The Kingdom of God is Within You

with it-Christian Conception of Life not yet Understood by Men, but the Progress of Life itself will Lead them Inevitably to Adopt it-The Requirements of a New Theory of Life Always Seem Incomprehens

istence and Must Result in its Transformation-The Contradictions of our Life-The Economic Contradiction and the Suffering Induced by it for Rich and Poor Alike-The Political Contradiction and the Sufferings Induced by Obedience to

r when they have studied, as the scientific men do, the external forms in which it has been manifested. Another reason is the mistaken notion that it is impracticable, and ought to be replaced by the doctrine of

h one can accept without their modifying one's life. While Christ's teaching is not only a doctrine which gives rules which a man must follow, it unfolds a new m

it consciously, absorb it unconsciously. It is the same with the changes in the beliefs of peoples and of all humanity as it is with the changes of belief of individuals. If the father of a family continu

t day is brought by experience of life itself to the necessity of abandoning the pagan conception of life, which is inappropriate to the present stage of humanity, and of submitting to the

ry of life, no less strange, incomprehensible, and alarming to the savage of ancient times seemed the requ

fense of something incomprehensible, impalpable, and conventional-family, tribe, or na

er, social censure, or social approbation-glory, and when, on the other hand, the difficulties of his personal life became so great that he

of the social theory of li

ill some higher law, which requires me to renounce my most natural and virtuous feelings of love of self, of family, of kindr

er hand, the suffering, resulting from the contradictions of life, will force the man to reject the social theory and to assimilate the new one p

but this transition through which we have been passing for the last eighteen hundred years seems arbitrary, unnatural, and alarming. But we only fancy this because that first transition h

and has now passed into the region of the instinctive through inheritance, education, and habit. And therefore it seems natural to

ands of years ago, with every social or even family duty, such as the duty of parents to support their children, of the young to maintain the old, of fidelity in marriage. Still more strange, and even unreasonable, seemed the state duties of submitting to the appointed authorit

nsible, mystic, and supernatural. Now that we have outlived that phase of the life of humanity, we understand the rational grounds for uniting men in famili

most ignorant people-like our peasants, who call the Tzar an earthly god-obey state laws, not through any rational recogn

tural religion, though there is in reality nothing mysterious, mystic, or supernatural about it. It is simply the theory of life which is appr

nd fraternity, community of property, non-resistance of evil by force, will appear

nceptions of life. Now they must go forward and assimilate the next and higher conception of life, which is what is now taking

only alters his way of living when it has become absolutely opposed to his conscience, and consequently intolerable to him; so, too, humanity, long after it has learnt through its religions the new interests and aims

ial attitude to their leaders, that is, their faith in their teaching, continue to be guided by the old theory of life in their present complex existence. As though the f

a new period. It recognizes the doctrine which ought to be made the basis of life in this new period. But through inertia it continues to keep up the old forms of life. From this i

theory of it, to be dismayed at the glaring antagoni

in political life, and in international life. As though we had forgotten what we knew and put away for a time the principles we believe in (we cannot help still beli

hich were appropriate to men of three or five thousand years ago, though they are direc

ion of mankind into masters and slaves, because he believed that such a distinction w

came from different origins, were base or noble in blood, children of Ham or of Japhet. The greatest sages of the world, the teachers of humanity, Plato and Aristotle, justified the existence

e Persians, or Greeks, or Romans, or Franks. But we cannot believe that now. And people who sacrifice themselv

nsciously imbibing the Christian sentiments that are in the air-with our whole heart we know and cannot escape knowing the fundamental truth of the Christian doctrine, that we are all

f life, and that one set of people are no better nor worse than another, that all are equal. Everyone knows this, beyond doubt; everyone feels it in his whole being. Yet at the same time everyone sees all round him the division of men into two castes-the one, laboring, oppressed, poor, and suffering, the oth

p constantly feeling the painful opposition between his con

tion in which their whole life is swallowed up, still find their keenest suffering in the glaring contrast between what is and what

