TOLSTOI REPLIES TO THE CHURCH.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 157, 15 July 1901, Page 1

TOLSTOI REPLIES TO THE CHURCH.

Paris, May 18. Count Leo Tolstoi has replied to the writ of excommunication launched at him by the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church. He starts out by quoting Coleridge : “ He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.” That Tolstoi contends, is exactiy the position of his assailants. He himself has pursued the contrary course. “I began by loving the Orthodox Church more than myself; then I loved Christianity more than the Orthodox Church; now I love Truth more than all else." He says the right of excommunication is illegal, arbitrary, unjustifiable, mendacious, libellous and calculated to promote evil sentiments and unworthy deeds ; that its issue has already so stirred the hatred of bigots that he is daily threatened with assassination.

“ I have renounced the Church that calls itself Orthodox,” he continues, “because I wished to serve God. I followed every precept of the Church . . . and am now convinced that its teaching is, theoretically, an astute and noxious lie, and, practically, a mixture of gross superstition and witchcraft. That is why I inserted a request in my will that no priest should be allowed to approach my bodyii Vos it is tine. T denv an ineomnre-

hensible trinity, and the fable regarding the fall of man, which is absurd- in our days. It is true, I deny the sacrilegious story of a God born of a virgin to redeem the human race. But God-spirit, God-love, God tha sole principle of all things, Ido not deny. I believe in eternal life, and I believe that man is rewarded according to his deeds here and everywhere, now and forever. 11 It is said I deny all the sacraments. That is perfectly correct. The marriage of divorced persons seems to me in formal contradiction with evangelic teaching. Periodical forgiveness of sins encourages immorality. “ The teaching of Christ is disfigured, transformed into grossest sorcery which has nothing to do with that teaching which only commands men to love one another, not to render bad for evil, not to judge others, +* i-;n

“ Yet those who make a business of lies declare in their books, their newspapers and their catechisms Christ never forbade swearing (taking the oath). That he never forbade murder (capital punishment and war), and that the doctrine of non-resistance to evil is an invention, a Satanif ruse of the enemies of Christ. “They behave like the brigand who murdered a whole family of five or six persons in order to steal an old cloak and

“If Christ could come back he would sweep them out with their ikons and other instruments of witchcraft. “ I believe that the will of God was never so clearly, so precisely explained as in the doctrine of the man Christ; but one cannot regard Christ as God and offer prayers to Him without committing the greatest sacrilege. If another doctrine were to arise that satisfied me better, I should not hesitate to adopt it, for nothing matters to God lwt truth,"