_righteousness_, for they shall be filled,” seemed to me to be also a
purely Western one. America and the West have taken it specially to
themselves. It has been the watchword of the Puritans. But my friend
Vera astonished me by reading it, “Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after _truth_, for they shall be filled,” and on looking at the
Russian translation I found indeed that the word was _pravda_ and the
popular sense was nearer “truth” than “righteousness.” That difference
means a great deal to a national outlook.
“Blessed are the merciful” we took to be a Western beatitude, “Blessed
are the pure in heart” to be Eastern. “Blessed are the peace-makers” has
become a very Western idea, and King Edward the Seventh was sung to the
grave as a saint as King Edward the Peace-maker. “Blessed are they who
are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” is in Russian “Blessed are they
who are persecuted for the sake of truth”—for theirs is the kingdom of
Heaven. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and
say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake, for great is
your reward in heaven” is taken equally by West and East, though the
East feels more that the reward is within you, whereas the West thinks
of a reward after death.
We considered the Temptations in the Wilderness. First, it was Eastern
to go into the wilderness at all. It would have been more Western to go
into the town and find salvation in work, in “doing the duty that lay
nearest.”
The teaching of the temptation to turn stones into bread has an Eastern
emphasis. The Russian, says, “I would not if I could.” The Western is
ever coming to the Russian and saying, “Lo, your people are starving;
but see how undeveloped your country is, you have gold, you have oil,
you have coal, you have all manner of precious things in your soils and
your rocks; say but the word and they can be changed into bread, and
your starving may be fed.” But the Russian says, “Bread is not so very
important; what is important is the word that proceedeth from the mouth
of God.”
The second temptation, that of suicide or of nihilism, of casting
oneself down from the Temple, is something the West has understood more
clearly. The East continually succumbs to this temptation, and the
Russian is ever “tempting God.”
The third temptation has a great Eastern emphasis; Jesus, in lofty
contemplation of the world and of His own genius, understands that He
could be a new Alexander and be king of the whole world. He could reign
in wonderful glory, and could enact perfect laws for mankind and issue
them with the authority of a king. But He denies the world and its glory
in the name of the life of the Spirit. The typical earnest American of
to-day, if he saw a chance of ruling all the worlds and felt that he had
in him the Divine message, would almost certainly take the opportunity;
but the typically serious Russian, or at least the Russian monk, would
prostrate himself on the ground, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for
it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve’”—“Him only,” that is, not mankind.
On the strength of this introduction I have gone through the main
teaching of the Gospel, and have made the following differentiation of
how East and West have taken or emphasised or avoided the thoughts and
words of the New Testament. We are somewhat tired of the comparison of
the Authorised and Revised Versions, or of the English translation with
the original Greek texts. Here, I fancy, is something more vital; a
comparison of the way the teaching has been generally understood by the
masses of the people in the Western and Eastern Churches. I am not
comparing the opinions of the authorities in both Churches, but the
opinions which hold sway, which make ethics. By this means it may be
possible to make what would be a valuable historical record of the
position of the progress of Christianity to-day.
The way of the West—what may be called the way of Martha—is easier, more
human than the way of the East—the way of Mary. Thus at the
Transfiguration the disciple cried out, “Master, it is good for us to be
here: let us build three tabernacles.” It was not at all necessary to
build three tabernacles. The good part was like that of Mary—to sit at
Jesus’ feet.
But to take the teaching in the order it is given in St. Matthew’s
Gospel: “Ye are the salt of the earth” has been printed in red ink in
the Bibles of the West, and it is generally thought to refer to the just
and upright, the elder brothers, the stand-by’s of the community as
opposed to the prodigals.
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in Heaven,” has in the West become a
weekly exhortation to give a good alms at collection-time. This is an
instance of materialism. The spendthrift East takes its stand more with
St. Peter, who was able to say, “Silver and gold have I none; but such
as I have give I to thee.” The giving of money is the least of the good
works in the power of the East; “Am I so bankrupt of grace that my
function is to give money?” the Eastern may exclaim.
