high spirituality, and remarkable sweetness of disposition. The people
rallied round him in enormous numbers, attracted by his courageous
resistance to the Bolshevist movement--(a resistance which had then
frequently endangered his life, and may since have ended it)--and by
his determined avoidance of all pomp and ostentation. In the great
religious processions which took place at that time, hundreds of
thousands passed before him, but he had no bishops and very few clergy
in his retinue, only one priest and one deacon. When urged to adopt
more ceremony and display in his public appearances, he replied, "For
the love of God, don't make an idol of me." He was always ready with a
humorous word, and filled with a serene and unshakable confidence, even
in the most dangerous situations. The people looked upon him as "Holy
Russia" personified, and said that "the persecutors who would have
buried her for ever had brought her back to life."
In an appendix to the above-quoted article appears a statement "from a
responsible British source in Siberia" to the effect that "a strong
religious movement has begun among the laity and clergy of the Russian
Church. . . . The _moujiks_ are convinced that Lenin is Anti-Christ;"
and an urgent appeal for Russian Testaments and Bibles to be sent from
England, the writer having been told by a prominent ecclesiastic that
"Russian Bibles are now almost unprocurable."
Thus, having long revolted from orthodoxy in the day of its material
prosperity, the masses seem, in the day of adversity, to be returning
to it. Further developments may, of course, take place in almost any
direction, but we may rest assured of one thing--that no changes of
government, however drastic, will ever succeed in stamping out the
mystical religious strain which is so deeply embedded in the soul of
the Russian people.
PART II
THE SALVATION OF THE WEALTHY
A. RELIGION AND ECONOMY
CHAPTER I
THE MORMONS, OR LATTER-DAY SAINTS
In the American of the United States there exist two distinctly opposed
natures: the one positive and practical, the other inclined to
mysticism. The two do not clash, but live, on the contrary, on
perfectly good terms with one another. This strange co-existence of
reality and vision is explained by the origin of the race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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