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 XI

LETTER TO PETER VERIGIX, THE DOUKHOBOR LEADER— II

Dear Friend,

1 received your letter yesterday^ and liasten to reply. Letters from you and to you are long- on the road, and 1 have not loner to live.

In your arja:uments against books there is very much that is just and ingenious (for instance, the comparison to a medical assistant and a doctor) but tlie arguments themselves are invalid, chiefly because you contrast books with living intercourse, as tliough a book ex- cluded living intercourse. In reality, the one does not exclude, but helps, the other.

To speak frankly, your stubborn contention against books seems to me a peculiarly sectarian metliod of defending a once accepted and expressed opinion. And such peculiarity does not accord with the concep- tion I had formed of your intellect, and especially of your candour and sincerity. God leads men to Himself, and to the performance of His will, by all patlis : they move consciously when they try to do His will, and unconsciously when, as they suppose, they are doing their own will.

To accomplish God's will — to establish His kingdom on earth — union among men is needed, that all may be one, as Jesus felt himself to be one with the Father. For this union, we need (1) an internal means : the recognition and clear expression of truth, such as Jesus achieved, and such as unites all men ; and (2) an external means : the diffusion of this expression of [ 171 ]