Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/29

 And positive that law really is, for those who do not acknowledge the meaning of life which Christ disclosed. Such it was for men before Christ, and such it remains for those who do not acknowledge Christ's teaching. It demands that everyone should—according to the law of God expressed in the Bible and in our reason—feed himself by his own labour. That law was positive, and such it remains till the meaning of life is revealed to man by the teaching of truth.

But from the plane of the higher consciousness of life disclosed by Christ, the law of bread-labour, remaining true as before, fits into Christ's one positive teaching of service to man; and must be regarded no longer as positive, but as negative. That law, from the Christian point of view, merely indicates an ancient snare, and tells men what they should avoid in order not to stray from the path of true life.

For a follower of the Old Testament who does not acknowledge this teaching of truth, this law means: 'Produce thy bread by the labour of thine own hands.' But for a Christian its meaning is negative. To him this law says: 'Do not suppose it possible to serve men while you consume what others labour to produce, and do not produce your own maintenance with your own hands.'

This law, for a Christian, is an indication of one of the most ancient and terrible of the temptations from which mankind suffers. Against that temptation (terrible in its consequences, and so old that it is hard for us to admit that it is not a natural characteristic of man, but a deception) this teaching of Bóndaref is directed—a teaching equally obligatory on a believer in the Old Testament, on a Christian who believes in the Gospels, and on him who disbelieves in the Bible and follows only common-sense.

There is much I could and would write to prove the truth of this position and overthrow the various and complex arguments against it which rise to the lips of us all; we know we are to blame, and are therefore always ready with justifications. But however much I