Part 10 (1/2)

Those who could afford it eagerly bought the book of glad tidings; those who could not clubbed their ether and became the joyful purchasers of a copy How the book caer froht e chest, and that he travelled about froe, and ht have been the case, I never saw the stranger All I know is, that a certain very pious e had several copies of the book which he had bought at a great cost, though not too great for its value, oh no! And that he sold them without profit to all ould buy--rather, I would say, at a loss, for to some who could not pay the full cost he reot the book we lost no ti it In the fields in summer, under the shade of trees, we sat and read it, where no one could watch us; in our huts, by torch-light in winter, we eagerly studied the book We knew that we had got the word of God, that we possessed a jewel of rich price; ere afraid that thieves erly weof parts which we could not at first understand, to pray that our htened to comprehend it We read it, as the book itself tells us to do, with earnest prayer; we read it with faith, and we read it not in vain Soon passages which seemed at first obscure were made clear to our comprehension Every day we understood it better and better We had no one to whoo for information We had no one to instruct us, so ent to God; we asked Him to show us the truth, as He in the book told us to do, and His proave us all we asked for We now discovered, truly, how darkened had been our norant we had been, what follies, what fables, what falsehoods we had believed We saw the gross, the terrible, the wicked errors of the Church of our country We found that those who should have instructed us were generally as ignorant as we had been, and that if not ignorant, they had taught us falsehoods, knowing them to be falsehoods We found in that book how the world was made; how man was first placed in the world; how he, by disobedience to God's simple command, fell from his happy state, and how sin thus entered into the world, and all men became by nature sinful; how God in His mercy promised a Redeemer who should bear upon His own shoulders the sin of all the children of Adam who believe in Hireat na e, that the Redeemer of the world should be one of their chosen tribe, and that the glad tidings of salvation should first be offered to them; how, in process of time, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, from His unbounded love to the human race, appeared in the forards not the persons of men; hoas despised and rejected of h He spent His days on earth in doing good to all around Him, to show the humble, and poor, and afflicted that He can feel for them; hoas rejected by God's chosen people; how they crucified Hi on theuilt of the deed; how He died and was buried; how thus He offered Himself a sacrifice for our sins; how He remained for three days in the vale of departed spirits; how in His own body He rose again to teachfulfilled all the work of the sacrifice, He ascended into heaven, and how He there acts as a mediator between God and man; how, too, in His abundant ht, to teach thein Mary, except that she was the earthlyof the mediation of saints, but it tells us that God accepts but one great sacrifice, that offered by our Lord Jesus Christ; that He is our only Priest, our only Mediator in heaven; that those who heartily repent of their sins, who put their faith in Hi said in the Bible of a Patriarch, or any other head of the Church on earth The only Patriarch, therefore, we can acknowledge, the only Head of our Church, is Christ in heaven Yet the Bible has taught us to bow to the authority of earthly powers in all temporal matters, but in spiritual matters to yield to the authority of no one unless it is plainly and undoubtedly in accordance with the word of God revealed in that book Putting aside all the customs of the country, which seemed to us so overloaded with error and abuse that we could not distinguish the right fro, we have endeavoured to form a system of worshi+p and mutual instruction as nearly similar as possible to that instituted by our Lord Himself and His disciples We knew that we could not preach our doctrines in public without bringing down on our heads a severe punishment from the authorities of the Eress No sooner did one receive the truth than he became anxious to impart it to others All this time, who, think you, had joined our faith?--none but serfs, peasants, humble mujicks But this did not cast us down, for we asked ourselves Who were the first disciples of our Lord?--fishermen, humble men like ourselves Because our faith was different to that of the great and hty in the land, it did not make us less certain that it was the true one, or less anxious to impart it to others, to offer our brethren the same assurance of pardon and salvation which we had ourselves received Hitherto the progress of our creed had received no interruption from the Government authorities We had worked silently and quietly; even the priests knew nothing of theon We ell assured that, should they discover it, they would oppose us with all their power We were, therefore, allowed to continue on without persecution By degrees, however, our doctrines began to rade An earnest, piously-minded land-steward had a Bible lent hi it, and was at last invited to attend one of our ht way For th the owner of the estate he ed came to live on his property He was an officer in the arainst the Circassians He had the character of being a brave and a stern h a strict ent, but just To his master the steas induced, after soth persuaded him to study the Bible The master read and read on He became convinced of the errors of the Greek Church, and joined our fraternity Truly as a brother, hu us

