Писание сочинений, как средство, возбуждавшее богомыслие. – Преуспевание в богомыслии. – Слово Божие и природа видимая возбуждают его. – Связь молитвы с богомыслием. – Изумление во время молитвы и богомыслия. Видение. – Сила молитвы. – Прозорливость, как благодатный дар, и любовь к Богу, как высший и превосходнейший дар.

Вскоре после решения оставаться в Задонске, святитель Тихон принялся за сочинения, и не оставлял пера до самой кончины. Первым его трудом в Задонске было сочинение «Об истинном христианстве», в шести томах. Он писал его в продолжении двух лет 1770 и 1771 года. Судя по величине этого сочинения и по времени, в которое оно было написано, должно думать, что Святитель переделывал и приспособлял к понятиям народа свои семинарские уроки. В продолжении трех лет, с 1777 года по 1779 год он трудился над книгой «Сокровище духовное от мира собираемое», – в четырех частях. В промежуток же этого времени, т.е. с 1771 по 1776 год, отчасти же и в то время, как писал эти сочинения, он составлял еще краткие проповеди, наставления монашествующим, размышления, письма келейные и посланные к приятелям, и наставление христианское, написанное для острогожского купца, Ростовцева.

При написании этих сочинений, у святителя Тихона кроме книг священного Писания и нескольких книг Златоуста, никаких других не было. Несмотря на это, его душа была так полна разными мыслями и чувствами, что когда он диктовал своему келейнику, который писал под диктовку, речь его лилась обильным потоком, и писец не успевал записывать за ним. «А когда, – по словам того же писца, – благодать Божия не столь сильно действовала в нем, и в мыслях чувствовался недостаток, – Святитель отсылал келейника, – а сам, став на колени, а иногда крестообразно распростершись на полу, начинал молиться, и молился со слезами Богу о ниспослании вседействующего Св. Духа». Молитва низводила на него просимую благодать, и он, опять призвав келейника, «начинал говорить так пространно, что писец не успевал рукой водить пера». [92] Ясно, что все эти сочинения – это как бы излияние его мыслей, чувствований и желаний. Почему во всех этих сочинениях ясно отображается богомысленный ум Святителя, его чистое сердце, то скорбящее о людских и своих грехах, то пламенеющее любовью к Богу и ближнему. В них раскрываются, преимущественно, те догматические истины, какими был постоянно занят его ум, т.е. истины о величии и вездепристутствии Божием, о Его благом промышлении о нас, об искуплении нашем через Иисуса Христа, о смирении, о суде, о вечном блаженстве и вечных мучениях, о достоинстве природы человеческой, а отсюда о грехе и добродетели.

Таким образом открывается, что писания святителя Тихона, будучи плодом его богомыслия и молитвы, в то же время еще более усиливали его упражнения в том и другом. Ибо не только во время обдумывания сочинений, но и во время самого писания оказывалась нужда в напряжении мысли и в помощи молитвы.

Например, при виде неба, усеяенного звездами, при виде земли, премудро наполненной созданными и веселящимися тварями, – он невольно приходил к размышлению о всемогуществе, премудрости и благости Творца и Бога нашего. При мысли о царе, отце и господине из земнородных, – невольно приходил к размышлению о небесном Царе, Отце и Господе. При виде солнца видимого, размышлял о невидимом Солнце, о Солнце правды, Иисусе Христе. При виде купца, который перевозит закупленные в чужих странах товары к себе домой, – о нашей духовной купле для небесного отечества. При виде странника, – о нашем странничестве на земле, при виде телесного сна – о смерти, и т.п.

