:59
Speaker 1: eight years old, my mother took me alone to mass
31:04
Speaker 1: I don't remember where my brother was at the time.
31:07
Speaker 2: On the Monday before Easter. It was a.
31:11
Speaker 1: Fine day, and I remember to day as though I
31:15
Speaker 1: saw it now, how the incense rose from the censer
31:19
Speaker 1: and softly floated upwards and overhead in the cupola, mingled
31:25
Speaker 1: in rising waves with the sunlight that streamed in at
31:29
Speaker 1: the little window. I was stirred by the sight, and
31:33
Speaker 1: for the first time in my life, I consciously received
31:37
Speaker 1: the seed of God's word.
31:39
Speaker 2: In my heart.
31:41
Speaker 1: A youth came out into the middle of the church
31:45
Speaker 1: carrying a big book, so large that at the time
31:50
Speaker 1: I fancied he could scarcely carry it. He laid it
31:53
Speaker 1: on the reading desk, opened it, and began reading. And suddenly,
31:59
Speaker 1: for the first time I understood something read in the
32:03
Speaker 1: Church of God. In the land of Oz, there lived
32:08
Speaker 1: a man righteous and god fearing, and he had great wealth,
32:14
Speaker 1: so many camels, so many sheep and asses, and his
32:19
Speaker 1: children feasted, and he loved them very much, and prayed
32:23
Speaker 1: for them. It may be that my sons have sinned
32:28
Speaker 1: in their feasting. Now the devil came before the Lord,
32:33
Speaker 1: together with the sons of God, and said to the
32:36
Speaker 1: Lord that he had gone up and down the earth
32:40
Speaker 1: and under the earth. And hast thou considered my servant,
32:45
Speaker 1: job God asked of him. And God boasted to the devil,
32:51
Speaker 1: pointing to his great and holy servant. And the devil
32:55
Speaker 1: laughed at God's words. Give him over to me, and
33:00
Speaker 1: thou wilt see that thy servant will murmur against thee
33:04
Speaker 1: and curse thy name. And God gave up the just
33:09
Speaker 1: man he loved so to the devil. And the devil
33:14
Speaker 1: smote his children and his cattle, and scattered his wealth
33:18
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like a thunderbolt from heaven. And
33:23
Speaker 1: Job rent his mantle and fell down upon the ground
33:27
Speaker 1: and cried aloud. Naked, came I out of my mother's womb,
33:33
Speaker 1: And naked shall I return into the earth. The Lord gave,
33:38
Speaker 1: and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name
33:42
Speaker 1: of the Lord for ever and ever. Fathers and teachers,
33:49
Speaker 1: forgive my tears. Now for all my childhood rises up
33:52
Speaker 1: again before me and I breathed now as I breathed then,
33:57
Speaker 1: with the breast of a little child of eight. And
34:00
Speaker 1: I feel as I did then, awe and wonder and gladness.
34:05
Speaker 1: The camels at that time caught my imagination, and Satan
34:09
Speaker 1: who talked like that with God, and God who gave
34:13
Speaker 1: his servant up to destruction, and his servant crying out,
34:18
Speaker 1: blessed be thy name, although thou dost punish me. And
34:23
Speaker 1: then the soft and sweet singing in the church, let
34:27
Speaker 1: my prayer rise up before thee, and again incense from
34:31
Speaker 1: the priest's censer, and the kneeling and the prayer. Ever
34:36
Speaker 1: since then, only yesterday I took it up. I have
34:40
Speaker 1: never been able to read that sacred tale without tears.
34:44
Speaker 1: And how much that is great, mysterious and unfathomable there
34:49
Speaker 1: is in it. Afterwards I heard the words of mockery
34:54
Speaker 1: and blame, proud words. How could God give up the
34:58
Speaker 1: most loved of his saints for the diversion of the devil,
35:03
Speaker 1: take from him his children, smite him with sore boils,
35:08
Speaker 1: so that he cleansed the corruption from his sores with
35:12
Speaker 1: a pot's herd, And for no object except to boast
35:17
Speaker 1: to the devil, see what my saint can suffer for
35:23
Speaker 1: my sake. But the greatness of it lies just in
35:28
Speaker 1: the fact that it is a mystery, that the passing
35:32
Speaker 1: earthly show and the eternal verity are brought together in it.
