The devout Russian peasantry in this stage often seem to illustrate our LORD'S words concerning things revealed to "babes" which even the "wise and prudent" seem to miss. Sir Donald M. Wallace again tells the story in _Our Russian Ally_ which he told in his _Russia_--it will bear constant repetition--as an instance of real spiritual insight in a simple and untrained mind. "I remember once asking a common labourer," he says, "what he thought of the Mussulman Tartars among whom he happened to be living; and his reply, given with evident sincerity, was--'Not a bad sort of people.' 'And what about their religion?' I inquired. 'Not at all a bad sort of faith--you see they received it like the colour of their skins, from GOD.'" He assumed, of course, in his simple piety, that whatever comes from GOD must be good. It necessitated a very special spiritual experience and real vision before a Christian Apostle could say the same thing, "Of a truth I perceive that GOD is no respecter of persons"; but that common labourer in this little incident had taken in the same wide outlook, in a perfectly normal way, from his ordinary surroundings and the religious influences which make up such an important portion of his life. The lesson is learnt early. I was, one morning, in an elementary school in Siberia, just before the work of the day began, to speak to the children. They opened with prayer, but how different from prayers in our own schools! The master and teachers did nothing except pray with the rest. At a sign that all was ready a boy of twelve stepped out and took his place before the _ikon_ in its corner, and then bowing with that inimitable grace which belongs alone to the Russian when at prayer, and making the sign of the Cross, he gravely led the simple prayers of the whole school, all singing softly and reverently in unison. It was all inexpressibly touching and appealing, and to be treasured up with those other things of which one says, "I shall never forget."