Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Bogoiskateli: or, Seekers After God. Prof. I. V. Noprash - II - But What About the People? - The Rise of Sects - The Scoptzi and Chlisti
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Prof. 1. V. NeprasJi 91
nature, will not accept this. To him God is holy and he will not permit
a man to rob God of His divine glory.
The Rise of Sects
There are various sects and religious movements in Russia. Some
singular doctrine of the Holy Scriptures may serve as ground for the
formation of a sect. Then the followers will endeavor to live according
to the truth, applying that particular doctrine to practice. Soon their
own peculiar doctrine will be adopted and develop itself sometimes
outside of the teachings of the Gospel, but the chief thing is truth.
A. S. Prugavin is a well known student of sects. Here is what he says:
"One or another faith, one or another doctrine, is only good, and only in
such a degree useful as it serves the cause of establishing among the
people the principles of love, truth and peace."
In the second half of the last century, in the state of Tver, a new
movement arose and began to capture the provincial circles quite
rapidly. Peasant Sintaev was the founder of it. No revelation was
given to him; he simply looked more deeply into life and found much
untruth. Prugavin visited these people and his impressions are quite
characteristic: "In the dark woods far away from civilized life’s
villages the human heart is throbbing and unceasingly thirsting after
truth. Oh, and how it does thirst!" "We have to explain," said the fol-
lowers of Sintaev, "we have to press forward to the truth. A part of
it we attain as if through a clouded glass, the rest of it we are to
search for. We should know the entire law of God," Sintaev himself
said to an interviewer; "Oh, if some one would give me that something
to complete the knowledge of the truth! I think I would be willing
to serve such a man to the end of my days."
The Scoptzi and Chlisti
There are some fanatical sects in Russia. For instance, the Scoptzi,
who purposely make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God.
This very ordinance, their zeal, their idea of Christ’s incarnation
in one of them, impresses one as very unsatisfactory teaching.
But when after my banishment in 1915, while going around the country,
I visited them, then I understood at once that all this is done for the
sole purpose of finding the true God, of being united with Him or near
to Him; and I was much impressed by their peaceful life, their sim-
plicity of words and actions, and even the outward order and cleanli-
ness of their houses and people. But with all their seeking they have
not yet found that which can completely satisfy them.
The most unsympathetic and even corrupt sect in Russia is the sect
of the Chlisti. Moved by an anxious desire to find God, they have
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