35:38
Speaker 1: In the face of the earthly truth, the eternal truth
35:42
Speaker 1: is accomplished. The Creator, just as on the first days
35:48
Speaker 1: of creation, he ended each day with praise, that is
35:54
Speaker 1: good that I have created, looks upon Job and den
36:00
Speaker 1: praises his creation, and Job praising the Lord serves not
36:07
Speaker 1: only him but all his creation, for generations and generations
36:14
Speaker 1: and forever and ever since. For that he was ordained
36:20
Speaker 1: good heavens. What a book it is, and what lessons
36:24
Speaker 1: there are in it? What a book the Bible is,
36:28
Speaker 1: What a miracle? What strength is given with it to man?
36:32
Speaker 1: It is like a mold caste of the world and
36:35
Speaker 1: man and human nature. Everything is there, and a law
36:39
Speaker 1: for ever a thing for all the ages, and what
36:43
Speaker 1: mysteries are solved and revealed. God raises Job again, gives
36:48
Speaker 1: him wealth again. Many years pass by, and he has
36:53
Speaker 1: other children and loves them. But how good he loved
36:56
Speaker 1: those new ones. When those first children on no more,
37:01
Speaker 1: When he has lost them, remembering them. How could he
37:05
Speaker 1: be fully happy with those new ones? However dear the
37:09
Speaker 1: new ones might be, But he could, he could. It's
37:14
Speaker 1: the great mystery of human life that old grief passes
37:18
Speaker 1: gradually into quiet, tender joy, the mild serenity of age
37:24
Speaker 1: takes the place of the riotous blood of youth. I
37:29
Speaker 1: bless the rising sun each day, and as before, my
37:33
Speaker 1: heart sings to meet it. But now I love even
37:37
Speaker 1: more its setting, its long, slanting grays, and the soft, tender,
37:43
Speaker 1: gentle memories that come with them, the dear images from
37:47
Speaker 1: the whole of my long, happy life, and over all
37:51
Speaker 1: the divine truth, softening, reconciling, forgiving. My life is ending,
37:58
Speaker 1: I know that well. But every day that has left
38:01
Speaker 1: me I feel how my earthly life is in touch
38:05
Speaker 1: with a new, infinite unknown, that approaching life, the nearness
38:11
Speaker 1: of which sets my soul quivering with rapture, my mind glowing,
38:16
Speaker 1: and my heart weeping with joy. Friends and teachers, I
38:24
Speaker 1: have heard more than once, and of late one may
38:27
Speaker 1: hear it more often that the priests, and above all
38:31
Speaker 1: the village priests, are complaining on all sides of their
38:35
Speaker 1: miserable income and their humiliating lot. They plainly state, even
38:41
Speaker 1: in print. I've read it myself, that they are unable
38:45
Speaker 1: to teach the scriptures to the people because of the
38:48
Speaker 1: smallness of their means. And if Lutherans and Heretics come
38:53
Speaker 1: and lead the flock astray, they let them lead them
38:56
Speaker 1: astray because they have so little to live upon. May
39:01
Speaker 1: the Lord increase the sustenance that is so precious to them,
39:06
Speaker 1: For their complaint is just too But of a truth,
39:10
Speaker 1: I say, if any one is to blame in the
39:13
Speaker 1: matter half the faultiest hours, for he may be short
39:17
Speaker 1: of time, he may say truly that he is overwhelmed
39:21
Speaker 1: all the while with work and services.
39:24
Speaker 2: But still it's not all the time.
39:27
Speaker 1: Even he has an hour a week to remember God,
39:31
Speaker 1: and he does not work the whole year round. Let
39:34
Speaker 1: him gather round him once a week, some hour in
39:37
Speaker 1: the evening. If only the children at first, the fathers
39:41
Speaker 1: will hear of it, and they too will begin to come.
39:45
Speaker 2: There's no need to build halls for this.
39:48
Speaker 1: Let him take them into his own cottage. They won't
39:51
Speaker 1: spoil his cottage. They would only be there one hour.
39:54
Speaker 1: Let him open that book and begin reading it, without
39:58
Speaker 1: grand words or superciliousness, without condescension to them, but gently
40:04
Speaker 1: and kindly, being glad that he is reading to them,
40:08
Speaker 1: and that they are listening with attention, loving the words himself,
40:13
Speaker 1: only stopping from time to time to explain words that
40:17
Speaker 1: are not understood by the peasants. Don't be anxious. They
40:21
Speaker 1: will understand everything. The orthodox heart will understand all. Let
40:28
Speaker 1: him read them about Abraham and Sarah, about Isaac and Rebecca,
40:34
Speaker 1: of how Jacob went to Laban and wrestled with the
40:37
Speaker 1: Lord in his dream, and said, this place is holy,
40:42
Speaker 1: and he will impress the devout mind of the peasant.
