Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/177

 highest and interminable bliss. Where, then, if not in him, shall we be able to find a full gratification for all the high needs of our spirit?

“(2) Reflecting, in particular, on the separate properties of the divine essence, which distinguish God from his creatures, we can draw from them new lessons for ourselves. And (a) if God alone is self-existent, that is, is in no way under any obligations to any one, while all the other beings, consequently we, too, are under obligations to him, we must (aa) constantly humble ourselves before him, according to the words of Scripture, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? (1 Cor. iv. 7); and (bb) constantly thank him: for in him we live and move and have our being (Acts xvii. 28). (b) If he alone is independent and all-satisfied, and so does not demand our goodness (Psalm xvi. 2), but, on the contrary, gives to all life and breath, and all things (Acts xvii. 25), we must (aa) experience within us a feeling of the fullest dependence on him and of the most complete submission to him, and (bb) in bringing him gifts or sacrifices not imagine that we are obliging the all-satisfied God in this manner, since all which we have is his property. (c) The confidence that we are always before the face of the omnipresent God, no matter where we may be, (aa) naturally inclines us to act before him with the greatest circumspection and reverence; (bb) can keep us from sins, as it once kept Joseph from sinning (Gen. xxxix. 9); (cc) can encourage and console us in all perils, as it consoled David, who said about himself: I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved (Psalm xvi. 8); (dd) can incite us to invoke, glorify, and thank the Lord in every place (John iv. 21-24).

“(d) Keeping in mind that God alone is eternal, while everything else which surrounds us on earth is temporal