Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/160

156 how many are there of us who labor? We are seven: myself, my wife, our oldest son and his wile, and their three young children. We are far from being all of us able to work.

Our fortune does not permit us to employ laborers; and besides that, as I have shown, we must not eat the bread of another's labor.

5th. It is four years (we are now in December 1886) since I addressed the government on this subject that I have at heart. I have asked permission to publish my sermon. What is the result? It is as though I had had to do with the deaf and blind; they do not answer me. At least they might say yes or no.

6th. But that which most oi all dries up my blood is that sixty millions of Russians are suffering in ignorance and misery because the law of labor is hidden from them. Why? That some persons may live in comfort and idleness, and enjoy all the earthly pleasures that for very shame's sake I will not enumerate before honest people.

Have I told you all the sorrows, the evils, the weariness, and the pain from which I suffer? No; for it is impossible to express it all.

Nothing is more true. Heaven has designed that I should seal with my blood and bathe with my tears the truth that I have taught. I have sealed it with my blood, and bathed it with my tears. Perhaps after my death the commandment I have proclaimed will flourish. I cannot believe otherwise. What obstacle could stand in the way? I have told but the truth; my prophecy cannot vanish without leaving