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104 What Has Been Done to Evangelize Russia
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That meant really, I suppose, that the Greek religion was free to all,
and the religions of the other people were free to those who had
thenl, if they wouldn’t mention it.
Work of Lord Radstock and Dr. Baedeker
Now that was Russian religious liberty. No liberty to change your
religion from the Greek Church, if you were a Russian; but liberty
to carry on your religion, if you were not a Russian and were per-
mitted to live in the country by a passport, permission to carry on
your religion provided you wouldn’t in any wise invite anybody else
to take your faith. You say, "Well, then, how did religion get on in
Russia at all?" I mean the Christian faith apart from the few people
that through the mists of the Greek Church arrived at the real truth.
How did it get on? Now as far as I can learn, it was in two ways
chiefly. First, by way of the Bible societies. The British and For-
eign Bible Society has for years operated in Russia. Dr. Baedeker,
for example, traversed the whole of that empire, distributing Bibles
and portions of the Word of God wherever he went, in prison camps
and prison settlements, and wherever he could find people that were
willing to receive the Word of God. Now Dr. Baedeker, of course,
was not a Russian and he did not, so far as I have been able to learn,
attempt in any wise to unsettle the power of the Greek Church; but
he did attempt to get the Bible, the Word of God, into the hands of
the Russian people, rich and poor, prisoners and free, wherever he
could. He didn’t try to get people to unite with any church, but he
did try to get them to lean upon the Word of God. Now from that
sowing, there were multitudes of Christian hearts in Russia. Then
there was in the north of Russia the ministry of Lord Radstock, who
held parlor meetings in the houses of the nobility. Whenever there
was permission given to hold parlor meetings. Lord Radstock, or Dr.
Baedeker, would go and speak to those people concerning the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ; and there was a large work done among the
aristocracy and nobility in the north of Russia. Men were evangelized,
not in that a meeting was called and an evangelistic campaign con-
ducted, and people urged to confess their faith in Jesus Christ, but
quietly from house to house these men and women were permitted to
go and carry with them the Word of God; and in a very quiet, unpre-
tentious way speak to the people whom they met regarding the faith
that is in Jesus Christ.
Among- Peasants of Southern Russia
In the south of Russia there seems to have been a good deal of
peasant population from Germany, which was Christian. There seem
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