The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-11-11
By w. T. Ellis)
PAGE TWELVE.

Petrograd.-EVery RUSSIAN learned
two R's-Russia and Religion; now 9
third II has been added Revolution
and II has not wholly found its place In
accord with the other two. To think OF
Russia is TO think OF religion. II has
been church state; Holy Russia" the
people still call II. Proclamations used
10 begin. "Set yourselves In the shad
ow OF the sign OF the Cross, o Russian
folk Of true believers" The army was
called "The Christloving army"
A modern apostle visiting a Russian
city could say with Paul at Athens. Il
perceive that In all things you are very
religious" Domes and spires of
churches, each surmounted with a cross
having three arms or cross-pieces, dom
mate the sky lines. At the intersec'
tions OF the busiest streets are set little
kiosks or chapels, where the hurrying
people may tarry TO pray or else cross
themselves In passing. Every home and
hotel room and office and restaurant
car and steamship dining room has its
icon, or sacred picture.
Even the humblest peasant felt that
the mission OF Russia was more relig-
ious than political. and that she was
destined TO restore the cross upon the
Mosque Of st. Sophia in Constantine
pie, and bring back the glories of an.
c1ent Christian Byzantium. Did not the
double-headed eagle mean that the car
was ruler of the kingdoms of the east
and the west, a constant reminder of
his desire to sit upon the throne of BY
zantium?
hA oh "a A nd
Russians together. and it was also the
handiest tool of the autocracy. The
village pap" or pope, or priest, might
be illiterate and unkempt and even inn
moral, but he represented the Little
Father" the czar. as well as the mys-
teries of religion. Amid a people vast
ly unenlightened and reverent, the for
ty-seven thousand parish priests, not to |
mention the monks and arch.priests and |
deacons and readers, possessed a politi- |
cal and police authority beyond reckon |
ing. Often they were called upon to
exercise their civil offices in way re-
pugnant alike to them and to the peo-
pie. Russian people had a grievance
against the church, as well as against |
the autocracy-or, rather, they had a
grievance against the way in which the
autocracy used the church. of which the
czar was the official head.
Revolutions Effect upon Religion.
Then fell the revolution. 1t will take
years for the world at large to realize
all the tremendous implications of this
overturn of the Russian system. 1t
meant an entirely new order in all de.
partments of life. One must visualize
the background of a dreaming, mysti-
cali credulous, illiterate people, sub
merged for centuries into social state
below anything known to the western
world. They were children in mind
simple, kindly, affectionate, and devout
children. The church. with her pictures,
her prayers, her festivals, her authority
was their very life. Religion figured in
their thinking and in their conversa-
ton in way for which there is no
analogy in the readers experience.
When heaven came down to earth in |
the revolution, the church stood steady.
Her stabilizing influence upon the peo-
pie was undoubtedly in good part re-
sponsible for the important fact that
none of the excesses of the French
revolution were committed in Russia,
a larger and more impressionable coun-
try. No attempt was made by the men
who overthrew cZardom to disturb the
forms of the peoples faith; although
changes were inaugurated
n the church herself of which more in
/ later article.
While the people were in delirium
II joy over the revolution the change
vas not easy for the church. Imagine
he plight of an uneducated priest who
rom his first service had used the
egular prayers for the czar and the
imperial family, so that they had be-
ONE matter of mechanical rote, sud
enly obliged to insert instead prayers
or the provisional government Many
riests slipped up, but the people were
Vatchful and the old formula was not
uttered. 1t is said that in many con-
regations today there is a notable in
rease OF attention on the part of the
congregation as the priests near the
lace in the service for these national
rayers; and this vigilance has been
I high educational value to the clergy.
A Russian Prisoner. God, and the
German staff.
An anecdote told me by an American
'orker in the prison camps in Ger.
lany illustrates the colossal credulity
the Russia peasant Or it may be
lat beneath the naivette of this par
cular prisoner was a greater than
erman guile. There was, and is, much
inering in the camps. and one man,
ithout shoes or overcoat or food. in
lie depth of winter. wrote. by the hand
friend, letter to God. He told
10 Lord all his troubles, in the trust.
II, reverent fashion of the Russian
'asant, and asked God to send him,
once. hundred marks to meet these
gent needs.
so unusual was the letter that II
und its way. as a curiosity, to the
erman staff. where the officers laugh,
heartily over its phrases and it's
implicitly, and then good naturedly
ok up a collection. and sent the fel.
W twenty-five marks. An underlinR
Is instructed to look out for the Rus
N