THE RUSSIAN CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 238, 2 July 1919, Page 8

THE RUSSIAN CHURCH

A REVIVAL OK WITH, One of the correspondents of "The Times" gives n version of the present state of the Russian Church, which accords with descriptions received from many other sources, and i'b indeed very natural under tho tragic circuniHtances. Ho eiiys: "The bulk of tho peasantry, now linto the Bolshevists and yearn for some clear sign that the odious tyranny will soon bo at an end. Nothing in tliis respect is moro remarkable than tho marked rally of tho Russian people' to their Church. Revolution and distress havo purilied tho Russian .Church. The martyrdom of t.hou. sands of monks and priests, tho torture and humiliation of many others, the dosccration of churches and .shrines, and the deliberate attempt to stamp Christianity out of tho Russian soul have produced a revival of faith of which the most, striking instance is the great spiritual power wielded by tho Patriarch Tikhon, of Moscow. He is the only man in Russia whom the Bolshevists really fear," and has such ascendancy the hearts of the eicrgy and peasantry that neither Lenin nor Trotsky has yet' dared io imprison him or have him. assassinated. Tho popularity of the Anglican services at; Omsk is but a symptom of the religious revival now going on quietly all over Russia. It would bo worse {ban ti crime lor Christian nations to abandon this people to its fate or to leave it to work o»t its destiny in bitterness of heart until it either threw itself into this arms of the Germans or unconsciously played tho German game by turning in its millions and rending the immediate imthoN of its present wo?,"