Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/59

 The other method consists in indicating a perfection man can never reach, but which he consciously desires. An ideal is set before him by attending to which he can always see to what extent he deviates from the right road.

'Love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself.' 'Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.' Such is the teaching of Christ.

The test of fulfilment of external religious teachings is the conformity of our conduct to the injunctions given, and such conformity is possible.

The test of the fulfilment of Christ's teaching lies in a consciousness of the extent of one's deviation from the ideal perfection. (The degree of one's approach to it is not seen; but the degree of deviation from it is seen.)

A man who accepts an external law is like a man standing in the light thrown by a lantern fixed to a post. He stands in the light of this lantern, and it is light around him, but he has no place towards which to advance. A man who accepts Christ's teaching is like one who carries a lantern before him on a pole: the light is always before him, and by lighting up fresh ground which attracts him, always invites him to advance.

The Pharisee thanks God he has fulfilled the whole law. The rich young man has also from his childhood fulfilled all, and cannot understand what more can be demanded. Nor can they think otherwise: they see nothing ahead of them towards which they might aspire. Tithes have been paid; Sabbaths observed; parents honoured; they have not committed adultery, nor stolen, nor murdered. What more can be required? But for him who follows the Christian teaching, each step gained towards perfection makes plain the need of ascending another, from which he perceives a yet higher, and so on without end. He who follows the law of Christ is always in the position of the Publican—always conscious of imperfection, he does not look behind him at the road he has passed, but sees always before him the road he has still to travel.