Brothers -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Russia -- Social life and customs -- 1533-1917 -- Fiction
Work without ceasing. If you remember in the night as you go to sleep,
“I have not done what I ought to have done,” rise up at once and do it.
If the people around you are spiteful and callous and will not hear
you, fall down before them and beg their forgiveness; for in truth you
are to blame for their not wanting to hear you. And if you cannot speak
to them in their bitterness, serve them in silence and in humility,
never losing hope. If all men abandon you and even drive you away by
force, then when you are left alone fall on the earth and kiss it,
water it with your tears and it will bring forth fruit even though no
one has seen or heard you in your solitude. Believe to the end, even if
all men went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your
offering even then and praise God in your loneliness. And if two of you
are gathered together—then there is a whole world, a world of living
love. Embrace each other tenderly and praise God, for if only in you
two His truth has been fulfilled.
If you sin yourself and grieve even unto death for your sins or for
your sudden sin, then rejoice for others, rejoice for the righteous
man, rejoice that if you have sinned, he is righteous and has not
sinned.
If the evil-doing of men moves you to indignation and overwhelming
distress, even to a desire for vengeance on the evil-doers, shun above
all things that feeling. Go at once and seek suffering for yourself, as
though you were yourself guilty of that wrong. Accept that suffering
and bear it and your heart will find comfort, and you will understand
that you too are guilty, for you might have been a light to the
evil-doers, even as the one man sinless, and you were not a light to
them. If you had been a light, you would have lightened the path for
others too, and the evil-doer might perhaps have been saved by your
light from his sin. And even though your light was shining, yet you see
men were not saved by it, hold firm and doubt not the power of the
heavenly light. Believe that if they were not saved, they will be saved
hereafter. And if they are not saved hereafter, then their sons will be
saved, for your light will not die even when you are dead. The
righteous man departs, but his light remains. Men are always saved
after the death of the deliverer. Men reject their prophets and slay
them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.
You are working for the whole, you are acting for the future. Seek no
reward, for great is your reward on this earth: the spiritual joy which
is only vouchsafed to the righteous man. Fear not the great nor the
mighty, but be wise and ever serene. Know the measure, know the times,
study that. When you are left alone, pray. Love to throw yourself on
the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing,
consuming love. Love all men, love everything. Seek that rapture and
ecstasy. Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those
tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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