If He tells us to serve Him, then it is only for our own blessing. Life cannot have any other purpose but blessedness and joy. Joy is the sole aim worth living for.
Renunciation, the cross, the sacrifice of life— аП this is for the sake of joy.
And joy is and must be inviolate and constant.
And death is passing to a new, un fathomed, entirely novel, a different and a greater joy.
There are innumerable sources of joy: beauty of nature, of animals, of human beings, sources of joy that are always with us. Even in prison—the beauty of a ray of sunshine, the flies, the sounds. But the supreme source of joy is love, my love for people, the love of the people for me.
Beauty is a joy, but taken as a joy, independent of goodness, it is repulsive. I found this out long ago and abandoned it. Goodness without beauty is painful. The two must be combined, or rather than combined, beauty must crown goodness.
That which appears incontrovertible from the social point of view, appears senseless from the Christian point of view. This difference is due to the difference in the aims set before man.
The Christian teaching sets before us different aim from that which is set before us by social teaching.
The aim which the Christian teaching sets before man is not the happiness of this or that aggregation of human beings which is attained by the observance of the will and of the laws of this aggregation, but the supreme happiness of all the people and of the whole world is attained through the fulfilment of the will and of the law of God.
To live for self is agony, for it incites you to live for an illusion, for something that is not, and this is not only bound to lead to unhappiness, but is downright impossible. It is like dressing and feeding a shadow. Life can be only outside of self, in serving others, not in serving near ones and dear ones; this again is serving self, but in serving those whom one does not4ove, best of all in serving one's enemies.
It is true that Thy work and Thy strength are entrusted to me. Thy work is to manifest Thee in the world. And herein is all my life.
It is true that Thy strength was given me in order to accomplish Thy work. And Thy work is to increase Thy strength in me and in the whole world.
The true life of man is not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Many people are ignorant of this. And when they are ignorant of this, people fear that most of all which can injure their flesh—they fear death most of all. But when a man knows that his life is in the spirit, he has nothing more to fear, for nothing or nobody outside of himself can harm him.
In the essential problems of life we are always atone; the true story of our life cannot be comprehended by others. And the essential part of this story is in the extent to which we live cither in the flesh or in the spirit.
Wherever your fate may cast you, you have with you always your being, your spirit, the center of life, liberty and power. There are no external blessings or grandeurs in the world for the sake of which it would be worth while for й man to suppress within him the consciousness of that spirit, to sever his union with it, to undermine the integrity of his soul by an inner discord with his own self.
Can you point to the treasure which you would have but at the cost of such a sacrifice?
Marcus Aurelius.
The win of God is not that I alone be happy, but that all be happy. And in order that all be happy, there is but one means open—for all to seek one another's happiness instead of their own.
If you ask any man who he is, np man can answer anything else but: "I am—I." And if every one is "I,"
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE
233
then there is one and the same principle in all. And it is so in reality.
The life of man is a striving for happiness, and that for which he strives has been granted to him.
Man only thep sees evil in the shape of death and suffering when he mistakes the law of his carnal animal existence for the law of his life.
Only when as a human being he descends to the level of the animal, will he see death and suffering. Death and suffering are the bugaboos which from all sides assail him with fear and drive him to the one path which is open to him—^the path of human life subject to reason and manifesting itself in love. Death and sufferings are man's transgressions of his own law of life. For the man who lives according to his law there is no death or suffering.
"Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew XI, 28-30.
The life of man is a striving towards happiness; that towards which he is striving is granted unto him; a life which knows no death, and a blessedness which knows no evil.
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS
(Translated by Laud A. Maude)
Pttbliihed bj Harper ft Broi. 1909
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS Christ*■ Teaching
Last year I formed a class of village children, from ten to thirteen years of age. Wishing to impart Christ's-teaching to them in a way they would understand, and that would have an influence on their lives, I told them, in my own words, those parts of the four Gospels which seem to me the most understandable, most suitable for children, and ' at the same time most necessary for moral guidance in life.
The longer I worked at this, the more clearly I saw— from the way the children repeated what I told them, and from their questions—what it was that they grasped most easily, and by what they were most attracted.
Guided by that, I composed this booklet; and I think its perusal, chapter by chapter, with such explanations of the need of applying the eternal truths of this teaching to life, as the reading evokes, cannot but be beneficial to children, who, according to Christ's words, are especially receptive to the teaching about the Kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ showed men by his teachit^ an<l by his life that the spirit of God lives in every man.
According to the teaching of Jesus Christ, all ills come to men because they think their life is in their body, and not in the Spirit of God. That is why they quarrel with one another, why Aeir souls suffer, and why they fear death.
The spirit of God is love. And love lives in each man's soul.
When people come to believe theic Ufe Vi ^ '■та. •&*!
spirit of God—that is, in love—there will be no enmity, no mental suffering, and no fear of death.
Every one wishes good for himself. The teaching of Christ shows men that good comes to them by love, and that all can have this good. That is why the teaching of Christ is called the Evangel. Ev means "good," angelion means "tidings"—good tidings. j John IV. 7, 12, 16.
II.
Jesus was bom 1908 years ago, of Mary, the wife of Joseph.
Till the age of thirty he lived in the town of Nazareth with his mother, father and brothers; and when he was old enough he helped his father to do carpenter's work.
When Jesus was thirty years old, he heard of people going to hear a holy man preach in the wilderness. This man's name was John. So Jesus went into the wilderness with others, to hear John preach.
John said that it was time for the Kingdom of God to come, when every one will understand that all men are equal, and that no one is higher and no one lower than another; and that all men should live lovingly and in good accord with their fellows. He said this time was near, but would only quite come when people stop doing wrong.
When plain people asked him: "What am I to do?" John told them that he who had two garments should give one to him who had none; and in the same way he that had food should share it with him that had node. To the rich, John said that they should not rob the pec^Ie. The soldiers he told not to plunder, but to be content with what was given them, and not to use bad language. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the lawyers, he told to change their lives and to repent: "Don't think," he said, "that you are some