Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/306

Rh trines and practices among Christians of all denominations, and, about 1870, their disciples were found in Little Russia. The dissemination of their teachings in this portion of the empire is remarkable, from the fact that Little-Russians have generally evinced but slight interest in religious movements without the pale of the Church, and feel no sympathy for the foreign population in their midst. From Odessa and the government of Kherson the Stundists spread into the adjoining provinces of Ekaterinoslav and Kiev. Their religion appears to be a Protestantism of a very decided type, and in the few church ceremonies which they retain, such as a second baptism for adults, they resemble the Anabaptists and Mennonites of Germany. They reject external observances, fasts, images, the invocation of the saints, and all the rites of Orthodox worship as simply useless and unnecessary; they seem to be animated more by a spirit of calculation and of economy, of indifference to outward form, rather than by religious scruples or any deep-seated repugnance to church ceremonies; they appear to regard them as unprofitable and a needless waste of time, rather than as being in themselves impious or idolatrous.

In private life they are distinguished for sobriety, frugality, and industry; they evince remarkable intelligence in the management of their affairs, are obedient to the laws, and exact in the payment of taxes and imposts, but, in spite of official pressure, they refuse to have recourse to the clergy, whom they consider to be a costly and useless parasitical excrescence. They advocate the equal repartition of the land, are inclined to socialistic opinions, and form a community of brothers and sisters, all enjoying equal rights.

The policy of the government towards them has been similar to that adopted with the Molokani, and has pro-