Protestants also see the defect of Orthodoxy in the fact that the Orthodox have somewhat devalued the Gospel by seeing in the works of the Holy Fathers and in the acts of the Council a kind of continuing revelation of God. The Gospel is sufficient for salvation, and if someone adds or subtracts even a word from it, he sins mortally. The study of the Gospel is the only way to resolve theological questions. Yes, Orthodoxy does believe that God did not cease to reveal His will to people after the last apostle put the last point in his book. Yes, although it is impossible to speak of the Divine inspiration of the books of the Fathers, we still feel the Divine enlightenment of the pages of the Holy Fathers. Through consonance with the Gospel, we establish whether the Holy Father wrote something from himself or whether he was moved by the same Spirit that acted in the apostles. But does not Protestantism build its own "tradition"? Are not Ellen White's books, with her thousands of fully spiritualistic visions (very similar to the voices of Helena Blavatsky and Helena Roerich), accepted by Adventists as the foundation of their faith, as obligatory and authoritative doctrinal literature? [195].

Christ did not strengthen me with His Word, but strengthened me to such an extent that my heart no longer trembles, but despises these objections of the papists." So the religious life of Protestants is not limited to the study of the Bible.

It is said that Orthodoxy with its "conciliarity" extinguishes individual religious initiative, does not allow a person to stand before God one-on-one. In fact, it is easy to see that the Protestant community has much more control over the lives of its members. An Orthodox parishioner is more likely to complain about his abandonment, about the fact that no one is interested in him, that he is not being led along the path of salvation. And if a Protestant misses one meeting, the next morning there will be a series of calls from "brothers and sisters": why wasn't he?

They say that Orthodoxy and Catholicism are "expensive" religions, and Protestantism is "cheaper". The argument, of course, is not theological, but it is still false. Orthodox churches are supported by free donations from people and by payments for one-time services. Moreover, those services, for the performance of which a payment is given in a fairly significant amount, are performed by a person once in a lifetime: baptism, wedding, funeral. The sacraments to which an Orthodox Christian most often resorts – confession and communion – are performed free of charge. And only a memorial note with a prosphora and a candle leave a barely noticeable trace in the wallet. In most Protestant communities, however, there are strictly defined monthly fees, the "church tithe." Often, "tithing" is understood literally, as a requirement that 10 percent of all income be placed at the disposal of pastors. In a number of Protestant countries, a "church tax" has been introduced, which is collected by the state (for example, Germany and the Scandinavian countries). So for an ordinary parishioner, being Orthodox is less "expensive" than being a Protestant.

It is also said that the Orthodox do not pray to God themselves: the priest reads the prayers for them, who is the mediator between God and the parishioners, while in Protestantism everyone prays for himself. If we are talking about prayer meetings, and not about home and private prayers (where any person prays, of course, quite independently), then everything looks exactly the opposite.

Priests and readers in Orthodox churches consciously read prayers dispassionately, without emotion – on the same note. Everyone knows the saying "Read not like a sexton, but with feeling, with sense, with arrangement." So, sextons read this way not because they are tired of reading the same prayers for the hundredth time, but because they are specially taught to read in this way – in a chant (that is, without "arrangement"), dispassionately (that is, without "feeling") and without emphasized edification (that is, without "sense").

The fact is that different people come to church, with different needs and feelings. Church prayers (and above all the Biblical Psalms) contain the entire palette of human feelings, from anger to tenderness, from praise to repentance. Each service carries both joyful and sorrowful words. It is almost impossible to feel all of them simultaneously and equally deeply. Therefore, a person who comes to church with joy will measure the movements of his praying heart with the joyful and thankful words of the service. The one in whose heart the repentant sigh is heard more audibly at this hour will compose in his heart those words of repentance that are also scattered throughout the service. So, if the sexton reads "with expression," he will emphasize in the prayers exactly those places that best correspond to his momentary state, and it may not coincide with the prayerful mood of all the other parishioners. He is sad today – and he will hastily swallow joyful exclamations and accentuate repentant ones. He became more cheerful, and now the repentant pain no longer reaches the parishioners. Highlighting any of the themes in the symphony of the divine service will inevitably lead to the fact that some of those who come will be superfluous on this day. He came with repentant contrition – and only "Hallelujah" is imposed on him. Imagine what would happen if the psalmist began to read the Six Psalms "with expression"! It would be impossible for the rest to pray – the moods and preferences of the reader would be imposed on everyone. The monotonous reading of the sexton, which has become proverbial, protects the freedom of prayerful work of the listeners. It is "other people's words" that leave much more freedom for a person to build his own prayer than "improvisation". In general, the purpose of Orthodox worship is not to arouse any feelings, but to transform them.