“If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out” means more to the East, where
in the monastic life of the Orthodox Church the lusts of the flesh are
mortified—that is, made dead; where hermits wear heavy chains and take
oaths of silence, or hide themselves from mankind. It is witnessed in
many sects, such as the Skoptsi, who deny the world by defunctionising
the body!
“Swear not at all” is a simple admonition, appealing directly to the
Western mind. In Russia the swearing in ordinary conversation is thick
as the weeds on a waste. A curiosity in Russian swearing is the common
expression _Yay Bogu_, which means really, “Yes: I say it to God,” but
which through carelessness and iteration has become equivalent to
something like our “’s’truth.” In America, however, the adjective
God-damn is commoner than any other unpleasant expression in any
country.
“Resist not evil. Who will take away thy coat, give him thy cloke also;
and who forces thee to go a mile, go with him twain; and whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” This has
been taken more seriously by the Eastern Church. In the West it is more
“a counsel of perfection,” or the words and the sentiment are taken as
an ornament of Christianity. Agnostics and non-Christians make a mock of
Christians because they do not turn the other cheek. The teaching is
considered of so little importance that it is a Christian act to give a
cad a thrashing, and the clergyman well versed in the noble art of
self-defence is by no means a rarity. In Russia, non-resistance is a way
of overcoming the world and putting Satan behind you. Going two miles
with the man who forces you to go one, giving the cloak to the man who
takes the coat, turning the other cheek, are _podvigs_, holy exploits,
taking the uniform of Christ’s not saving Himself from the Cross.
“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away.” This has authority in Russia. In England we do not
give for the asking, and to borrow is disgraceful. In Russia giving and
lending are scarcely virtues; they are a condition of life. America is
also ready to give and lend, but not so much to persons as to societies,
funds, hospitals, new priesthoods.
“Love your enemies” is the _podvig_, the holy exploit once more, by
which the world is overcome, and is very real in Russia.
“Pray for them which despitefully use you”: this is essentially a
teaching that has Western acceptance. The Russian does not pray much for
his enemies.
“Be ye perfect!” This is a Western ideal, to be perfect. The East does
not strive to be better than it is now.
“Do not your alms before men” is generally disregarded by West and East.
“When ye pray, use not vain repetitions”: the West has obeyed this
monition. The prayers of the East are indeed not unlike the prayers of
the heathen. The Lord’s Prayer has meant much more to the West than to
the East.
“When ye fast, be not of a sad countenance”: the West, except in the
case of the Roman Catholic Church, does not fast. The Roman Catholic
Church, though Western in its locality and constitution, is in many of
its customs Eastern—for example, in the celibacy of its clergy, in the
monastic life it affords, in its fasting, in its repetition of prayers.
A wide gap, however, divides it from Eastern Orthodoxy, and as wide a
gap separates it from the leading spirit of the West, the latter being
decidedly Protestant. Dostoievsky, in the story of the Grand Inquisitor
in _The Brothers Karamazov_, treats Roman Catholicism as a great
conspiracy to defeat Christianity, and that point of view is taken very
seriously by Russians to-day. Roman Catholicism indeed provides a holy
way of life, and puts its members in a true position with regard to life
and the world, but it does so by authority. Little is allowed to spring
from personal initiative, and truths are not so much personal
experiences as priestly guarantees. Roman Catholicism stands to one
side, and this comparison of the spirit of East and West does not
greatly involve her.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” To this the East has
paid heed. Russia is the greatest spending nation in the world. No money
is saved. Every rouble is spent as it is obtained. In England and
America children are actually given money-boxes and taught to save their
pennies!
“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall
drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on”: this is obviously a
teaching which conditions the ragged and disorderly and unconventional
East. In England and America one might almost think the opposite ideas
had been recommended, seeing how we cherish the right crease in the
right sort of attire, how we strive to be in fashion.
But “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you” is something which obtains the
hearty belief of the West.
