Page:Tolstoy - Pamphlets.djvu/38

PERSONAL CHRISTIAN LIFE are the results, and therefore the verification, of true life; the absence of labour and an elevated assured economical position demonstrate the insincerity and untruthfulness and weakness of the man. The contrary of this has, therefore, a negative significance, but no positive significance.

The idolatry of labour is a dangerous error and a most habitual one.

Prayer, as the result of one's aspiration towards God, is a most lawful act; but when it becomes an aim in itself, it produces ritual, which kills the moral life.

Mercy, help afforded one's neighbour as the result of love to God, is a most lawful thing ; but when it becomes an aim in itself, it produces philanthropy.

Want, poverty, absence of property, as the result of abstinence from violent resistance and of renunciation of independent means, is a most lawful state; but when it is placed as a necessary condition, as an aim in itself, it produces the formal poverty of Buddhists and of monks.

It is the same with manual labour. Such labour as the result of the renunciation of independent means and of the desire to serve others, is a lawful