Two thousand years ago John the Baptist and then Jesus said to men: The
time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; (/metanoeite/)
bethink yourselves and believe in the Gospel (Mark i. 15); and if you do
not bethink yourselves you will all perish (Luke xiii. 5).
But men did not listen to them, and the destruction they foretold is
already near at hand. And we men of our time cannot but see it. We are
already perishing, and, therefore, we cannot leave unheeded that--old in
time, but for us new--means of salvation. We cannot but see that, besides
all the other calamities which flow from our bad and irrational life,
military preparations alone and the wars inevitably growing from them
must infallibly destroy us. We cannot but see that all the means of
escape invented by men from these evils are found and must be found to be
ineffectual, and that the disastrous position of the nations arming
themselves against each other cannot but go on advancing continually. And
therefore the words of Jesus refer to us and our time more than to any
time or to any one.
Jesus said, "Bethink yourselves"--_i.e._ "Let every man interrupt the
work he has begun and ask himself: Who am I? From whence have I appeared,
and in what consists my destiny? And having answered these questions,
according to the answer decide whether that which thou doest is in
conformity with thy destiny." And every man of our world and time, that
is, being acquainted with the essence of the Christian teaching, needs
only for a minute to interrupt his activity, to forget the capacity in
which he is regarded by men, be it of Emperor, soldier, minister, or
journalist, and seriously ask himself who he is and what is his
destiny--in order to begin to doubt the utility, lawfulness, and
reasonableness of his actions. "Before I am Emperor, soldier, minister,
or journalist," must say to himself every man of our time and of the
Christian world, "before any of these, I am a man--_i.e._ an organic
being sent by the Higher Will into a universe infinite in time and space,
in order, after staying in it for an instant, to die--_i.e._ to disappear
from it. And, therefore, all those personal, social, and even universal
human aims which I may place before myself and which are placed before me
by men are all insignificant, owing to the shortness of my life as well
as to the infiniteness of the life of the universe, and should be
subordinated to that higher aim for the attainment of which I am sent
into the world. This ultimate aim, owing to my limitations, is
inaccessible to me, but it does exist (as there must be a purpose in all
that exists), and my business is that of being its instrument--_i.e._ my
destiny, my vocation, is that of being a workman of God, of fulfilling
His work." And having understood this destiny, every man of our world and
time, from Emperor to soldier, cannot but regard differently those duties
which he has taken upon himself or other men have imposed upon him.
"Before I was crowned, recognized as Emperor," must the Emperor say to
himself: "before I undertook to fulfil the duties of the head of the
State, I, by the very fact that I live, have promised to fulfil that
which is demanded of me by the Higher Will that sent me into life. These
demands I not only know, but feel in my heart. They consist, as it is
expressed in the Christian law, which I profess, in that I should submit
to the will of God, and fulfil that which it requires of me, that I
should love my neighbor, serve him, and act towards him as I would wish
others to act towards me. Am I doing this?--ruling men, prescribing
violence, executions, and, the most dreadful of all,--wars. Men tell me
that I ought to do this. But God says that I ought to do something quite
different. And, therefore, however much I may be told that, as the head
of the State, I must direct acts of violence, the levying of taxes,
executions and, above all, war, that is, the slaughter of one's neighbor,
I do not wish to and cannot do these things."
So must say to himself the soldier, who is taught that he must kill men,
and the minister, who deemed it his duty to prepare for war, and the
journalist who incited to war, and every man, who puts to himself the
question, Who is he, what is his destination in life? And the moment the
head of the State will cease to direct war, the soldier to fight, the
minister to prepare means for war, the journalist to incite
thereto--then, without any new institutions, adaptations, balance of
power, tribunals, there will of itself be destroyed that hopeless
position in which men have placed themselves, not only in relation to
war, but also to all other calamities which they themselves inflict upon
themselves.
So that, however strange this may appear, the most effective and certain
deliverance of men from all the calamities which they inflict upon
themselves and from the most dreadful of all--war--is attainable, not by
any external general measures, but merely by that simple appeal to the
consciousness of each separate man which, nineteen hundred years ago, was
proposed by Jesus--that every man bethink himself, and ask himself, who
is he, why he lives, and what he should and should not do.