“Take no thought for the morrow” has an Eastern accentuation.
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” is taken by the West as a
cynical utterance. The West believes that Christianity means,
“Sufficient unto the day is the good thereof.” The West says each day is
full of blessing; the East says each day is full of suffering.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged”: no one pays much attention to this.
“Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye”—a reproof to
the West, not needed in the East. America is terribly censorious and
critical of the neighbour. Russia has no censure.
“Ask, and it shall be given you” the West has believed. It has, however,
asked for material things. The East has taken rather, “Seek, and ye
shall find.”
“Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”
is in great favour in the West.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate”: this is quite Western in adhesion.
“Beware of false prophets.” Both churches have gladly taken this phrase
to use against schismatics and dissenters.
“By their fruits ye shall know them.” This criterion the West has
adopted. Easternism may be said to regard the barren tree as holy. At
least, it never curses the barren.
The story of the wise man who built his house upon a rock has edified
the West.
To the story of the scribe who wished to follow Jesus, but who
apparently wished to do so and remain comfortable and well-off at the
same time, and to the story of the disciple who wished to bury his
father first, but to whom was said, “Let the dead bury their dead,” the
West has paid little or no attention, whilst the East has taken it to
himself.
The fact that Jesus sat down and ate with publicans and sinners is in
the spirit of the East; the West prefers ever the company of the just.
The West is glad to have the action of Jesus explained in the following
verse: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick.”
“Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses.” Alas, all
Western weal believes that it is founded on gold. If any good work is to
hand, the first thing is to raise a fund.
“When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak
...”: this has always been most helpful to persecuted nonconformists and
heretics.
“I came not to send peace, but a sword” is overlooked in the West. The
West thinks that Christ proclaimed peace. And the peace that was before
the Great War was thought to be a wonderful fruit of Christianity—the
peace of mutual jealousy and fear, the great commercial peace of the
twentieth century, that Kipling calls the “Peace of Dives”:
The whole wide earth is laid
In the peace that I have made;
And behold, I wait on thee to trouble it.
“He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for
My sake shall find it”: the West emphasises this thought. Carlyle gave
it great force in his gospel of work. “Forget your troubles,” says the
West; “throw yourself into work and lose yourself—then you’ll soon find
yourself.” The East will not work in that way.
“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden” has been comfort
to the West.
In the matter of healing on the Sabbath the Western is rather on the
side of the Jews.
The question, “Who is my mother and who are my brethren?” has not been
acceptable to the West. The West would have preferred Jesus to be a
model family man, not only loving mother and brothers and sisters, but
having a wife and children about him. The Eastern Church takes its stand
with the early Christians and the denial of earthly ties. Sometimes news
is brought of father or mother or brethren to the wonderful Russian
hermits such as Father Seraphim, but they coldly repel the tidings with
Christ’s words, “Whosoever doeth the will of God, the same is my brother
and sister and mother.”
Casting the wicked into the fire—this idea lingers in America, but it is
dead in Russia and in England.
The confession of Peter, and the prophecy, “Thou art Peter, and on this
rock I will build my Church,” the Roman Church has necessarily taken to
itself.
The Transfiguration on the mountain—the possessed about the foot of the
mountain—is taken as an Eastern understanding of life. The light of
transfiguration is the halo about the head of the hermit; the possessed
below make the hurly-burly of the world whence the hermit made his
escape. “The light of transfiguration,” I heard Prince Trubetskoi say in
a lecture at Moscow, “is the light of haloes, the light of Holy Russia,
the light of friendship.”
“Let us build three tabernacles” is, as I said, Western.
The West has believed Jesus in that He answered the question, “Who is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” by taking a little child and
setting him in the midst of them.
The West has allowed its eyes to rest on the parable of the Talents, but
the East has had more appreciation of “The first shall be last, and the
last first.”
