Page:The way of Martha and the way of Mary (1915).djvu/306

284 been printed in red ink in the Bibles of the West, and it is generally thought to refer to the just and upright, the elder brothers, the stand-by's of the community as opposed to the prodigals.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven," has in the West become a weekly exhortation to give a good alms at collection-time. This is an instance of materialism. The spendthrift East takes its stand more with St. Peter, who was able to say, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I to thee." The giving of money is the least of the good works in the power of the East; "Am I so bankrupt of grace that my function is to give money?" the Eastern may exclaim.

"If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out" means more to the East, where in the monastic life of the Orthodox Church the lusts of the flesh are mortified—that is, made dead; where hermits wear heavy chains and take oaths of silence, or hide themselves from mankind. It is witnessed in many sects, such as the Skoptsi, who deny the world by defunctionising the body!

"Swear not at all" is a simple admonition, appealing directly to the Western mind. In Russia the swearing in ordinary conversation is thick as the weeds on a waste. A curiosity in Russian swearing is the common expression Yay Bogu, which means really, "Yes: I say it to God," but which through carelessness and iteration has become equivalent to something like our "'s'truth." In America, however, the adjective God-damn is commoner than any other unpleasant expression in any country.

"Resist not evil. Who will take away thy coat, give him thy cloke also; and who forces thee to go a mile, go with him twain; and whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." This has been taken more seriously by the Eastern Church. In the West it is more "a counsel of perfection," or the words