Look at the world of earthly plants that is being renewed in the spring and think where its beginning and foundation are. Will you say that this is the earth from which he springs? But take a handful of earth covering the root of a plant, and you will see that it has no power, beauty, nutritiousness, or fragrance at all, which are characteristic of various plants, and what it does not have, it cannot communicate to them. Will you also say that the power of the sun, air, and water is combined in plants? But even this does not explain their origin.

What is the foundation of the earth itself, which seems to be the foundation of what is seen on it? Shall we say with the examiners of nature that this is the force of gravitation or attraction to it, both in the sun and in the stars, acting reciprocally between them? What a dead foundation for a world full of life even now, when death has entered into it, which God did not create! What a narrow foundation for a building so vast! And is this a reason? The searching mind is not satisfied, it asks on what is the basis, in what is affirmed such a tremendous power of attraction, which should hold and move the entire universe. In order not to plunge into the abyss, testing the depths, let us stop. Are we to discover the inner principles and foundations of nature, whether we who live, so to speak, on its bark and shell? The foundation of such a vast building can only be opened by the One Who created it, and reveals the ceiling as He Himself opens. Hang the earth on nothing (Job 26:7), so Job contemplates him. What does it mean on nothing? How can anything stand or hang on nothing? Job does not take away the foundation of the work of God, but despises human sensual knowledge, as one that does not reach the foundation of the works of God. Reach, he says, to the ends of the earth, go down to that side of it which you imagine under your feet, you will find nothing near the earth, above it and below it, except the air, and think: how can such a huge and heavy body be held in such a delicate creature for so many centuries, when even a light down does not stay in the air for long, but soon falls? Your mind is lost, you see the earth hanging, but on what you do not find. How can we not sin in order to explain this miraculous phenomenon? Go up to the Founder and you will find the true foundation. Hang the earth on nothing. God alone is the Founder of all creation, and in Him alone is its deepest foundation. Every thing stands on that on which it is placed in the beginning. Look through the far-sighted glass of the prophetic spirit, and you will see. God said, Let there be light. And there was light (Gen. 1:3). The same is true for each subsequent creature. Therefore God said, Let it be, this is the root principle of all things! The power of God, the word of God, is the deepest foundation of their existence and well-being! For one should not imagine the word of God to be like the spoken word of man, which, having come out of the mouth, immediately ceases and disappears into the air. In God there is nothing that ceases, nothing that disappears, His word proceeds, but does not pass away: the word of the Lord endures forever (1 Peter 1:25). The creative word is like an adamantine bridge on which creatures are placed and stand under the abyss of God's infinity, over the abyss of their own insignificance.

The power of God is, according to the application of the concept to our image, the hand of the Almighty, in which He holds the earthly circle, and each of its specks of dust, and all the circles of heaven, as far as He Himself counts them, numbering the stars alone (Psalm 146:4). This is not my curiosity, but the pure revelation of the very wisdom of God through the Apostle, who says that the Son of God beareth all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3), that is, He works continually in creatures by His word and His power, if not in the same way, then at least in the same way as He acted in the first days of their creation. Even to this day, the Word of God, which creates, is the foundation of the beginning and continuing existence of creatures. The Word of God, which blesses, is the foundation of their well-being. By Him the sun shines, by Him the earth grows, by Him and by His inexhaustible and diverse power is made that bread nourishes, wine strengthens, oil softens and heals, by Him every creature lives, grows, is perfected, and each in its own measure is blessed to the glory of creative wisdom, goodness and power.

After this reflection, I ask, what should be closer to God, man or other earthly bodily creatures? The answer almost does not need to be pronounced. But lest anyone say that all creatures are equally close to their immediate Creator, let us bring to mind certain testimonies and signs of the superiority of man's closeness to God: God's advice about his creation, unparalleled for other parts of creation, the taking by God's own hand, so to speak, of the purest dust from the earth to form the body of the first man, the breath in his face from his own, so to speak, the breath of life from the mouth of God, the image of God, shamefully lost, it is true, but all the more gloriously restored by the feat of the cross of the One-in-Essence Image and Son of God, Who did not consider Himself unworthy to become the second man and the last Adam (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:45,47).

