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Show May Be Russia's Evangel. It is possible that the Man of the Hour has come to Russia. Some time ago a simple priest began to circulate a little paper in his district in Russia which he called "God's Truth." The priests of the Greek church arraigned the author of it and sentenced him to imprisonment in Chere-mentski Chere-mentski monastery for three month) his penance to bo to sing penitential psalms. They sought also-to suppress his paper, but a column of it was copied daily in other papers, until twenty millions of people wore reading it. This priest's name is Petroff, the son of a ppasant. He is a large man, forty years of age, and is said to have the most perfect command of his native tongue ever heard, bringing out every vowel and semivowel tone in what is music to listeners. To a writer in the New York Time he said: "I am the son of a peasant and was called to be a village priest. I have seen and shared what the people suffer, and I know how patiently they bear the ills that aro put upon them. "When I found I could no longer preach God's truth at God's altar, I put it in the newspapers. There are but few now, but at that time thoro were no papers for the people. Andrieff and the other decadent writers wrote a language that was difforont from that which is spoken nnd understood under-stood by tho Russian people. Ho and those of his way of thinking said tho Russian people are foolish children. Why should wo communicate with them? I, because I know them, said tho Russian Rus-sian people are very wise; I will tell them great gl truths in plain language. I will give them God's truth as It was spoken on tho Mount, and not as it comes from the Holy Synod, and. they will think and think, and when tho time comes, act. "But In five months they stopped my paper and turned mo -out of Moscow. Today this is all changed. They can no longer stop my paper permanently. per-manently. You can tear a few loaves off a tree, but you cannot stop the foliage of spring, and I tell you that our long, long winter Is past, -and spring has come to Russia." He has all the enthusiasm of a fanatic; he seems to have a strong brain and a magnetism that draws his fellow peasants to him; he ovi- dently believes he has a call, and he may bo tho appointed one to forge out deliverance for his countrymen. But it seems to us that what Russia is doing for the emigrants that she is pushing Into the Amur valley is the way to begin the redemption of that distressed country. She is sending them almost free to that region and is giving them money enough to tide them over until they can raise a orop. When their hunger is satisfied, then they will listen to advice. But hunger is a wolr that gnaws at tho vitals of men until they oan no longer reason clearly. It is useless to preach patience and loyalty to hungry men. |