The smooth flow of the Orthodox service presupposes that each visitor chooses for himself the series of images that is closer to his current spiritual needs. They do not squeeze a tear out of him and do not vomit delight. He plunges into the slowly flowing river of meanings and from hearing to his heart conducts those streams that he personally needs now. The rules of Orthodox church prayer allow you not to listen to the entire course of church readings – if one thought meets your heart's feeling, you can "lag behind" the course of the service, stay alone with this thought in your prayer, and then return to common prayer.

On the contrary, at a Protestant meeting, there is constant emotional pressure on the audience. The one who is now reading his prayer, with breaths, intonations, gestures, squeezes out exactly the emotion that seems to him to be the most important now. Everyone has to participate in the feelings of the pastor or the pronouncer of this prayer.

In a Protestant prayer house, it seems to me, it is much more difficult to fulfill a desire that is familiar to many, many people – to go to a weekday service for ten minutes, to stand discreetly and quietly, to collect one's thoughts, to be in church one-on-one with God, to pray for one's own and just as imperceptibly to leave. The smooth and discreet flow of the everyday Orthodox service does not prevent a person from turning directly to God with his thoughts. Reading, singing, Church Slavonic recitative create a general mood, and what exactly in this common aspiration to God this or that person expresses from his heart depends only on him. Even the fact that the language of our services is not very clear – even this can help the birth of personal prayer. If I go to church for five minutes, and I still don't understand what the reader is reading, then I will pray in my own words and for my own. And the fact that it is quieter here than outside, and quieter not only physically, but also spiritually, will help me to look better into myself... And in Protestant churches, hymns are too loud, the words of prayers are too loud and insistent, the sermons are too imperative and self-confident. There is a minute of silent prayer – but if you cross the threshold at the wrong time, then it will be difficult to maintain your silence. Praying to God on our own behalf and regardless of what is happening in the congregation is much more difficult here.

They say that Orthodox Christians pray memorized from a book, and Protestants from the heart, in their own words. But, strange as it may seem, it is precisely the "words of others" that leave much more freedom for a person to build his own prayer than "improvisation." The canonical prayer of the priest in the church protects the prayer work of others. A priest can be untalented, insincere, and unspiritual. But he doesn't say his own words! And therefore, his speech is still both spiritual and talented! He speaks words that have been filtered out over millennia. A Protestant pastor can have the same unattractive qualities. His parishioners, however, in this case are doomed to listen to his attempts at "inspired prayer."

The Orthodox "rite" makes the priest inconspicuous. The same intonation, the same words and the same melodies are sung by priests of the most diverse spiritual merits. The Orthodox clergyman does not focus his attention on himself. It is not so much that he conducts the service, as the service conducts him. On the contrary, the Protestant preacher is forced to put himself in the center of attention. He is forced to speak with affectation, in an extremely strained voice, gesticulating strongly, turning from side to side, repeating in different ways common phrases used by everyone.

They say that an Orthodox simply reads a book, "reads", and does not pray. According to my observations, there is much less prayer in the public prayer proclamations of Protestants. Look closely at a person who prays loudly in the presence of other people. After all, he does not think "to God" – but about how to say "about God" better. He thinks not so much about his vital spiritual needs, but about how to express himself more effectively in the presence of his fellows. He has no time to pray – he "creates", painfully gives birth to impromptu[197].

In general, "all the persecutors of the traditional rite do not notice that in reality they introduce only ... A new rite. Thus, Protestantism, having raised its bold hand against the age-old and aesthetically beautiful Catholic rite, only replaced it with another, poor and dry, prosaic rite, within which, however, it is no less possible to be an Old Believer than in the most magnificent ritual. Thus our sectarians replace the divine beauty of the Orthodox liturgics with boring and talentless 'psalms', with a dry Protestant rite."[198]