Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/327

 Rh and speaking. Now Thy garment is already in my hands. Thou mayest shatter my thigh .... but I will not release Thee before Thou dost bless everybody with me."

I love this Russian prayer, as in the twelfth century it poured from the lips of our Cyril Zlatoust in Turov, and he bequeathed it to us. We must not only pray for ourselves, but for others, and not only for Christians but for the heathen, so that they too may be turned to God. My dear old Kiriak prayed in this way, he pleaded for all, and said: "Bless all or I will not release Thee." What can you do with such an old original?

With these words he stretched himself—as if he were clinging to Christ's garments—and flew away. It appears to me that he is still grasping and clinging to Him as He ascends, and still begging: "Bless all, or else I will not desist." The insolent old man will, perhaps, get his way; and He, from goodness, will at the last not refuse him. All this we do, treating Christ in a homely way, in sancta simplicitate. Whether we understand Him, or not, of that you may argue as you like, but that we live with Him quite simply I think cannot be denied. And he loves simplicity greatly.