The highest of literature, like the noblest of music, is that wherein the great stories are used as extra letters and words. Rich writing is that which is full of allusions which we all understand. Poor literature is often that in which the author is frequently making allusions to events and stories which are known only to a few and have no strong significance. To use stories as words when the majority of people do not know the stories is to write in a language that is not understood, it is to write in words that are not in use. The reality of a book that draws its allusions from the Bible and from the Greek myths and general European history is immeasurably greater than one that is constantly referring to the Koran or the stories of the Buddha or Zoroaster or Khrishna or Confucius. That is in itself an adequate defence of Christianity as a religion for us. Its stories are our stories. Its Word is the living Word. The other stories are not our stories. Christianity is our language. If ever asked to defend Christianity, the defence lies not in the historical accuracy of Christian documents or the verity of records. Christianity is the _Word_. All words are at our disposal for the expression of our passion and the sense of our mystery. The Christian story is the word that fits. Our golden deeds, the deeds we consider as golden, are our extra letters. Let the poets and musicians blend them into their music. Every time a golden deed is made to sound beautifully in allusion a common chord is struck in the souls of men. * * * * * And the _podvig_ is an extra letter. There are many who claim that it is the word itself; that denial of “the world” is actually the _logos_ of Christianity. Even in Russia, where there is also the richer and grander conception of the Church, there are those who stand for the _podvig_ only, for denial of the world and material force only. Witness Tolstoy and many of his followers. It is even held by some that the whole of true and vital and historical Christianity is founded on—“If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.” The important sect of _Skoptsi_ go so far as to say that the begetting of children is sin, and they mutilate themselves, and in that way deny life in the name of the spiritual life. II THE HERMITAGE OF FATHER SERAPHIM Thinking of the _podvig_, I made a pilgrimage to the hermitage of Father Seraphim, a few hundred miles from Moscow.