Page:Chertkov - Christian Martyrdom.djvu/42

Rh interfere in the marriages of their children. There are also no marriage rites or ceremonies; the mere consent of the two, and a promise to live together, suffices.

Abstinence from marriage for the sake of purity is regarded amongst them as a high virtue.

13. The dead they commemorate by good deeds, and in no other way. God Himself, they say, will remember the righteous in His kingdom. Therefore they do not pray for the dead, deeming it useless. The death of a Christian they do not call death but change; therefore they do not say " our brother has died,"but" our brother has changed."

14. Concerning the state of the righteous in heaven, they say that the kingdom is in man's will, and that heaven is in the soul; that the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and, therefore, no torments of hell can touch them. As to the torments of the unrighteous and hell, they believe that unrighteous souls walk in the dark, expecting soon to perish, and that hell consists in evil feeling.

As to the transformation of souls after death, they believe that man is either justified by deeds, or by deeds is condemned; that the deeds of each man take him to his true place, and that after death there is no repentance.

15. As to the general resurrection of the