The West has insisted on “Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s,” but it has avoided the condemnation of the Pharisees; the
Gospel of St. Matthew reveals itself as the gospel of the kingdom of
heaven as opposed to “the world.” But the West has sought to find “the
world” holy. Western Christianity was started by the conquest of worldly
armies, but Eastern Christianity was founded on the example of hermits,
eunuchs, stoics, philosophers, fanatics. It had all the advantage of
proximity to the place where Christianity started, all the advantage of
the traditions of Greek and Roman philosophy. Despite all our study of
Greek and of history and of philosophy at the schools, and despite the
Russian’s lack of study, yet the latter is nearer to the ancient spirit;
but he has lived historically in direct relation to Byzantium, and has
ever had before his eyes living examples of the way to live a Christian
life.
“Many are called, but few are chosen” has had great influence in the
West, but the power of the text is waning. Protestantism is becoming
more philanthropical, easy-going, and generous than it was in the days
of persecution.
The idea of the Second Coming of Christ is a strange will-o’-the-wisp of
light that cannot be tracked and is difficult to account for, breaking
out ever and anon unexpectedly where you would think it had for ever
disappeared. At present it is seen in many places, East and West.
Originally it was a very powerful sentiment, but after two thousand
years of waiting hope has died down, and it is seldom that whole
societies sell up all their worldly goods and repair to the valley of
Jehoshaphat to wait the great day.
The story of Mary pouring the precious ointment on Jesus’ head rather
than selling the ointment and giving the proceeds to the poor, is the
way of Mary rather than the way of Martha.
Here perhaps ends the Gospel of St. Matthew as far as definite sentences
of teaching are concerned, and probably sufficient ideas have been taken
out and compared for the purpose of this differentiation.
As regards the acts of the Gospel, there remains the consideration of
the miracles. The healing of the sick, the lame, the blind, has become
the example of the West, and what Christ did by miracle they do by
science. The East, however, insists on the miraculous, and to-day in
Russia thousands of miracles are performed annually at the sacred
shrines. Whether these miracles are genuine or no is a moot point. Many
certainly are no more than ecclesiastical contrivances for gaining
popular support for ikons and shrines. Many are said to be the result of
the faith of those who ask the miracle. At Kief and Sarof and New
Jerusalem many a blind man receives sight, many a crippled woman
straightens herself out, many a sick man is restored to health. The
Eastern Church lays stress on the miraculous; the miracle, however, is
esoterically understood as mystery. The Russian has an extraordinary
capacity for belief.
There remains the Crucifixion, of which I will say no more than that it
is the greatest _podvig_, the crown of the life of Jesus. For the West
it is the Resurrection that is emphasised. As I wrote in _With the
Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem_: “For the Orthodox, He was dead; for the
Protestant, He is alive for evermore.” So two churches combine to make
one truth, and the hand-maidens of the Lord, Martha and Mary, are shown
to be indeed two sisters, not only in kindred but in spirit.
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
BOOKS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM
=A TRAMP’S SKETCHES.=
=WITH THE RUSSIAN PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM.=
=WITH POOR EMIGRANTS TO AMERICA.=
=THE WAY OF MARTHA AND THE WAY OF MARY.=
These four books, published by Macmillan & Co., form a sequence of which
the _Tramp’s Sketches_ is like a prologue or a promise. The Pilgrim book
is of the Way of Mary; the America book is of the Way of Martha; and the
fourth book, _The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary_, knits the other
three in one.
_Other Volumes._
=RUSSIA AND THE WORLD=: An Account of how Russia is affected by the
War. Fifth Edition.
=VAGABOND IN THE CAUCASUS=: Mr. Graham’s first book.
=UNDISCOVERED RUSSIA=: A Presentment of Holy Russia.
=CHANGING RUSSIA=: Written in 1912.
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
WITH THE RUSSIAN PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM
Illustrated. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
_THE ATHENÆUM._—“M. Jusserand’s _Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages_ or
Burton’s or Doughty’s accounts of their pilgrimages to Mecca are
books of secure repute. Mr. Graham in _With the Russian Pilgrims to
Jerusalem_ gives us a companion volume.”
_THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN._—“‘Many think in the head,’ wrote Francis
Thompson, ‘but it is thinking in the heart that is most wanted.’ It
is because this book has been pondered, and the events it describes
lived ‘in the heart,’ that it possesses such grace and distinction.
Those who have followed Mr. Graham and have watched his style
becoming with every volume he has written a more and more
close-fitting and appropriate garment for his thought, will not be
disappointed. It is his best work—gay, beautiful, and tender; gay
with the spirit of youth, beautiful with the spirit of poetry, and
tender with the spirit of worship.... Compare these reverent and
radiant pages with the bright semi-cynicism of _Eothen_, and you get
a measure of the distance the English spirit has travelled since
1844.”
_THE NATION._—“The Russians have not been broken by Russia. Mr.
Stephen Graham, in his beautiful and remarkable book, throws this
great truth into vivid perspective. Not for him the ‘grey days’ of
Tchekhof or the hoarse challenge of Gorky’s exultant mood, not for
him the symbol of Andreyev’s Red Laughter.... This Englishman does
not dwell upon the Russians’ suffering, but upon their immense hope;
he is preoccupied not by their material poverty but by their
spiritual wealth.”
_THE DAILY MAIL._—“Mr. Stephen Graham is favourably known as the
interpreter of modern Russia and more particularly of the peasant.
To that task he brings every accomplishment. He has sympathy; he has
the insight of genius and the heart of the poet. He has a rare and
precious gift of style.... He seems to have divined by some flash of
intuition the psychology of the Russian. This book will add greatly
to his already great reputation. It is a pleasure to praise such
work. Here he has given us an extraordinarily beautiful and
interesting account of an extraordinarily interesting
achievement.... It breaks entirely fresh ground. It makes a deep and
universal appeal.”
_THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._—“The best book on Russia written by an
Englishman.”
_THE OUTLOOK._—“Something more than a book of travel, a spiritual
Murray—a very remarkable piece of work ... at once simple and
extraordinary.”
_CHURCH TIMES._—“We are sure that the student of human nature and
the student of religion alike will find a deep interest in this
book. Its merit is the complete sympathy and the true insight with
which it describes the child-like faith of the Russian peasant and
his passionate love of the Saviour who died for him.”
_MERCURE DE FRANCE._—“C’est une longue aventure où l’on se croirait
reporté au temps des croisades, et l’auteur dessine en quelques
traits nets et durs des types étonnants. Voilà un livre à lire pour
quiconque veut être intéressé et obligé de réfléchir.”
_THE TIMES_ (in a leading article Feb. 5, 1914).—“No living English
writer has made investigations so patient and so wide into the
habits and manners of the great dumb masses who are the body of the
largest and the least-known nation in Europe.”
LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
WITH POOR EMIGRANTS TO AMERICA
Illustrated. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.
_THE NATION._—“Mr. Stephen Graham is a real super-tramp, and in his
aspect of the world and his fellows there is always a touch of the
pilgrim’s sanctity. He feels an attraction, partly æsthetic, often
sentimental, to people of simple and religious life, and especially
to the Russian peasants, whom he depicts as the simplest and most
religious of all mankind. He loves the beauty of untouched nature,
and of man pursuing the primitive and traditional methods of
pasture, plough, or loom. He is always conscious of a spiritual
presence behind phenomena, and is strongly drawn by emotions of
pity, sympathy, and fellow-feeling, as by the qualities of humility
and indifference to material things.... Of all English writers on
America Mr. Graham is almost the only one who tells us certain
things that we really wanted to know.”
_SPHERE._—“Not one of the well-known writers who from the days of
Dickens and Thackeray to our own has written his experiences of the
United States has proved so attractive.”
_TIMES._—“Of these three travellers (Henry James, H. G. Wells, and
Stephen Graham) Mr. Graham has at least the advantage of extreme
contrast.... His book is full of humanity, sensitive with the love
of peace and beauty.”