”The truth had now spread widely; an to hope that the pure doctrines of Christianity ht extend over the face of our beloved country Alas! We deceived ourselves We forgot that ti must ever be looked for by God's saints on earth

”At length, as was to be expected, sos One night a congregation of us were assembled for prayer and instruction in the word in a rude hut constructed by us far away in the depths of a forest,--the only temple we dared raise to our God,--ere startled by hearing the trahs Before we could rise from our knees, a party of police, headed by a priest and two of the neighbouring landowners, rushed in upon us Some attempted to fly, others stood boldly up to confront our persecutors; but neither would it have been right or wise, or of any avail, to have used carnal weapons for our defence Those who thus stood firm felt bolder than they had ever done before We demanded ere thus assailed and interrupted in our private devotions We asserted our right to meet for prayer to God and to our Lord, and deht be left to finish our devotions undisturbed In return ere jeered and ridiculed, and roughly ordered to marshal ourselves and hurry on before our captors They told us that we should be tried before a proper tribunal; that there could be no doubt we had ether for political and treasonable purposes; that also ere schismatics and heretics, and that we had merited the severest punish to God for help and support in this our first hour of peril, we did as ere ordered Hoe had been discovered we could not learn We feared that so our own body had proved false, but we trusted that such was not the case Our s had probably attracted the attention of some priest more acute than his brethren, and he had subtly made inquiries till he had discovered the truth It was a sad procession as we marched forth from our woodland temple, but yet ere not cast doe trusted in God that He would deliver us He did not even then forget us We had ather in the sky, and loud rus were heard Soon the terew the thunder, flash upon flash of lightning darted from the heavens; first heavy drops, and then torrents of rain came down upon our heads; the trees bent, trunks were riven by the lightning, boughs were torn from the stean to snort and rear and show every sign of terror Crash succeeded crash--; it played round the tall ste the ground, it alhtness At last the horses could no longer stand it; their riders, too, were alarmed Some of the horses wheeled one way, soh the wood in different directions In vain the priest and the lords called to us to keep together, and to meet them at the town; in vain their servants and their other attendants endeavoured to keep us together Feeling that the tempest was sent for our deliverance, with a prayer for each other's safety we likewise dispersed in all directions, to seek places of shelter and conceale forests, the thin population, the rocks and caves of that region afforded us abundance of facilities for this object Many of us reached such places of safety as I have described and the freemen were able to remain concealed, but the serfs were hunted up like wild beasts and brought back to their owners

Many were put to the torture, to make them betray those who had assumed as called the new faith Day after day some of our members were seized The freemen were cast into prison and put to the torture, to co it

Our beloved brother, Captain Martineff, had hitherto escaped, but noas accused of professing the new doctrines He was seized and brought up before the officers of a commission appointed to try all such delinquents He, who had ever proved a faithful soldier to his generals and the Emperor, was not now to be found false to his faith and his heavenly Lord and Master He at once boldly confessed that he had taken the Bible as his rule and guide, that by that he would stand or fall; and he de and defending his doctrines in public court This liberty was scornfully denied hi to subvert the Governion of the country, and thrown into prison He would at once have been transported to Siberia, but the Govern him to discover others who held the same tenets They little kne far the true faith had spread, that thousands already held it, and that no power of theirs could extinguish the light thus kindled They dreae of which a true Christian is capable Captain Martineff would neither betray others nor deny his own faith It was determined to break his proud spirit, as it was called, and now coainst him His property was confiscated, his wife and children were seized and cast into dungeons separate from each other They were fed on black bread and water One by one they were brought to hi thinner and thinner every day, the colour fading fro its place He knew they were sinking into the grave--murdered by his persecutors Still he would not deny his faith or perform ceremonies which he knew to be superstitious and idolatrous With a refinement of cruelty worthy of demons, they told him that one child was dead 'It is well,' he replied; 'of such is the kingdoht little cherub; it had been the joy of his life 'God be praised!

