RUSSIAN LIBERTY OF WORSHIP.
By C. M. S.
APROPOS of the observation of Dr. Talmage that he found as much liberty of worship in Russia as in New York, it is interesting to note what the Guide for the Rural Clergy (Russian Orthodox) has to say regarding schism and sects in Russia, as published in its April issue of the present year. The Guide dwells at length upon the fact that "sects" in Russia are increasing in strength, and that many learned men are aiding the movement both by their writings and their personal influence. In referring to what has been said by the Moscow Gazette upon the same subject when deprecating the rapid increase of sectarianism, the Guide quotes from that journal as follows: "The merest glance at the data of Russian criminal statistics startles one with a most alarming phenomenon—the exceedingly rapid increase in the number of offenses against religion. We have three and a half times as many such offenses now as in 1878. Such an increase is undoubtedly a result of an increase in the actual number of sectarians, and not merely in greater zeal on the part of the clergy and civil authorities in bringing to light and prosecuting this class of offenses, as it is attempted in certain quarters to account for the fact." The Gazette declares that the government measures are inefficient in dealing with these "dangerous sects," and explains in the following language what these measures are: "What is done, as everybody knows, is to depart [exile] the followers of such a sect to some locality where no propaganda is possible, and where they are kept under strict supervision by the authorities. But in remote localities, where the Orthodox clergy is in small numbers, the fight against sectarian fanaticism presents infinitely greater difficulty than in the interior of Russia. And so it comes to pass that in the region of Yakutsk we see large settlements consisting entirely of the most stubborn Skoptsi; in the Caucasus and along the Amoor we encounter villages the entire population of which consists of implacable enemies of the Orthodox Church." The Guide then adds: "What must be the influence of such compact and intensely fanatical centers on the surrounding population were needless to point out. It will thus be seen why these deportations and the action of the administration go wide of the mark." That is, when the Russian Government exiles a religious sect, the sect propagates its doctrine in the place to which it is exiled, as did the early Christians during the great persecutions at Jerusalem. This indicates to these Russian Orthodox editors an inefficiency on the part of the government. It is difficult to imagine what punishment short of death would be considered efficient by the officials of the Russian Church. Continuing, the Gazette says: "To what results such methods lead is shown by the following fact: We have always striven to transfer [exile] Skoptsi to the remotest and wildest localities, such as the regions of Turukhansk and Yakutsk, and now large numbers of them turn up at Irkutsk, that capital of Siberia where the founder of that sect once resided and carried on his propaganda. The deported Skoptsi again took up their propaganda, and whole families of new converts appeared in the very city. Many of these monstrous cases are already in the public attorney's hands."9 This does not look like freedom of worship. The "sects" are not only exiled from their homes, but are hounded by the public attorneys and the religious prosecutor in the places to which they are exiled. The Gazette editor closes his article with an admonition to the Orthodox clergy to preach their faith more zealously, that there may "be less and less frequent need of transporting [exiling] sectarians—a measure to which we are now driven by necessity, because of the lack of more efficient means of influencing them." Would that men who profess to be followers of Christ would learn the Gospel they pretend to preach, instead of thus misrepresenting Him and the character of His work. But this is what has always been true and always will be true of a Church-and-State religion.