Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Later Sects
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The explanation is simple. P. P. had, during the interval,
become changed from a worldly warrior into a soldier of Christ.
The story of his conversion is very brief. The principal part
was played by a little book—the New Testament. Up to his
68th year, P. P. had never read this, although he could read
fairly well. Once he travelled a few miles by rail from his
village, and at a certain station had to wait a couple of hours.
On the platform he met a man, who seemed a kind of pedlar,
also waiting for the train. P. P. was a companionable and
talkative old fellow, and went up to the stranger, saluted him,
and sat down to a chat. How long they talked I do not know,
but this much is certain, that the pedlar, who was a Bible
colporteur, opened his satchel, took out a New Testament, and
gave it him as a present, having marked a few passages with
pencil.
P. P. began to read it with all the eagerness of youth.
“How could I think myself a Christian without reading this
book!” he exclaimed, and set about studying the
Gospel with increasing fervour. All his sufferings from
the lawsuit—insults, reproaches from his companions, and
scoffing from others—drove him to seek solitude, in which he
found in his newly-acquired book a never-failing well of
consolation. There were many things he did not understand, but he
read, thought, prayed, and compared its different parts, and
without having met any Stundists arrived at views much like
theirs. His lawsuit on behalf of destitute soldiers had
supplied him with many instructive experiences, and trained him
to look at things with a more critical eye; his childish
simplicity had received severe blows. P. P. knew, for instance,
before this that the priest Ivan never sealed a coffin (a Russian
custom) before he had got two roubles. He knew, too, that
“Father” Ivan compelled the peasants to work for him on
Sundays, got dead drunk, and would abuse Agathon, the
psalm-singer, in the coarsest terms. But he was used to all that,
and gave it no attention; now it irritated and repelled him;
our soldier began to analyse things.
Once, on hearing of an outrageous act by Father Ivan, he
put on his uniform and went to him with the sincere purpose of
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