r to the lusts of the minority who keep them down. They know it, and they say so plai

he feels he is a slave, knows that he ought not to be, and so he tastes the agon

iction between what is and what ought to be, are increased tenfol

necessity, to satisfy the desires of luxurious and idle people in general, and for the profit of a single rich man, the owner of a factory or workshop in particular. And he knows that all this is going on in a world in which it is a recognized scientific principle that labor alone creates wealth, and that to profit by the labor of others is

the enemy who is over-riding him, and to oppress him in turn. People say, "Workmen have no business to try to become capitalists, the poor to try to put themselves in the place of the rich." That is a mistake. The workingmen and the poor would be wrong if they tried to do so in a world in which slaves and m

ves in the brotherhood of all men, or at least he has a sentiment of humanity, or else of justice, or else he believes in science. And all the while he

al violation of the principles of Christianity, humanity, and justice, and even of science (that is, economic science). He advocates the principles of fraternity, humanity, justice, and science, and yet he lives so that he is dependent on th

but I live on a salary paid me for prosecuting, judging, and condemning the thief or the prostitute whose existence the whole tenor of my life tends to bring about, and who I know ought not to be punished but reformed. We are all brothers, but I live on the salary I gain by collecting taxes from needy laborers to be spent on the luxuries of the rich and idle. We are all brothers, but I take a stipend for preaching a false Christian religion, which I do not myself

inconsistency. The more delicate a man's conscienc

means by which he can escape from this suffering is by blunting his conscience, bu

her classes see the unions, the strikes, the May Day Celebrations, and feel the calamity that is threatening them, and their terror passes into an instinct of self-defense and hatred. They know that if for one instant they are worsted in the struggle with their oppressed slaves, they will perish, because the slaves are exasperated and their exasperation is growing more intense with every day of oppression. The oppressors, even if they wished to do so, could not make an end to oppression. They know t

let him go, even for a second, he would himself be stabbed, for his adversary is infuriated and has a knife in his hand. And therefore, whether their conscience is tender or the reverse, our rich men cannot e

adiction. The political contra

ious character) was the only just law, which everyone ought to obey. But is it so with us? we know and cannot help knowing that the law of our country is not the one eternal law; that it is only one of the many laws of different countries, which are equally imperfect, often obviously wrong and unjust, and are criticised from every point of view in the newspapers. The Jew might well obey his laws, since he had not the slightest doubt that God had written them with his finger; the Roman too might well obey the laws which he thought had been dictated by the nymph Egeria. Men might well observe the laws if they believed the Tzars who made them were God's anointed, or even

ich he must obey under threat of punishment, though he does not believe in their wisd

aching of the Church as injurious, but we are obliged to bear our share of the expenses of these institutions. We regard the punishments inflicted by law as cruel and shameless, but we must assist in supporting them. We r

to international questions, and which demands a solution under pain of the loss of the sanity and eve

, philanthropists, poets, and scientific men of foreign origin, and are as proud of the exploits of Father Damien as if he were one of ourselves, we, who have a simple love for men of foreign nationalities, Frenchmen, Germans, Americans, and Englishmen, who respect their qualities, are glad to meet them and make them s

dear to God, and all the rest were Philistines, barbarians. Men of medi?val times-even up to the end of the last and beginning of this century-might continue to hold this belief. But how

of international law, in his learned treatise. "The press of all countries is continually exp

poses of defense. But it remains a mystery to every disinterested man whence they can expect attacks if all the great powers are single-hearted in their policy, in pursuing nothing but self-defense. In reality it looks as if each of the great powers were every instant anticipating an attack on the part of the others. And this results in a general feeling of insecurity and superhuman efforts on the part of each government to increase their forces beyond those of the other powers. Such a competition of itself increases the danger of war. Nations cannot endure the constant increase of armies for long, and

um. By continual increase of the armed force, the sources of social and individual prosperity are paralyzed, and the state of the modern world may be compared to that of a man who condemns

epresent only a small part of the real cost, because besides the recognized expenditure of the war budget of the various nations, we ought also to take into account the enormous loss to society involved in withdrawing from it such an immense number of its most vigorous men, who are taken from industrial pursuits and every kind of labor, as well as the enormous interest

existence of the working classes, and the universal impoverishment of the masses. But in spite of this, governments in their efforts to maintain their independence rush to the greatest extremes of senselessness. New taxes and duties are be

phenomenon, which sooner or later threa

of European states. And the most melancholy thing is that one can foresee no limit to this augmentation of the budget and impoverishment of the