In the same way, they stirred up St. Tikhon to contemplation of God and some words and expressions that he heard or came to his memory. Thus, the expressions: "I cannot go anywhere from you and I myself am here" remind him of the omnipresence and omniscience of God. The expression, "Follow me," is about our calling to follow Christ. The words, "I owe thee much," are about the innumerable blessings of God, poured out and poured out upon us by God. The question is: whose are you?—about our Christian calling. The expression: he is at one with him – about our like-mindedness, or with Christ, when we work and serve Him, – or with the devil, when we follow his sinful suggestions. The expression: "Come back, you have gone the wrong way" is the voice of conscience and the word of God, calling the sinner to return from his evil and impious ways. The words, "Tomorrow I will come," stir up his thoughts against sinners who live carelessly and fearlessly, and who postpone repentance from day to day; – the words: "And we will go there" are the thought of the common and inevitable path for all of us to the future life after death.

All these apparently accidental occasions, leading the mind to contemplation of God, also gave rise to various holy feelings – feelings of gratitude, hope, patience, love, praise and prayer. Thus, with regard to the words, "Whom then shall I love, if not Him," which are proper to speak of God alone, St. Tikhon enumerates all the blessings of God manifested to us, and concludes his reflections with the following appeal: O God! eternal love and goodness! Vouchsafe me to love Thee, Thou Who created me, Who redeemed me from the fallen, turned me astray, and enlightened me with Thy holy word, Who nourishes me, clothes me, intercedes for me, preserves me from the slanders of the enemy, and pours out innumerable other blessings upon me; – vouchsafe me to love Thee, my highest goodness and blessedness, and to praise Thee out of love, to thank Thee, to please Thee, to do Thy holy will, to worship Thee in spirit and in truth, to sing and praise Thee, Whom the angels in heaven sing and praise unceasingly, and I also sing to Thee with a joyful spirit with a heartfelt prophet: I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength, the Lord my strength, and my refuge and my deliverer, my God, my helper, and I trust in him, my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my intercessor (Psalm 17:2-3).

The reading or hearing of the word of God had an even stronger effect on Saint Tikhon. It led his mind to those reflections on the holy truths in which he was accustomed to practice, aroused in his heart those holy feelings that were usually born during this or that soul-saving meditation. Thus, having become accustomed to meditate on the omnipresence and omniscience of God, at the same time there arose in him the fear of offending the omnipresent God with his thoughts and deeds – St. Tikhon naturally returned to these reflections and to this apprehension when he heard the words of the Scriptures about God's omniscience, for example, the words of the Psalmist: "I will go from Thy spirit, and from Thy presence I will flee." Or when contemplating our redemption through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, giving himself over to feelings of joy, thanksgiving, and praise, he gave himself over to the same feelings as soon as the words of the Scriptures reminded him of these dogmas. Thus, during the table, listening to the readings from the book of the Prophet Isaiah, this Old Testament evangelist, the saint often, putting down his spoon, began to shed tears, tears either of repentance, or of joy and thanksgiving.

Depicting the effect of the word of God on his soul, the saint wrote: "How sweet and pleasant it is for one who reads or listens attentively to the word of God, to see by faith, as if through a glass darkly, divination, in that word of God, Creator, Redeemer and Provider, and His divine attributes; to kiss with faith and love His incomprehensible goodness, poured out on the human race; to marvel at His incomprehensible wisdom, shown in the creation of the world and in Providence for it; to praise His incomprehensible truth, with which He has defended and defends His servants, but He has executed and executes His enemies; to praise the incomprehensible majesty of His glory, to see His divine miracles, created from the beginning of the world; to hear His merciful and paternal promises, some that have come true, others that will certainly come true; – to look with faith to the future glory, variously depicted in the Holy Word, and to admire it! How delightful it is to imagine the image of our salvation described in it, by which we have been delivered from sin, death, the devil and hell – and to marvel at the goodness of God shown to us in this, and to thank Him with a joyful spirit! It is very pleasant for us to read the news in which the exploits of our army are described and the victory won over our enemies is depicted; but it is incomparably more pleasant to reread and remember the feat by which our Deliverer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fought for us and gloriously defeated our enemies. All this is presented in the Holy Word of God, – concludes St. Tikhon, read it yourself, Christian, and you will see."

