“the whole world lies in evil.”  Suffering is a consequence of sin.  Even the righteous man suffers, not because of virtue, but because of sin.  If he himself has no personal sins still he must suffer because of the sins of other men, no matter if near or far from him in space or time.  For all men from the first to the last are made from the same piece of clay, therefore they all, from the first to the last, form one body and one life.  Each is responsible for all, and each is influencing all.  If one link of this body sins, the whole body must suffer.  If Adam sinned, you and I must suffer for it.  If St. Paul suffered, it is because his suffering is a consequence of the sins of other links of the same body.  If Christ suffered and died because of Adam, it is also just.  It is not good, but it is just.  The suffering of nature around us is incomparably small compared with the suffering of men.  The abnormality of the animal, plant or mineral world is not nearly so obvious as the abnormality of our life.  God’s creatures, who were created on the sixth day and destined to be the most perfect among creatures, are abased by sin to an imperfection which is unknown among the creatures made before the sixth day.

THE REPETITIONS.

In no other Churches are there so many repetitions, in no other so many symbols, as in the Orthodox Church.  The whole worship is a continual repetition for thousands of years.  In Byzantium was fixed the image of Christ, His mission, His worship.  The whole system of belief and worship came, fixed and accomplished, over to us Slavs.  To keep that system intact for ever was the first duty taught us by those who brought it.  Its tendency was to impress the image of Christ in the imagination and heart of the generations as much as possible and always in the same way.  We are living in a world of evil; Christ is leader of the struggle against this evil.  Men lived thousands of years wavering between good and evil, worshipping good and evil.  Now they must be for good.  They are educated and accustomed to weighing things for themselves.  Therefore it has become necessary to ask them every day, every hour even, to confess that they are with Christ.  They must repeat it again and again, in prayers, in signs, in symbols, until it becomes a new custom, a new education, a new blood and spirit, a new man, a new earth.  They must be reminded in every place and at all times that they are soldiers of Christ and not of Perun.  Churches, shrines, chapels, ikons, candles, processions, priests, bells, monasteries, travelling preachers, every day’s saints, fast seasons—­everything is the repetition of the same idea, namely, that Christ is the ruler of life and we are His followers.  Christ must be expressed everywhere, indoors and outdoors.  Many Englishmen have remarked that the Bible is read very seldom in the home in Russia and Serbia.  That is true.  People read the Bible more in symbols,