Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-02-20

Ell than accept the spiritual response
bliity of participating in it. So that
the Russian people in it's majesty has
submitted to power and is submitting
to it. not because they cannot over
| throw it as the revolutiOnists wish
to teach them to do and not because
they cannot attain such participation
as the liberals wish to teach them,
but because in their majority the Rus
sian people have always preferred
and do prefer submission to violence
rather than strife with it or partici-
patton in it.
This is how a despotic government
was established and has maintained
itself in Russia, that is, the simple
violence of the strong and pugnac.
ious over the weak and those not
DESTROYS of struggling.
The legend of the call of the Vari-
ags. obviously composed after the
Variags had already conquered the
Slavonians, fully expresses the rela-
ton of the Russian people toward
power, even before hristianity. 1--WE
ourselves do not wish to participate
in the sins of power. If you do not
regard it as sim come and govern
us BY this same attitude toward
power can be explained the submits
sion of the Russian people to the
most cruel and insane autocrats often
not Russian. from Ivan w. down to
Nicholas II.
| Thus in Olden times did the Rus
sian people regard power and their
relation toward it. Even now the
majority look upon it in the same
way. 1t is true that, as in other
states. the same deceits by which
Christian people have been uncon-
sciously compelled not only to submit
but to obey in deeds, contrary to
Christianity. have been perpetrated al
| so in relation to the Russian people.
But these deceits reached only the
upper corrupt lawyers of the people,
whereas the majority have retained
that view of power by which man re-
CARDS it as better to bear suffering
from violence than to participate in
violence.
The cause of such an attitude of the
Russian people toward power consists,
| think. in this: That in the Russian
nation has been preserved true Chris
tianitv as teaching of brotherhood
equality and humanity and love, the
| Chritianity which sees a radical diff
!
lence and obeying it. true Chris
tan may submit, he ever can not but
submit without strife. to all violence
but he cannot obey it, i. e.. recognize
its lawfulness. However much gov.
ernments in general, and the Rus
sian government in particular, have
striven and are striving to replace
this truly Christian attitude toward
power by the orthodox christian
teaching, the Christian spirit and the
distinction between submission" to
power and obedience" continues to
live in the great majority of the Rus
, sian working people.
The incompatibility between gov,
ornmental coercion and Christianity
has never ceased to be felt by the
majority of the Russian people, and
!, this contradiction has been especial
!, ly keenly and distinctly felt by the
more sensitive Christians who did not
embrace the distorted teaching of or
thodoXy by the so called sectarians
, These Christians of various denomi
nations did not recognize the lawful
:. ness of governmental power
: From fear the majority submitted
. to government demands which the,
= regarded as unlawful, while some O
the minority circumvented the de
mands by various devices, or else fee
:, from them. When. with the introduc
!. ton of universal CONSUMPTION, STATE
y. coercion threw as it were, a chal
y lenge to all true Christians, demand
:. ing from every man readiness to kill
many orthodox Russian people began
:, to understand the incompatibility o
; Christianity with power.
At the same time, nOnOrthodo,
: Christians of the most various de
nominations began categorically to re
:, fuse to become soldiers. And. al
. though there were not many such re
u fusals (hardly one in thousand con
= scripts, still their significance wa
!. great, since their refusals opened thu
> eyes no longer of sectarians only, bu
of all Russian people to the un-Chris
tian demands of the government ant
;. an enormous majority of the people
u who previously had not thought abou
the contradiction between the divine
and human law saw this contradiction
: and among the majority of the Rus
: sian people there began the invisible
persistent. incalculable work of thu
liberation of consciousness.
Such was the position of the Rus
: sian nation when the utterly unjusti
fable Japanese war broke out. It i!
this war, coupled with the develop
t ment of reading and writing, with tn,
| universal dissatisfaction, and. abov'
J. all, with the necessity of calling on
S fol the first time hundreds of thous
e ands of middle aged men disperse'
e all over Russia, and now torn from
o their families and rational ldob 70
S a glaringly insane and cruel purpos
l. which served as a final impetus an
IS transformed the invisible and persis
Al ent inner delevopment into clea
c. Ell consciousness of the unlawfulnes
and sinfulness of the government.
This conclusion has expressed i
self and is now expressing itself
of the most varied and momentou
lie events; in the refusal of reservists t
IS enter the army. in refusals to shoe
al and fight, especially in refusals t
s, shoot at ones comrades during tn
lg suppression of revolts. and, above al
al in the continually increasing numbe
n. OF refusals to take the oath and ente
y the military service. For the Ru
N sian people of our time, for the gres
n majority of them, there has arisen i
" all its great significance the questio
lie as to whether it be right before Go
I'd before ones conscience-to ODE
Y. the government which demands whs
ID is contrary to Christian law
lie In this question, arisen among tn
| Russian ictc 0f !,