"we are ruining ourselves in order to be able to take part in the senseless wars of the future or to pay the interest on debts we h

time has come to recognize the rights of nations and to renounce at once and forever all those undertakings based on fraud and force, which, under the name of conquests, are

reform him by loving him.' Well. The boy stays in the Sunday school till he is fourteen or fifteen, and then his friends send him into the army. What has he to do in the army? He certainly won't love his enemy; quite the contrary, if he can only get at him, he will ru

expensive, for, according to the statistics I have read, the nations of Europe spent in the year 1872 a hundred and fifty millions sterling on preparations for deciding disputes by means of murder. It seems to me, therefore, that in such a state of things on

o long as they ignore the question of war. I have lived a longish life and have heard our ministers preach on universal peace hardly half a dozen times. Twenty years ago, in a drawing room, I dared in the presence

torrents, men of the present day do not trouble themselves about a sufficient cause. Those who take part in wars do not even think of asking themselves whether there is any justification for these innumerable murders, whether they are justifiable or unjustifiable, lawful or unlawful, innocent or criminal; whether they are breaking that fundamental commandment that forbids killing without lawful cause. But their conscience is mute. War has ceased to be something dependent on moral conside

ns of robbers, and their armies, bands of brigands. And one must add, not only brigands, but slaves. For our armies are simply gangs of slaves at t

e murdered at the will of a ruler or rulers. Military slavery is an actual fact, and it is the worst form of slavery, especially now when by means of compulsory service it lays it

secretly deliberate without registers, without publicity, and co

might say, Europe] will be ruined by soldiers. A new plague is spreading throughout Europe. It attacks sovereigns and forces them to maintain an incredible number of armed me

peace this state of tension of all against all. And therefore Europe is so ruined that if private persons were in the position of the governme

otic power of kings, who made war in the hope of augmenting by conquest their personal revenues and gaining glory. People used to say then: 'Ah, if only people could elect those who would have the right to refuse governments the soldiers an

te was not received by the principal personage of another state to cause the outbreak of the most awful and destructive war there has ever been seen. Europe keeps more soldiers under arms to-day than in the time of the great Napoleonic wars. All citizens with few exceptions are forced to spend some years in barracks. Fortresses, arsenals, and ships are built, new weapons are constantly being invented, to be replaced in a short time by fresh ones, for, sad to say, science, which ought always

nor war-and all would be glad to escape from it. The heads of governments all declare that they all wish for peace, and vie with one another in the most solemn protestations of peaceful intentions. But the

e huge armaments show open and utter lack of confidence, if not concealed hostility, between states. What should we say of a man who, wa

ful professions and the warlike policy of governments whi

d recorded cases-and excluding Russia and Turkey; but one ought rather to be surprised that there are so few. Every man of

s alone enough to drive any man to despair, to doubt of the sanity of mankind, and to terminate an existence in this senseless and brutal world. This contradiction, which is

another to our mutual happiness, and find in this closeness the whole meaning of life!-and to-morrow some crazy ruler will say some stupidity, and another will answer in the same spirit, and then I must go expose myself to be

ot himself. And this is just what does happen, and especially often among military men.

l means of dulling their sensibilities, half of mankind would shoot themselves without delay, for to live in opposition to one's reason is the most intolerable condition. And that is the condition of all men of the present day. All men of the modern world exist in a state of continual and flagrant antagonism between their conscience and their way of life. This