This closeness of man to God, which is superior to other creatures, is used by the Heavenly Teacher Himself as a powerful means of instruction when He says: "If the hay of the country, today it is and in the morning it is swept into the furnace, God dresses it in this way, is it not much more than you, you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30). And this is the way of reasoning that we can now follow, reasoning about grace. If God has placed His dwelling place in the sun of this corporeal world (Psalm 18:5), and He shines with it so beneficially and generously against evil and good (Matthew 5:45), how much more must the highest region of the human spirit, in order not to give itself over to the abomination of desolation, so as not to turn into a land of darkness and the shadow of death, be the living abode of the Most High and be enlightened by His true light, which, as the servant of light sees and shows, actually enlightens every man who comes into the world (John 1:9), of course, so long as man does not flee from this inner light into the outer darkness of evil deeds. If the grass is eaten by cattle, and the grass for the service of man (Psalm 103:14), it is also God, if the sons learn about the food of the body, whom Thou hast loved, O Lord, for it is not the birth of fruit that nourishes man, but Thy word to Thee that believeth (Wis. 16:26), sometimes miraculously, and always naturally, both believers and unbelievers, just as the sun shines with His abundant grace on the evil and the good, how much more can no one and nothing nourish the human soul with food proper and satisfactory to it, increase the fruits of virtue, quench the hunger for truth and thirst for truth, strengthen the heart with spiritual strength, rejoice with holy joy, except God and His Word, as His Only-begotten One says: "I am the bread of life, which came down from heaven: whosoever eateth of this bread shall live forever" (John 6:51); Whosoever shall be in Me, and I in him, shall bring forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). According to the teaching of the Apostle, not only every good deed is done, but every holy word is worthily pronounced only with the help of the Holy Spirit: "No one can speak the Lord Jesus even by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3), in short, if the existence and well-being of the lower creatures depends every minute on the goodness and power of God, how much more so is the spiritual life and blessedness of man, created in the image of God and recreated in the image of God at every moment, for eternally depends on the cooperating grace of God.

And therefore we should be amazed at the carelessness or blindness of people who live and act, who want and hope to be prosperous, without thinking about the grace of God.

Tell me, O soul lacking in grace, but still sought by grace, how do you think to live and arrange your lot? Is it not reason? But if you are wise, then you must know what has long been known, that the Lord gives wisdom, and from His presence knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6), that true wisdom is from above (James 3:17), that saving understanding comes from grace. But if you wish to be exalted by reason, which is born on earth and never grows above the senses, then know also that it, always promising more than it is capable of, and, being constrained by the senses and deceived by the passions, always fulfilling less than it is capable of, has long been condemned to rejection and destruction: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the understanding of the prudent" (Isaiah 29:14). It is this self-praised human mind that is the world's ignoramus, whom the Gospel, sent by Grace, first came to shame, and then to teach or relearn in its own way. For since in the wisdom of God there is no understanding of the world through the wisdom of God, God has deigned to save believers by the exuberance of the preaching of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 1:21). What else, do you think, to live and arrange your own good? Isn't it the law? Yes, the Supreme Lawgiver Himself said of his commandments: "He who created that man shall live in them" (Lev. 18:5).

In this way, the perfect fulfiller of the law would receive eternal life only by the grace of the All-Generous Lawgiver God, Who, not limiting Himself to saving the commandment from the evil against which it is set, moreover, grants to the fulfiller of it a blessing to which it does not give a right. However, what is much to say about this, when the first law and its righteousness were destroyed in the first man, and we are nothing but natural lawless? Now, Job cries, it seems, also the righteous one, who will be clean from defilement; no one, except for one day his life on earth (Job 14:4,5). At the same time, one should not forget the rule of lawful righteousness, that whoever keeps the whole law, but sins in one, is guilty of all (James 2:10). And so, what is the great promise of the Old Law to us, that he who does the commandments will live in them? Nothing more than that we will not receive life through the commandments. Thou hast found unto me the commandment which is in life, which is unto death (Romans 7:10). The law shows what to do and what not to do, requires the fulfillment of the commandments, promises life, but the fulfillment is left to me, and since I do not succeed in this, then not life, but death is my lot. To what, you will say, is the law with its commandments? In order to denounce iniquity, so as not to leave man forever a hardened lawless man and forever deprived of life, in order to awaken in him a revulsion from iniquity and a desire to do good, in order to begin the work of his salvation? Just start? And finish? Only grace, Christ and faith can do this. The end of the law Christ is righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). By grace ye are saved through faith: and this is not of you, but the gift of God: not of works, that no one should boast (Ephesians 2:8,9). Grace by faith forgives and blots out the former iniquities revealed by the law, and gives strength to avoid new ones or to fulfill the law. For the weakness of the law, in which the weakness of the flesh is in it, God corrected His Son in the likeness of the flesh to sin, and as a sacrifice for sin, condemn sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3,4). But only those walk in the Spirit and live in the Spirit who are born of the Spirit by grace. You see, brethren, how truly worthy of the purest and strongest desire is that which the Apostle desires for his beloved Philippians, and with which, following his example, we greet you: Grace be with you all. May the holy desire to receive the primary holiness desired for you, the all-holy grace of God, be aroused in you. Let not this desire be weakened by the thought of negligence, that if grace abounds even there, where sin has abounded (Romans 5:20), then it will come without our care and will accomplish its work in us. May God preserve us from this low and deceitful wisdom! What would we think of a son who did not cease to multiply insults to a good father, precisely because in many former cases he received forgiveness or remained unpunished? Would he not consider such a monster, unworthy of any more forgiveness, inferior to the name of his son? Such is the man in the eyes of the Heavenly Father, who does not cease to multiply his sins, in the bold hope of an abundance of forgiving grace! What must happen to the sick man who does not want to take medicine, because he is too confident in the skill of his physician, considering him capable of bringing him back even from the door of death? Death is the most certain of all, because he has begun, and will continue to place himself, far from the doors of death, until he finds himself behind them, and will irrevocably pass away the art of the physician and the power of medical aids. Such should be the fate of the man who does not try to make use of the aids of grace in the negligent hope of its power. Let us not, brethren, be bold, nor careless, nor sin from insane audacity; let us turn to the holy boldness to actively seek and strive for the grace of forgiveness and correction. Let us approach boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and grace for timely help (Hebrews 4:16).

