RELIGIOUS IMPULSE IN RUSSIA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12506, 19 May 1906, Page 13

RELIGIOUS IMPULSE IN RUSSIA.

It is, perhaps, hardly time yet, cays a religious contemporary, to measure the effect of the Russian revolution on tho religious life of tho people, but thero aro already indications which in tho opinion of keen observers show tho

trend of affairs. The Orthodox Church has been mightily especially tho younger clergy. With hardly an exception tho members of the Holy Synod and tho bishops remain what they were—reactionaries to tho core, hating innovation, and inspired by tho tenets which havo been so long identified with tho name of But tho younger men, especially in tho South ami in the large towns, are beginning a new era, turning ovor a new leaf. Thero aro distinct missionary impulses growing among them, and they are no longer satisfied with a dreary round of church services. They are going out among the people, sympathising with thorn, understanding them, and praying with them. Among the dissenters from tho Church who are known as Stundists, the revolution has had a most remarkable effect. The dislocation of authority, and the fact that tho police have had other matters to attend to, have given a remarkable impulse to the Protestant movement, and evangelists are a-gain busy among the villages and small towns of the South, blowing into flame the embers which for the pnsfc ton years had been smouldering. However dark tho political horizon may be, the roligious horizon is clearing and there is abundant promise of a brighter day.