Who will give me this bright eye of the apostolic mind, which could see through the veil of the visible world into the heavenly regions of the invisible world? Who will give me this living conviction of earthly sorrows and sufferings for the sake of truth, that they make me the burden of eternal glory? But what am I? I don't have these sorrows. I live in the comforts of the world. My god! If it pleases Thee to visit me with such sorrows, then grant me this living conviction of Thy Apostle that my slight sorrow prepares for me the burden of eternal glory; grant me then, and even now, to direct the gaze of my soul more often to the realm of the invisible world, to Thy Kingdom of Heaven, and not to dwell with my gaze on the visible, sensual, material: for the visible is temporary; sooner or later all earthly things will pass away, come to an end; but the invisible is eternal.

Hl. 5, verses 1-9. Bemy, if our earthly tabernacle of the body should be destroyed, the creation of the Imam from God, the tabernacle not made with hands, eternal in heaven.

For for this we sigh, desiring to clothe ourselves in our heavenly habitation... For those who are in this body we groan with burdens... For we walk by faith, and not by sight: but we are bold and pleased to depart from the body, and to enter into the Lord: the same and those who are tireful, whether they enter or depart, may be pleasing to Him.

Human bodies are temples, houses in which creatures of heavenly origin live. These temples are perishable, but the creatures that live in them are eternal. The white of the temple will be destroyed, they will still be alive and intact and will enter another, eternal, miraculous temple — only in heaven.

Therefore, it is pleasant for us to wish better to leave the body and enter the Lord: the soul, having renounced the body as a material shell that hides the spiritual world from us, will then contemplate, if it is vouchsafed, the Lord, and the holy angels, and holy men — in a word, the spiritual world will then appear to it in all its light. "Since, both living on earth and in the body, and departing from the earth, or departing from the body, we equally belong to God, Who is righteous and holy, we also try, whether living in the body or being separated from it, to be pleasing to our Lord and the future Judge: for it behooves us all to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that He may receive what He has done with the body, either good or evil, v. 10.

Art. 17—19. ... If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature... And all things are from God, having reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and having given us the ministry of reconciliation: for God is in Christ reconciling the world. Not imputing their sins to them, and putting in us the word of reconciliation.

We bear the name of Christians; Have we become a new creature, have we changed our nature, or do we remain the same as the pagans once were? If Christianity has not regenerated us, is it of much use to us? God through Jesus Christ PI in Jesus Christ reconciled the world to Himself. What was this reconciliation worth! The Son of the Father's love had to exhaust Himself to the last possibility – to death, and death on the cross. Great is the Sacrifice, and great are its fruits: for all ages the Lord left sanctified persons on earth, to whom He transferred His right and authority to reconcile sinning people with God. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation and put in us the word of reconciliation – or the word of God.

Hl. 6 , vv. 3-10. Not in anything giving stumbling, but in all things imagining as God's servant, in much patience, in sorrows, in troubles, in straits, in wounds, in prisons, in disorders, in prubes, in vigils, in fasting, in purification, in understanding, in longsuffering, in goodness, in the Spirit of the Holy Spirit, in love without hypocrisy, in the word of truth, in the power of God, the weapon of righteousness with right hand and hand, glory and dishonor, divination and praise; As flattery, and true: as if we were ignorant, and known: as if we were dying, and behold, we live: as we were punished, and not killed: as if we were in sorrow, but ever rejoicing: as poor, and many as rich: as if they possessed nothing, but contained everything.

