The Religious Spirit of the Slavs | Page 5

normal and perfect. Slav Orthodoxy,
on the contrary, emphasises very emphatically the abnormality of
human life on earth from the beginning. Sin is the beginning of life,
and sins are the continuation of it. The first man deviated in some way
from God's will; the first brother killed his younger brother; the
first-born nation made war with the second-born nation, and this
bloody business of men, of which, in the greatest degree, we are the

witnesses to-day, continued through many thousands of years. The
development of human virtues is not so obvious as the development of
human sins. Still, nobody has written a work on the development of
sins. The Orthodox Church believes quite seriously in this fatal
development; she believes more than seriously that "the whole world
lies in evil." Suffering is a consequence of sin. Even the righteous man
suffers, not because of virtue, but because of sin. If he himself has no
personal sins still he must suffer because of the sins of other men, no
matter if near or far from him in space or time. For all men from the
first to the last are made from the same piece of clay, therefore they all,
from the first to the last, form one body and one life. Each is
responsible for all, and each is influencing all. If one link of this body
sins, the whole body must suffer. If Adam sinned, you and I must suffer
for it. If St. Paul suffered, it is because his suffering is a consequence of
the sins of other links of the same body. If Christ suffered and died
because of Adam, it is also just. It is not good, but it is just. The
suffering of nature around us is incomparably small compared with the
suffering of men. The abnormality of the animal, plant or mineral
world is not nearly so obvious as the abnormality of our life. God's
creatures, who were created on the sixth day and destined to be the
most perfect among creatures, are abased by sin to an imperfection
which is unknown among the creatures made before the sixth day.

THE REPETITIONS.
In no other Churches are there so many repetitions, in no other so many
symbols, as in the Orthodox Church. The whole worship is a continual
repetition for thousands of years. In Byzantium was fixed the image of
Christ, His mission, His worship. The whole system of belief and
worship came, fixed and accomplished, over to us Slavs. To keep that
system intact for ever was the first duty taught us by those who brought
it. Its tendency was to impress the image of Christ in the imagination
and heart of the generations as much as possible and always in the same
way. We are living in a world of evil; Christ is leader of the struggle
against this evil. Men lived thousands of years wavering between good
and evil, worshipping good and evil. Now they must be for good. They

are educated and accustomed to weighing things for themselves.
Therefore it has become necessary to ask them every day, every hour
even, to confess that they are with Christ. They must repeat it again
and again, in prayers, in signs, in symbols, until it becomes a new
custom, a new education, a new blood and spirit, a new man, a new
earth. They must be reminded in every place and at all times that they
are soldiers of Christ and not of Perun. Churches, shrines, chapels,
ikons, candles, processions, priests, bells, monasteries, travelling
preachers, every day's saints, fast seasons--everything is the repetition
of the same idea, namely, that Christ is the ruler of life and we are His
followers. Christ must be expressed everywhere, indoors and outdoors.
Many Englishmen have remarked that the Bible is read very seldom in
the home in Russia and Serbia. That is true. People read the Bible more
in symbols, pictures and signs, in music and prayers, than in the Book,
Our religion is not a book religion, not even a learned religion. It is a
dramatic mystery. The Bible contains the words, but in this dramatic
mystery there is something higher and deeper than words. Slav
Christianity is something greater than the Bible. Looking at an ikon, a
Russian mujik perceives the Bible incarnated in a saint's life-drama.
Mystery of sin, mystery of atonement, mystery of heroic suffering,
mystery of the daily presence of Christ among us in holy wine, in holy
bread, in holy water, in holy word, in holy deed, in every sanctified
substance, even in matter as in spirit, mystery of communion of sins
and of virtues--all are recorded once in the Bible, and all are recorded
and repeated also in our daily life--that is what we call our Slav
Orthodoxy. We