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LEO
TOLSTOY
PRAYER
"Oh
God, God inconceivable, … I have erred,…I knew that I was going astray… but I
never forgot Thee. I always felt Thy presence even in the very moment of my
sins. I all but lost Thee, but Thou hast …saved me!"
(Wilson, 1988, 315)
"God
and the soul are known by me in the same way I know infinity: not by means of
definitions but in quite another way...Just as I know assuredly that there is
an infinity of numbers so do I know that there is a God"
(Tolstoy, 1937, 498)
"The
only reasonable conception of life is the accomplishment of the will of him who
sent us into the world-that is the will of God."
“For
life is life, only when it is the carrying out of God's purpose. But, by
opposing Him, people deprive themselves of life, and at the same time, neither
for one year, nor one hour, can they delay the accomplishment of God's purpose."
(Tolstoy,
1927, 165)
“Traditions may proceed from men and be false; but reason indubitably comes from
God.”
(Ibid, P.
164)
“The
only reasonable conception of life is the accomplishment of the will of Him who
sent us into the world – that is, the will of God.”
(Ibid, P.
165)
“The
longer we live the more clearly and fully do we learn the will of God, and in
consequence what we must do to fulfill it.”
(Ibid, P.
165)
“Does truth cease to be truth because the men who professed it become weak under
the pressure of torture? That which is of God must conquer that which is of
man.”
(Ibid, P.
302)
“There will be the thing which ought to be, that which is well-pleasing to God,
which is according to the law He has put in our heart and revealed to our
minds.”
(Ibid, P.
302)
“The
solution before us is…by nothing else than a forward movement along that road
which the law of Christ points out to the hearts of men.”
(Ibid, P.
303)
“Yet
another effort, and the Galilean will conquer. Not in that ruthless sense
understood by the pagan emperor, but in that true sense in which He himself
spoke of His conquest of the world.”
(Ibid, P.
303)
“He
has actually overcome the world.”
(Ibid, P.
303)
“For
life is life only when it is the carrying out of God’s purpose. But by opposing
Him, people deprive themselves of life, and at the same time, neither for one
year, nor for one hour, can they delay the accomplishment of God’s purpose.”
(Ibid, P.
308)
“Each will have to make his own choice: to oppose the will of God, building
upon the sands the unstable house of his brief illusive life, or to join in the
eternal, deathless movement of true life in accordance with God’s will.”
(Ibid, P.
378)
FUNDAMENTAL
CREEDS
1. Man is
the son of the Infinite Source of Being; he is the son of the Father, not by the
flesh but by the Spirit.
2. And
therefore, man must serve the Source of his being in the Spirit.
3. The
life of all men has Divine origin. The origin only is sacred.
4. And
therefore, man must serve the Source of all human life. This is the will of the
Father.
5.
Service of the will of the Father is life giving.
(Tolstoy,
1899, 282)
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