40:47
Speaker 1: Let him read, especially to the children, how the brother's
40:51
Speaker 1: soul Joseph, the tender boy, the dreamer and prophet into bondage,
40:57
Speaker 1: and told their father that a wild beast had devout
41:00
Speaker 1: him and showed him his blood stained clothes. Let him
41:05
Speaker 1: read them how the brothers afterwards journed it into Egypt
41:09
Speaker 1: for Corn and Joseph, already a great ruler unrecognized by them,
41:16
Speaker 1: tormented them, accused them, kept his brother Benjamin, and all
41:21
Speaker 1: through love, I love you, and loving you I torment you.
41:28
Speaker 1: For he remembered all his life how they had sold
41:31
Speaker 1: him to the merchants. In the burning desert by the well.
41:35
Speaker 2: And how wringing his hands he.
41:37
Speaker 1: Had wept and besought his brothers not to sell him
41:40
Speaker 1: as a slave in a strange land. And how seeing
41:44
Speaker 1: them again after many years, he loved them beyond measure,
41:49
Speaker 1: but he harassed and tormented them in love. He left
41:53
Speaker 1: them at last, not able to bear the suffering of
41:57
Speaker 1: his heart, flung himself on his bed and wept. Then,
42:02
Speaker 1: wiping his tears away, he went out to them joyful
42:05
Speaker 1: and told them, brothers, I am your brother Joseph. Let
42:11
Speaker 1: him read them further. How happy old Jacob was on
42:16
Speaker 1: learning that his darling boy was still alive, And how
42:20
Speaker 1: he went to Egypt, leaving his own country, and died
42:24
Speaker 1: in a foreign land, bequeathing his great prophecy that had
42:29
Speaker 1: lain mysteriously hidden in his meek and timid heart all
42:34
Speaker 1: his life, that from his offspring, from Judah, will come
42:39
Speaker 1: the great hope of the world, the Messiah and Savior.
42:46
Speaker 1: Fathers and teachers, forgive me, and don't be angry that
42:50
Speaker 1: like a little child, I've been babbling of what you
42:54
Speaker 1: know long ago, and can teach me a hundred times
42:58
Speaker 1: more skillfully. I only speak from rapture, and forgive my tears,
43:06
Speaker 1: for I love the Bible. Let him too weep, the
43:11
Speaker 1: priest of God, and be sure that the hearts of
43:15
Speaker 1: his listeners will throb in response. Only a little tiny
43:20
Speaker 1: seed is needed. Drop it into the heart of the peasant,
43:24
Speaker 1: and it won't die. It will live in his soul
43:26
Speaker 1: all his life. It will be hidden in the midst
43:29
Speaker 1: of his darkness and sin like a bright spot, like
43:33
Speaker 1: a great reminder. And there's no need of much teaching
43:37
Speaker 1: or explanation. He will understand it all simply. Do you
43:42
Speaker 1: suppose that the peasants don't understand, try reading them the
43:47
Speaker 1: touching story of the fair Esther and the haughty Vashti
43:52
Speaker 1: are the miraculous story of Jonah in the whale. Don't
43:57
Speaker 1: forget either the parables of our Lord. Choose especially from
44:02
Speaker 1: the Gospel of Saint Luke, That's what I did. And
44:05
Speaker 1: then from the acts of the Apostles, the conversion of
44:09
Speaker 1: Saint Paul, that you mustn't leave out on any account.
44:13
Speaker 1: And from the lives of the saints, for instance, the
44:16
Speaker 1: life of Alexei, the Man of God and greatest of all,
44:21
Speaker 1: the happy Martyr, and the Seer of God. Mary of Egypt,
44:27
Speaker 1: and you will penetrate their hearts with these simple tales.
44:33
Speaker 1: Give one hour a week to it in spite of
44:36
Speaker 1: your poverty. Only one little hour, and you will see
44:40
Speaker 1: for yourselves that our people is gracious and dreadful, and.
44:46
Speaker 2: Will repay you a hundredfold.
44:49
Speaker 1: Mindful of the kindness of their priest and the moving
44:53
Speaker 1: words they have heard from him, they will of their
44:56
Speaker 1: own accroud help him in his fields and in his hand,
45:00
Speaker 1: and will treat him with more respect than before, so
45:04
Speaker 1: that it will even increase his world be well being too.
45:09
Speaker 1: The thing is so simple that sometimes one is even
45:13
Speaker 1: afraid to put it into.
45:15
Speaker 2: Words, for fear of being laughed at.
45:18
Speaker 1: And yet how true it is. One who does not
45:21
Speaker 1: believe in God will not believe in God's people. He
45:26
Speaker 1: who believes in God's people will see his holiness too,
45:31
Speaker 1: even though he had not believed in it till then.
