Page:Chertkov - Christian Martyrdom.djvu/46

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
35

all my hope, my faith, my desire. To Thee, Lord, will I call with all my heart, all my soul, all my thoughts; deep into Thee shall I penetrate; to Thee alone shall I pour forth my soul; I shall wholly be in Thee, and Thou in me. I shall see and know in Thee the true and only Lord God, Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. In Thy light shall we see light, by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit.


The Spirit-Wrestlers who, at the end of the year 1804, came to St. Petersburg to ask permission for their brethren to emigrate to the Milky-Waters, when they were leaving Petersburg just before Christmas, were asked whether it would not be better for them to pass the festival in Petersburg, and after that, undertake the journey. They answered: "It is all the same to us, because the festival is in us, within ourselves."

And when, on settling in the Milky-Waters, they were enjoined to live quietly and modestly, and not to endeavour to bring others into their sect, they answered that all that was needed had been already sown; they need no more trouble about that, for now the time was come for the harvest, not the sowing.


[Such is the account given of the Spirit-Wrestlers at the beginning of this century.]