LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE IN RUSSIA.
ONE would expect liberty of conscience to be discussed almost anywhere else rather than in Russia; but even that conservative empire does move, or at least there are indications of such a tendency. A missionary conference was held in Central Russia last December, and M. Stakhovitch, marshal of the nobility of the government of Orel, “proposed to the congress to recognize the absolute liberty of conscience, including not only the freedom of belief, but also the right to withdraw from the orthodox church and to make converts to another religion in disagreement with it.” A prominent newspaper, in discussing the subject, thus summarized:— M. Stakhovitch accused the civil power of the state for having, in an unbecoming manner, assumed jurisdiction of a foreign territory—that of the intellect and conscience. We have, he said, with a criminal hand chained the church of God to the feet of a vain and profane earthly power. By this means the church was not protected, but in its spiritual entireness destroyed. Inasmuch as she takes her refuge in unspiritual means, in coarse, material force, she ceases to be the church, and comes to be an institution of the state, a kingdom of this world,—undoubtedly holding that the domain of conscience and faith was exclusively the domain of the church. An orthodox (Russian Church) clergyman was led to take up the same subject, and the following is from his address, as quoted in part in a St. Petersburg paper:— Is it not depressing for our entire country, and for345our orthodoxy, that we who enjoy the immense conquests of science, participate in the cultured life of the entire world, and form one family with the nations of Europe, up to the present time can not desist from the custom of persecuting those people who do not think, believe, and confess their faith as we do? “Man is a free, rational being, created after the image of God.” Thus the first declaration reads in any of our catechisms of elementary instruction in the orthodox doctrine. But if this be so, if man is indeed a free, intellectual being, then give him the possibility to choose his belief. The principles expressed are good and right. But all this is the beginning of discussion; and even tho it is conjectured that M. Stakhovitch may have been “inspired from St. Petersburg to make his declaration by way of trying the temper of the orthodox church,” there is a long, dreary interval between the region of discussion and the realm of law. But God's hand is in the movements of nations. His closing work in the earth is soon to go with mighty power, and who knows but that it may have, if not an unobstructed course, at least a much less difficult one than it now has, even in the despotic empire of the White Czar?