What did the apostles of Christ not offer as a sacrifice to faithful service to God and to human salvation? The holy Apostle, of course, has not yet expressed everything that happened to him, but how much has been said. Striving to serve the Lord faithfully and diligently, the Apostles at the same time took care by all means that no one should stumble in anything, so that the service would be completely blameless. Like ladders, and true. Of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Truth, the Pharisees said that He flatters the nations; Of course, people said the same about the apostles, seeing the fascinating pleasantness and power of their teaching; meanwhile, apparently, the ladders, they were in the highest degree true. For we do not know, and are knowable. As simple, ignoble people, the apostles were not distinguished by worldly fame, but as apostles of Christ the Savior, the Living God, as miracle-workers and preachers of wondrous faith, they were known everywhere and by everyone, so that their names became known in the course of time in all corners of the world. And most importantly, they were known by God, who wrote their names in heaven in the Book of Eternal Life. As dying, and behold, live. The circumstances of the external life of the Apostles were, as the Apostle has just said, so cramped that they may be said to have died several times, and the Apostle himself says that he was in many deaths. However, despite all the straits, God's Providence also supported the external life of the apostles; Allowing them to suffer, He did not allow them to die: so that they, as if they were being killed, nevertheless remained alive; but for the most part they remained alive and life-giving in their souls by the power of grace and faith, which dwelt abundantly in the chosen vessels of God. For they are punished, and not killed. The Apostle Paul in another epistle says of himself, that he was beaten with clubs, was swept with stones, and many other things. The Lord allowed the earthly authorities and people to punish His apostles, but never to kill them before their time. As sorrowful, but ever rejoicing. What a combination, a fellowship of sorrow and joy! The Apostles were in patience for many, in sorrows, in troubles, in distress, in wounds, in prisons, and yet what? They constantly rejoiced: as if they were in sorrow, but they were ever rejoicing. That is how good it is to grieve and suffer for and for Christ. And look at the people of the world: they seem to be having fun, living in every open space, and yet what? They are constantly dissatisfied with themselves and are often dull during the pleasures themselves: in general, it can be said that they are constantly grieving inwardly: they are poor, and many are rich. People looked upon the apostles as beggars, and indeed, following the example of their Teacher and Lord, they had nowhere to lay their heads; but the poor, the beggars according to the concept of the world, they were supremely rich according to the concept of heaven, while the rich and glorious of the world were mere poor according to the same concept. Apparently having nothing, because they hid their treasure in their souls, the apostles enriched very many with their spiritual treasure, so that those who were enriched by them were vouchsafed the Kingdom of Heaven. As if he possessed nothing, and contained everything. Apparently having nothing, the apostles had everything, one might say: heaven and earth. According to the concepts of the world, there are many or all of those who possess a great deal of money, land, and various possessions, which serve not only for the comforts and benefits of earthly life, but also for its various pleasures. For money, they can get everything and have everything. According to the concept of heaven, such people have nothing, because what profit is it to a man, if he gains the whole world, and forsakes his own soul (Matt. 16:26). And the rich of the world almost inevitably always neglect their souls, for which no ransom can be given. The Apostles had nothing in the worldly sense, but in the true sense they had everything: they acquired for themselves for ever and ever their souls, all the blessings of heaven and eternity; they had all the earth in their hands, because they could move its mountains from place to place, and command its elements. Glory to Thy power, O Lord! Glory also to you, holy apostles, faithful servants of Christ our God! Grant me, O Lord, the ignorance, sorrow, poverty, and the impartiality of Thy apostles to the world, so that I also may have their fame, their joy, their wealth, their possession of all that is necessary for my happiness, temporal and eternal salvation.

May 9, 1856. "Very well [21].

Thoughts when reading the Acts of the Apostles

Chapter 1. The Lord Jesus did everything for people to assure them of the truth of His Divine origin and mission. The most powerful proof of His Divinity was presented by Him in His resurrection from the dead: for it is no longer possible for Him to be from death, as the Life and Source of life for all. Having suffered unto death and having risen from the dead, He placed Himself alive before the Apostles, and after His Resurrection in many true, and not illusory and false, signs, He appeared to them in days and fourties, and spoke of the Kingdom of God, which He preached to people during His lifetime until His death on the Cross, and into which He wished to draw everyone. Among these signs, the most convincing for our sensual nature was that He ate bread, honeycombs, fish, and other food before the eyes of the apostles. Although, of course, not in order to strengthen His strength with food: the spiritual, glorified nature of His Divine body now possessed life and power, not elemental and deplete, but Divine, so that all solid and coarse matter now disappeared before the unapproachable power and glory of His Divinity. This was necessary precisely for the sensual nature of the apostles, who, not yet having received the Holy Spirit, looked at everything with sensual eyes. How many people there are even now who will not believe any spiritual truth beforehand, if they are not convinced of it by experience, if they do not see it with their own eyes! How, they ask, did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? How do we know this, make sure of it? We didn't see it.

To their hearts, which burned with the living flame of holy love: Is it not our hearts that burn in our hearts, when we speak on the way... (Luke 24:32).

Consider, slaves of sensual nature: what constitutes the highest degree of proof—our feelings, debilitated, coarse, earthly, perishable, or the Word of God and the sensations of the soul, spiritual, immortal, God-like? I think you will agree that the Word of God and the sensations of the soul. Believe this, then, and do not seek sensual proofs of the divinity of the Founder of our faith and of all the truths taught by Him for our salvation. These temporary, coarse feelings are not given to us to undermine our trust in holy, spiritual truths. They are elemental things, and therefore we will leave them to deal only with elemental objects; they have no right to bring the objects of the spiritual world under their own laws, for them there are others, their own laws — in the soul: the spiritual with spiritual — and it is necessary to reason, according to the Apostle. Well done! [22]