Thus enjoying the reading or hearing of the word of God, Saint Tikhon acquired the firmest and most undoubted confidence in the divinity of the word of God, so that he believed it more than his own feelings. "Holy Scripture," he writes, "is the true word of God, which cannot deceive or lie, just as God Himself cannot deceive. You should believe him more than your feelings and the whole world. Our senses and the whole world can deceive us more easily than the Holy Scriptures." That is why he loved to exercise himself in the word of God so much, that he knew the Psalter and the entire New Testament and some passages of the Old Testament by heart.

In a similar attitude to the contemplation of God, St. Tikhon was also praying. In his soul, both contemplation of God turned into prayer, and prayer into contemplation of God, or was invariably accompanied by it. As he taught, so he acted. All his reflections on the truths of faith either take the form of a conversation with God, or end with a prayerful appeal to Him, which we have already partially seen. "I know and humbly confess," he writes, "that I have sinned much against Thee, my Creator and God, and I regret it. And I see other sins in my conscience, but others I do not see, and I see no more than I see: for the fall of sin is understood by anyone (Psalm 18:13). I pity and grieve that with them Thee, my good and loving God, my Creator, my Redeemer, my highest Benefactor, Thee, Whom the holy angels revere and worship with fear and trembling, Thee, such and such a Lord, have madly offended the last worm with Thy sins. And how many times have I sinned before Thee, how many times Thou hast seen me sinning, how many times Thou hast endured according to Thy goodness, and how many times Thou hast endured me, so many times Thou hast had mercy on me. And if Thou hadst dealt with me in the most holy truth, my soul would have descended into hell long ago, but Thy goodness and Thy long-suffering have restrained Thee, and have not allowed me, a poor sinner, to come to my destruction... Let us worship Thee, O Lord, with all my heart; and I will glorify Thy name for ever; for Thy mercy is upon me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell (Psalm 85:12-13). From these and other of Thy mercies to me, which I do not know, I see that in Thy love for me and kindness, love for mankind, long-suffering and generosity, I am wholly consisted. Thy goodness, O Lord, is that I am not yet lost, I am still living. I see that Thou leadest me to eternal salvation, which Thou hast promised to those who know and honor Thee. Have mercy on me, a poor sinner, to the end, and by the grace of Thy only-begotten Son atone for all my sins, and save me unto eternal life, that there, together with all Thy elect, I may thank, praise, and sing to Thee, with Thy only-begotten Son, and the Most Holy Spirit, not by faith, but face to face, unto endless ages. Amen."

In return, the prayer was accompanied by God-inspired reflections or turned into God-inspired delight. Thus, according to the testimony of his cell-attendants, we know that in prayer and contemplation of God he had an excellent gift of tears. "Often, during the Divine Liturgy, in church, standing attentively, he sometimes plunged into reflections on God's love for the human race, on its redemption by the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, on His sufferings and on the Eucharist, that in a crowded gathering he even wept aloud to all those present in the church." In a similar way, in his cell, when he prayed, "from the imagination of a twofold eternity, his cries and sobs were heard, with the pronunciation of a loud prayer: Have mercy on the Lord, have mercy on the Lord, have mercy on our sins; hear, O Lord, and destroy us not with our iniquities, and so on. And we heard weeping like the weeping of a friend after the deprivation of his dead friend." [93] Without a doubt, during the prayer of the saint, other thoughts and ideas arose in his mind, which also aroused in him tears and weeping, for example, the idea of the omnipresence of God. "Believe and think that God is near you and is before you; and in this way a true, heartfelt and reverent prayer will be aroused in you," says the saint. "Then you will fall down before Him with humility, and bow down, and sigh, and pray, and say: O Lord, have mercy! O Lord, be merciful! O Lord, hear! Then both the heart and the mind will be able to correspond to the words of your prayer."