"HOLY CHURCH." THE RUSSIAN ANTICHRIST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 12

"HOLY CHURCH." THE RUSSIAN ANTICHRIST.

The late Carl Joubert and others, through the medium of fiction, have drawn terrible pictures of the decadence and corruption of thu National Church of Russia; but wo doubt if over a fictionist has ventured to draw a picture of its apostacy so appalling as that given from personal observation by Leroy Scott in the ' December issue of Everybody's Magazine. The church, he says, is everywhere — even in the humblest village of clay hovels stands an edifice the magnificence of which is emphasised by the squalid setting. Everywhere wealth untold is lavished on the splendour of the ecclesiastical buildings ; during service hours they are -packed with people listening to the solemn chants and following the gorgeous ritual — everywhere are the outward signs of devotion. But he sought to look below the surface and to find what was the character of the Church, and what it stood for ; what was the general character of the priesthood ; and what was the religious intelligence and religious character of the people. His conclusion, in brief, is that "the gorgeous omnipresent Church, so imposing io the eye, is but a gorgeous omnipresent lie." The Holy Synod, "is as much a department of State 'as the Ministry of War" "— & religious autocrat — rather, a subautocrat to. the holy Tsar." The Church -epresents neither Christ nor His teachings ; it is the servant of the State, and repiesents the Government and its desires The Church dignitaries are officials of the State, and no whit better than thair secular brethren There are worthy m?n In both departments, who strive to be kind and just, but the general typo -is corrupted and tyrannical to an extreme degree, and in the high ecclesiastical courts causes are determined not by any principle of.justice, but according to tho interests of the Church, and by frank bribery. * The inferior clergy are miserably poor and hopelessly ignorant, despised even by their peasant floclc. "On all sides , I heard stories of bribe-taking, of drunkenness, of cheating, of lyings of lowest immorality, even of plain stealing." j But their hold is ctill on the peasantry, j who constitute four-fifths of the popula- ! tion. If outward observances 'constitute religion, "tho ignorant masses are devoutness itself." Of spiritual religion, however* the, peasant haa.no conception ; h« never associates religion with ■ goodness.; If he contemplates a crime, he goes to 'the altar and invokes God to give'him success; coming bloodstained ' from the outrage and slaughter of defenceless Je\vs, he will ask and receive the priestly benediction. Ho prostrates himself and prays in church, or before k picture, but to whom? He could not jlell "I met a factory worker who years . before whilo living in a village had t conceived of God as a white-haired, white-bearded old man who ruled in the nearest large ■• city — a common peasant conception, by the way. On coming to tho city, and finding no such man, he had concluded ■> that there was no God, and that religion was a humbug ". The so-called reiigibus instruction *s responsible for ihis The only being invested with divine attributes in popular ' teaching is the Emperor. The peasant's devotion may be offered to icons and relics as ( charms of magic efficiency ; but his actual worship is reserved for the' Tsar. , ','The > abject poverty of the priests, whose income is sometimes undw £20 a year, is alone enough to destroy any spiritual influence. Pastoral offices of help, chanty, and consolation are almost out of the question. The slightest service becomes tho subject of an acrimonious bargain, "Babies have gone unchristened. 4 the dead t have bean buried without, religious services, couples have left the church unmarried, because the priest's demanded price was regarded as extortion." It may bo doubted whether any church from which the sanss of righteousness has died out is capable of reformation — history records no example. Thoro are priests who would seek to impress the senss of moral responsibility upon their people, to wean them from their vices and cultivate j their hulfkn qualities; but the experiment is too dangerous. A priest must not even be suspected of searching after fuller truth. Russia possesses an Inquisition rivalling that of Spain in its most flourishing days ; suspects of heresy are thrown into dungeons without trial or enquiry. Such a one consigned to prison at twenty-five was offered his freedom abput 1880, he being then ninety. As ho had not. a friend or acquaintance left in the world,, he begged that he might continue in confinement for the rest of his daj's, and his request was granted. Space will permit us barely to touch on sqme of tho evidence adduced by Mr. Scott in support of his tremendous :n-dictment.:n-dictment. Father Tzvetkov, a simpleminded and beloved priest, 'became porplexed concerning certain articles of his creed. He spoke of his doubts to none, but privately sought guidance from' hjs religious superiors. He was thrown into vigorous imprisonment, which ho suffered for years, and might still have baen undergoing had he not effected his escape. A wenlthy young man named Rachov was moved to devote his fortune and his life to the servico of his fellows. He carried on an extensive philanthropic work among the peasantry in the South of Russia, lodging, feeding, and clothing the poor, establishing hospitals for the sick, workshops for the unemployed, and classes for the illiterate. Repeatedly denounced by the priesthood, no charge could be proved against him, and he was acquitted by the civil authorities. Then the church demanded his person. Without being permitted to see parents or friends, he was cast into the prison of a monastery, where he lay eight years. In 1902 he was released — still young in years, but a wreck, incapable of any further active service to his fellows. A priest, who had served his parish for a generation, saw a drunken policeman brutally thrashing one of his flock. He ran to him and expostulated. A few days later the priest, charged with opposing constituted authority, was confined in a monastic prison, where he still lay at time of writing. For counselling his people not to murder the only Jew in his village, another priest was unfrocked and reduced to a condition of vagabondage. The church inspires the bloody "pogroms" — the Bishop of Kishinev contributed £50 to a fund to recompense the assassins who received injuries in the massacres of 1905. Yet the peasant, after ages of deadly formalism, has not lost capacity for true religious feeling. "He is gentle and generous, is rich in spiritual qualities ; but that which is really good in him proceeds not from the influence of the Church." In fact, the priest who teaches the doctrines of Christ, or the layman who seeks to live the Christian life) is a marked man and incurs serious risk. The Church in Russia, says Mr. Scott, ranks with the army as a mere prop of Tsarism ; and few, we think, will be inclined to dispute his conclusion that it is '"'a religion of hollow forms — a religion that is true religion's worst enemy."

"But surely you are the man to whom T gave some pie a fortnight ago ?" "Yea, lidy. I thought praps you'd like to 1 .know. Tni able to fist about .again.'.!