Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/329

 Rh there are no means of applying intelligent zeal. That this is impossible was proved to me by a paper, I found waiting for me at the monastery, in which I was requested "to take note" that in Siberia besides the 580 Buddhist lamas, who were on the staffs of thirty four temples, a number of supernumerary lamas were permitted. What of that? I was not a Kanyushkevich or an Arseni Matsievich—I was a bishop of the new school and did not want to sit in Reval with a gag in my mouth, as Arseni sat; there was no profit in that. I "took note" of the information concerning the increase of the lamas, ordered my Zyryan to return from the desert as soon as possible, and conferring on him an epigonation—the spiritual sword—kept him in the town attached to the cathedral in the capacity of sacristan and superviser of the re-gilding of the iconostasis, but I called my own lazy missionaries together and bowing down to their girdles said:

"Pardon me, fathers and brothers, that I did not understand your goodness."

They answered, "God will forgive."

"I thank, you for your graciousness; be gracious from now always and everywhere, and the God of Mercy will prosper your works."

From that time, during the remainder of my prolonged stay in Siberia, I never troubled if the