The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-14
LEO ToLsTOl THE IDOL
OF RUSSIAN POPULATION.
Rabbi Leon Harrison breaches Ser
mon ON Confessions of the
PHILOSOPHERS.
At the Temple Israel yesterday Rabbi

| At the Temple Israel yesterday Rabbi
| Leon Harrison delivered i sermon OH
"Tolstoi's Confession" In part, he said:
What made him? Russia made him.
| That giant Empire begot a titanic soul.
| The huge monotony of snowy steppes and
wintry tempests wrought out his tenn
permanent. Their phGntasm glowed in his
humanitarian soul. This, great and sim
pie people made him great and made him
| simple.
Their startling social extremes made
! him extreme: the land without Il middle
| class created II man without u middle
| ground. And the law Of revulsion, of con-
tradiction. made this apostle OF liberty
cry aloud IL despotsm. preaching na-
| measured freedom TO the victims of a
brutal autocracy. Among an army OF a
million he proclaims the eternal armistice
| of nonresistance; yet lie is q soldier
ale breaches purity and toll TO an arts
| tocracy enervated by Incidence and honey
| combed with vice: yet he is an aristocrat.
And all these tirebrands he hurls into the
teeth of despotc Government. and
though they imprison his disciples, he.
| the master revoiutionary. Is freer than
the Car himself; is, the idol of the Rus
| sian population. and rnoids the thought
| the national thought of Russia
! HE attacks society. the army, the Gov
/ ernrnent. the economic order-yet it is said
that the Gar loves him. and he stands
This is a paradox. perchance-one of
those paradoxes that is not accidental. It
is a significant token of the forces be-
meath the surface of the national char
acter. So powerful. SO representative IL
genius, must come out of the very heart
Of the nation; he must be a Russian to
the core-one spiritual, humanitarian,
idealist. as CHARACTERISTIC and as truly ma
tional as the fanatic. the official brute,
the. sodden peasant. This man did not
spring out of the air. but has hundred
hut Oh vii Int bf, 81 1t.
Russian fa.heraId.
He is thus product Of the nation; he
has his root In us soil. But he has re-
of enlightenment that shines upon all.
Driven by an inctirable .restiessness, a
spiritual heartsickness ard inconsistencies.
he questioned science. he entered the
laboratory. the observatory; he studied:
he Inferred: but the disseciing knife did
not discover the soul. nor the telescope the
measured, forces: but they led him but to
the threshold of life. far from the arcana
OF its mysteries.
HE turned 10 philosophy. and in the ia
nous works of master spirits he found
only theories. logical ingenuities, meta
physical cobwebs. They attempted to ex-
plain and systematic the mechanism of
strengthen the individual soul.
And 81. finally. in despair. lie turned
to the people. he turned to life The mind
had not helped him. the senses had not
he found among the people that which
he sought for in vain among the elect OF
man. And in the people he found cheer,
fu!ness and patience under burdens. and
resignation. and hatred of seif-destruc-
ton and despair. and Willingness and
readiness to sustain responsibilities of life
Instead of studying religion, they live
it. Instead of looking at the telescope.
they look through it. Error comes. not
through thinking wrong. but through liv.
ing wrong. 1t is not life that is evil. but
Hf.a hot lie VHl LET
only with God in his soul did he truly live
Faith in God alone save mean
ing ing and value to his d life: Faith
fa alone meant saVe she to e Tsa crisis
was passed; the God he sought was found
He had discovered new life for him
self. the laborious life of the common
childlike faith Of work and cheer, and
trust.
1.-THE years of this extraordinary man
and well: yea. he will never cease TO live.
And when, in a distant age. men look
back upon our barbarities and cruelties;
with mingled sorrow and wonder, ana ana
race that turned the .glittering dreams or
humanity into realities. the dreams OF
brotherhood and peace. high upon the
written the name of the sage. the prophet,
the friend of man--I,eo To'stoi.'
The Reverend p. +. O'Reilly. pastor Of
the New Cathedral Chapel, preached the
closing sermon Of the novena for the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception at
St Roses Church last week. The Rever-
is much pleased by the good attendance
of his parishioners at the novena.
st. Agnes's Young Mems sodality elect
ed as officers: Fred Hillgert. project;
George DAILY. vice project: John Behan.
second vice project; Percy Hayes, record
ing secretary: Royden *. Pretty. financial
secretary; the Reverend j. A Collins.
erick Luth, sacrstan. Consultors. Louis
Hillgert, r. ]. Stretch. Eugene Conroy,
Eugene Tuchschmidt Charles Osterkamp.
Joseph Heating. Hugh o'Kane and Jo-
seph Schumacher.
st. Henry's School and Building Society
elected officers as follows: C. Hartenbach,
president; Joseph Shppich, vice president;
L. II. Ellermann, recording secretary;
John A. Rohlf. financial secretary: 3.
leickelmann. treasurer; John Schicker.
marshal: Jacob Knechel. II. ]. Smith and
7. Gertken, trustees: John olthaus and J.
W. Peoples, standard bearers. The fol-
lowing were elected officers for st. Henry's
branch OF the German st. Vincent Or
pIlin SoClety. JpSepu SupplCH. pItSiueUtp
Anthony Stuever, vice president; Frank
Horras, recording secretary; John Lem
beck. assistant secretary. Reception Com
mittee: Val A. Refs for term Of two
years: collectors, C. Hartenbach and
Frank Fehiig. Sr.
Twenty -six ladies OF st. Charles Borro-
meo's Italian Church have formed an as
ISOLATION Of the Queens Daughters. Mrs
Pensa was elected president; Mrs. J. p.
Menestrina. vice president: Miss Co-inne
Massa. secretary; Miss Carrie Brescia as
sistant secretary; Mrs Mary Massa
treasurer, and Mrs. Parish, assistant treas
urer.
Sixteen Of the ladies' are interested In
the Sicilian Mission Sewing School that |
is in session every Saturday afternoon
from until o'clock at Tenth and Wash |
streets. There is an average attendance of |
103 young girls.