Page:Tolstoy - Pamphlets.djvu/170

Rh formulate deductions which are applicable to life, as did Moses : "Thou shalt not kill !" or Christ : "Resist not evil !" I repeat, however, that I think in the same direction, and quite agree with you that the understanding is attainable in proportion to one's purity, humility, and love.

Striving towards God, towards the purity of the Divine Essence in me, towards that life for which this is here purified, I indirectly, somehow, attain more surely and more exactly both the general and my own welfare, without hurry, without doubt, and with joy.

And help me, God!

Father, help me to fulfil Thy law in all humility, purity, and love, and to find therein a perpetual source of joy.

Lord, take me, teach me, enter into me. Be one with me, or destroy me. Without Thee I will not, I cannot live. There is no life without Thee, Father.

I like to address God. If there were no God, the call into empty space were in itself good. From such an appeal, all those weaknesses of vanity,