Returning to the greeting of the Apostle, which served as a guide to this sermon, I note that He did not abandon the custom of greeting those who greet them, not only on their own behalf, but, on favorable occasions, on behalf of other known and loved ones. You kiss, he says, all the saints, that is, in general the Christians of the capital city of Rome, from whence he wrote this, and even more so those of Caesar's house. Why more than those who are from Caesar's house? Perhaps this is why St. Paul pays special attention to them, in order to give the Philippians the consoling thought that even among the courtiers of Caesar there are already believers in Christ, and that faith is gradually approaching the victory predestined for it over kings and kingdoms. Probably, the Christians themselves, who were from the house of Caesar, asked the Apostle to greet other Christians living outside the capital, so as not to leave any doubt to themselves and others that their Christian love is not constrained by secular ties and proprieties. Well? Can some such news from the new capital be announced to the inhabitants of the ancient capital? Why not say that the communicants of our faith there abide in Christian love inseparable from us, just as the pastors there are in the inseparable unity of mind of the faith? Shall I also say what you kiss from Caesar's house? About! I can, I can say incomparably more. Kisses you yourself, beloved Caesar. So! The most pious Emperor himself, through my measure, sends the word of His high incense, greetings, and good love to Moscow. Good Moscow! You will immediately guess that it is not I who caress your eyes, but that the heart of the King, who has no need to caress, the loving heart of the King, is opening to the faithful capital. Listen once more, you who are good in faith and faithfulness of heart: your King, having stepped in love from the height of greatness, in the simplicity of love that surpasses the very greatness, greets you. Receive this good news, carry it from house to house, from one hundred to another, let it go beyond the gates of the vast city, let it pass through villages and cities, near and far; when they hear it, they will not envy us, but will rejoice with us, knowing that the good Tsar loves all good Russians with one love; let this news, if possible, spread beyond the borders of our Fatherland, so that even there they would know our joy and our well-being, let it reach those peoples who in our times have so many disputes and strife about the state structure and about the relations between the ruling power and the subjects that all social ties are cracking because of them, all the pillars of political buildings are shaking, let them read more clearly in our hearts than on charters the concise, but comprehensive decree of the state, which consists in the following words: The sanctity of power and the union of love between the Tsar and the people.

Впрочем, как они хотят. Мы, благочестивые Россияне, да сохраняем тщательно живую скрижаль спасительного царству закона, любовь царственную. Бога же, Который даровал нам Государя, сею любовью как солнце на нас сияющего, не престанем умолять, да продолжит сохранять, укреплять и руководствовать его Своею вседействующею благодатию, которая более, нежели примечает недальновидная природа, участвует как в спасении душ, так и в спасении царств и народов. Аминь.

Слово в день обретения мощей Святителя Алексия, 1837 г.[87]

Поминайте наставники ваша, иже глаголаша вам слово Божие: ихже взирающе на скончание жительства, подражайте вере их (Евр.13:7)