Press enter after choosing selection

European Correspondence

European Correspondence image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
May
Year
1883
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

St. Pbtebsbcrob, April 20, 1883. Had not the large-minded Empcrors Alexander I. and II. tolerated the publication and sale of Russian New Testamente, inany more years inight have elapsed before the ower classes in Russia coold have discovered the knowledge which their church had can-fnlly bidden f rom them. The Sermón on the Mount, the w holt! life and image of the Saviour, carne upon them in the shape of a revelation, quite au much so as it ever did to llottentots, Esquimaux, or South Sea Isl anders. Von der Bruggen relates a remarkable circumstance which he gathered from tbe lips of a landed proprietor. On day the latter heard from one of his men, who had riddenas fast as he coulil to bring the news thata great brawl was going on in a neighboring village. Cats fullof "Stundlsten " had arrived and were being attacked with cudgels and stones. The country gentleman rode up to the spot and found that these Muscovite Methodist had slowly driven up to the village and through the streets, singing psalm. These were the people whom the priest had always held up as encuñes of God and the church, and frequentere of taverns and pot-houses. Henee the new corners were received with scoffs and jeers, and ordered to depart. As they did not obey, the crowd proceeded to hastie them about, and to throw stones at them. The converts did not defend themselves or give blow for blow. They avoided angry words and calmly continued tochaunt. The narrator arrived in time to prevent worse from happening, auu bvcsuiuiiau urucr. ïir. WHueseeu duw more thstt one of the orthodox peasants was so forcibly struck by the beharior of the " Sal vationists '' as to fall on hi.s knees and look after them as if they liad been realsaintsof h'a own churcU. Two days later the whole villajfe had gone over to the sect of Stundists. A similar luoveinent bas been begun in the aristocratie circles of St. Petersburgh by Wassili Alexandrovich I'a.shkoll', a colonel in the guarda and a man of birth and wealth, wlio was led to study the Gospel by Lord Rudatock. He had left the army, and now opetia his palacui regularly to the rich, who hold prayer meetings in French ; and to the poor, to whom the New Testament is read and expounded in their native tongue, in which the colonel also pravs w!th them. The hymns sung are translated IVor the Germán, and adapted to the melodies in use among the Germán Protestants. In one of the latest Russian publications on the subject, either by Jassoff or Prtigavin, the total number of "heretics" in Kussia is estimated at 12,000,000. An official account distinjruished ü,000,000 of .i i uu i.ma wiiu nave pnesrs, racner less than 1,000,000 of "spiritual Christians1' and 65,000 "enthuslasts," among which we may, I presume, reckon tlie living dead, wlio bear their strange name becase they are in the hablt of sleeulng in cofflns- a fact that reminda one of the Chinese colon ets whose first day's work in the new country is invariably the construction of his own coffln. The dissiinilarityamongall these ects is immense. Adherentó of the Ancient Faith are seriously at variance with the official church oiily in respect to the highly important question whether two fingers have to be lifteU up in swearing an oath or three. Many a martyr might have aroided persecution, prison, torture, and death had he been less economical In the use of his flngers, and raised three ñatead of contenting hiniself with two. Bectarlanism in Russta has until lately been as superstitious and ignorant as Orthodoxy A kind of partly evangelical, partly rationalist sprituallsm seems to have entered it as a ferment, whieh may some day brin either destruction or reform to the Kusslan Church.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News