Produced by Project Rastko, Nikolaj Velimirovic Project, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH BY THE REV. NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC, D.D. OF ST SAVVA'S COLLEGE, BELGRADE WITH FOREWORD BY THE REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH LONDON STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 32 RUSSELL SQUARE, W.C. 1917 Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. FOREWORD The Eastern Church, the Church of the Apostles and the Mother of us all, in this book, speaks to her children in all lands and in all languages, and to us, with an authority and a wisdom and a tenderness all its own. The author and the publishers are doing us a service of the very best kind in issuing it. May God's blessing rest upon it. PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD The contents of this book was originally given in the form of lectures at St Margaret's, Westminster. There is, we think, a special fitness in the lectures appearing in book form bearing the imprint of the Student Christian Movement, for though Father Nicholas has hosts of friends in Great Britain now, when he first came here our Movement was perhaps the only body which had the right to claim him as being already a friend. When the Student Christian Movement made its way to Serbia a few years ago, Father Nicholas became one of its first friends and, the year the war commenced and the following year, it was he who, on the Universal Day of Prayer for Students, preached by invitation of the Student Movement and its President, Dr. Marko Leko, to the students in the Cathedrals of Belgrade and Nish. Members of our Movement, therefore, will recognise that he comes under the category of persons so highly valued in the Student Movement, namely, that of senior friend. Both inside and outside the Student Movement to-day people are thinking of the Church. Much has been spoken and written about the Church of Jesus Christ in our modern world, but not so much as to leave us unready to welcome this arresting and penetrating message from Serbia. INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS If the official churches have had no other merit but that they have preserved Christ as the treasury of the world, yet they are justified thereby. Even if they have solely repeated through all the past centuries "Lord! Lord!" still they stand above the secular world. For they know at least who the Lord is, whereas the world does not know.