45:35
Speaker 1: Only the people and their future spiritual power will convert
45:40
Speaker 1: our atheists, who have torn themselves away from their native soil.
45:47
Speaker 1: And what is the use of Christ's words unless we
45:51
Speaker 1: set an example. The people is lost without the word
45:55
Speaker 1: of God, for its soul is athirst for the word
46:00
Speaker 1: and for all that is good.
46:03
Speaker 2: In my youth.
46:04
Speaker 1: Long ago, nearly forty years ago, I traveled all over
46:10
Speaker 1: Russia with Father Anthon, collecting.
46:13
Speaker 2: Funds for our monastery.
46:16
Speaker 1: And we stayed one night on the bank of a
46:19
Speaker 1: great navigable river with some fisherman. A good looking peasant
46:24
Speaker 1: lad about eighteen, joined us. He had to hurry back
46:29
Speaker 1: next morning to pull a merchant's barge along the bank.
46:33
Speaker 1: I noticed him looking straight before him with clear and
46:37
Speaker 1: tender eyes. It was a bright, warm, still July night.
46:42
Speaker 1: A cool mist rose from the broad river. We could
46:46
Speaker 1: hear the plash of a fish. The birds were stilled,
46:51
Speaker 1: All was hushed and beautiful, ever a thing praying to God.
46:57
Speaker 1: Only we too, were not sleeping. The lad and I
47:02
Speaker 1: and we talked of the beauty of this world of gods,
47:06
Speaker 1: and of the great mystery of it. Every blade of grass,
47:11
Speaker 1: every insect, and and golden bee, all so marvelously know
47:17
Speaker 1: their path. Though they have not intelligence, they bear witness
47:22
Speaker 1: to the mystery of God and continually accomplish it themselves.
47:28
Speaker 1: I saw the dear Lad's heart was moved. He told
47:32
Speaker 1: me that he.
47:32
Speaker 2: Loved the forest and the forest birds.
47:35
Speaker 1: He was a bird catcher, knew the note of each
47:39
Speaker 1: of them could call each bird. I know nothing better
47:43
Speaker 1: than to be in the forest, said he. Though all
47:46
Speaker 1: things are good, truly, I answered him, All things are
47:52
Speaker 1: good and fair, because all is truth.
47:56
Speaker 2: Look said I at the horse, that great beast.
48:00
Speaker 1: That is so near to man, or the lowly, pensive
48:04
Speaker 1: ox which feeds him and works for him.
48:09
Speaker 2: Look at their faces.
48:11
Speaker 1: What meekness, what devotion to man who often beats them mercilessly,
48:17
Speaker 1: What gentleness, what confidence?
48:19
Speaker 2: And what beauty?
48:21
Speaker 1: It's touching to know that there's no sin in them.
48:24
Speaker 1: For all, all except man is sinless. And Christ has
48:29
Speaker 1: been with them before us. Why, asked the boy, is
48:34
Speaker 1: Christ with them too? It cannot but be so, said I,
48:38
Speaker 1: since the Word.
48:39
Speaker 2: Is for all, all creation and all creatures.
48:44
Speaker 1: Ever relief be striving to the Word, singing glory to God,
48:49
Speaker 1: weeping to Christ, unconsciously accomplishing this by the mystery of
48:55
Speaker 1: their sinless life. Yonder, said I. In the forest, and
49:00
Speaker 1: as the dreadful bear, fierce and menacing and yet innocent
49:04
Speaker 1: in it. And I told him how once a bear
49:08
Speaker 1: came to a great saint who had taken refuge in
49:12
Speaker 1: the tiny cell in the wood, and the great saint
49:15
Speaker 1: pitied him, went up to him without fear, and gave
49:19
Speaker 1: him a piece of bread. Go along, said he, Christ
49:23
Speaker 1: be with you. And the savage beast walked away meekly
49:27
Speaker 1: and obediently, doing no harm. And the lad was delighted
49:33
Speaker 1: that the bear had walked away without hurting the saint,
49:37
Speaker 1: and that Christ was with him too. Ah said he,
49:41
Speaker 1: How good that is, How good and beautiful is all
49:44
Speaker 1: God's work. He sat musing softly and sweetly. I saw
49:49
Speaker 1: he understood, and he slept beside me a light and
49:53
Speaker 1: sinless sleep. May God bless youth. And I prayed for
49:58
Speaker 1: him as I went to sleep. Lord, send peace and
50:03
Speaker 1: like to thy people.
50:07
Speaker 2: End of Chapter forty