He is in Abraham's bosom,' he answered Soon a third sank under his treatment 'You have released hiels in heaven!' he remarked

”His wife, a believer with hiood, became a victim to their barbarity They told his the more A serene smile illuminated his countenance, 'She has entered into her rest, where neither grief, nor pain, nor sickness can come She is with the spirits of the just made perfect'

”Still he had more children It was kno he had loved them One after the other died, till one alone reht it to him

They told him that if he would conform to the rules of the Established Church he should be released from prison, his property should be restored, and that this child--this darling child--should be sent to a place where fresh, pure air and the care of a good physician would quickly restore it to health 'Life and death are in the hands of the Alhty; to Him I commit the life of my child I have but in faith humbly to obey His laws, and to follow the course He has marked out for me'

”One, two, three, four years passed away, and he and his child rerew thin and pale, and pined and pined away

They took hi any joy to that father's heart, but to tempt his constancy The attempt availed them not The child died; the father shed not a tear, uttered not a complaint, but remained firm as ever to the faith Another year he was kept in prison, and then stripped of his property He was dismissed from prison, and a certain locality fixed for his abode Why he was not sent to Siberia was not known It was the will of the Emperor, it was supposed, who had heard his story

”While I have been narrating Captain Martineff's history, I have neglected to speak of the condition of the poorer brethren Numbers were seized, knouted, and sent off to labour in the ht that by thatthe truth Others were thrown into prison, and subjected daily to cruel tortures to force them to recant

”A few unhappy men were overcome by the pains and terror, and returned to the Greek faith, but the greater number held firm I remained in concealment, and it was supposed that I had died; but I had relatives and friends ealthy for our rank of life, and gave me support

All my family were free, yet in position ere not much above the poor -place and reat hazard, and oftentith, after we had suffered years of persecution, a time of rest arded us, and we fancied that ere to be allowed to worshi+p our God as we judged best

Still I dared not be seen in public, for I had refused to appear when sumious offender

”The mercy ere promised was but little mercy to us We were to be removed from the land of our birth, from our once happy homes, and to be settled down, many hundred versts away, in a district between some German colonies and Tartary It was believed that our tenets would not spread a the people by ere surrounded Many hundreds of families were thus turned out of their hoion The choice was given theth ca-place and joinedunder cultivation the wild country in which ere placed, and God prospered our labours

”Aed to us, Captain Martineff was sent here Sickness and long confinerey, and he looked an old le chamber in it, and here he took up his abode, while he used to labour with his own hands for his sustenance His fellow-villagers were all poor enough, but we all sought to assist him and to take him food--without it, I believe at tiifts thankfully, but never would take them unless when he was absolutely in want of food He had been much respected when he was in the ar him back to the world More than one priest had coeneral as celebrated for his great powers of argureat state, but set out alone on foot to pay his visit The hu; he sat at his little round table, made by his own hands, with his only spare seat placed ready for his guest

His Bible lay open before hiainst the doorway as he entered 'We have need of humility e approach the word of God,' observed his host with a gentle smile

”The General spoke kindly and affectionately to the old ether For months they had slept in the same tent, and eaten out of the same dish For a short time they conversed of old times

”'But you came to talk to me of matters ofhis hand on the Bible 'Out of this book I will reply to you Of my oords I need speak none'

”The General then coht incontrovertible As each was brought forward, the Captain turned to his Bible, and produced a text, which with its context clearly refuted it Text after text was brought forward At first the General had been very confident of success; by degrees his confidence decreased, but the Captain retained the sareat knowledge of the book, my friend,' said the General

”'I should have,' answered the Captain humbly; 'I study no other; for where can another of equal value be found? This shows us the way of eternal life'