The shepherd rejoices and rejoices, seeing his sheep eating grass to their heart's content, and drinking pure water: and the pious and righteous king rejoices when he sees his cities enjoying the mysterious and mental manifestation of piety, and drinking the water of peace and tranquility.

The characteristic of a pious king and a true pastor is not to acquire for himself on earth, through unrighteousness and the taking away of other people's possessions; but that with all righteousness and the fear of God, with faith and love, we may hide in heaven the inexhaustible treasures of reverence, mercy, and all meekness and goodness to our subordinates.

Being the most radiant and most glorious king, firmly strengthen yourself so that you will never be overcome by the passion of the abominable Jewish servile love of money, which the Apostle Paul calls idolatry, and the caretaker of it an idol (Col. 3:5). Always remember the admonition of the Prophet and King, who says: "Do not trust in falsehood, and do not desire admiration. If wealth flows, do not set your heart on it" (Psalm 61:11). Do not precede this prophet to some superstitious earthly counselor, for disobedience to God and the teaching of His holy Apostles and Prophets places us under the responsibility of that true saying, which says: "Together they shall perish foolishly and foolishly, and leave to strangers their riches, and their graves their dwellings for ever" (Psalm 48:11).

"The olive work shall lie, and the fields shall not produce poison," says the God-speaking Habakkuk, illumined by the Divine Spirit (Hab. 3:17). "The olive tree," because of the good fruitfulness of this tree, is allegorically designated by the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, since it always abounds in God's mercy and mercies. The "deed" of this olive tree he calls almsgiving, as well as the hierarchs appointed in it from time to time for the guidance and establishment of the immaculate Christian faith and for the management and care of all its poor and needy, orphans and widows, as the divine canons strictly command the bishops everywhere. Is it that the above prophetic utterance is no longer valid? "No way!" Although it was said mainly about the bishops of the Jewish people who were in the Old Testament, who had to rage against the common Creator and Savior of all people and trampled on the law of the Most High and His holy commandments, yet it is convenient for anyone to apply it to the representatives of the holy churches of God in our times. Now the workers of this mental sacred olive tree no longer perform its God-loving work, as the divine rules command. For all that was given to the Holy Church by the Orthodox tsars and Christ-loving princes, all the possessions and possessions assigned for the subsistence of the poor and orphans, they turned to their own excesses and to the arrangement of their worldly situation. And thus they themselves live in all abundance and pleasure, eating abundantly and abundantly enriching their relatives and relatives, while Christ's brothers, the poor, suffering from nakedness and perishing from hunger, are despised by them. Verily, the work of the mental olive tree lied, that is, the work of alms to all the poor and needy became impoverished and perished. Who else is able to avert this offense of the poor, with which they are offended, except God? But even those who reign Orthodox on earth should, and it is very proper for pious kings to correct such priestly shortcomings, not to say sins, imitating the zeal of the ancient Orthodox kings: Constantine, Theodosius and Justinian the Great. Nothing else can strengthen the royal sceptre so much as God's care and mercy for the poor.

"If the God of Israel is good in his upright heart" (Psalm 72:1). This blessed prophet and king, having considered the innumerable long-suffering of the most gracious God and Creator of all, which He manifests to lawless people, who live in iniquity and in all kinds of transgressions, by which He not only suffers long, but also allows them to enjoy peace, health, wealth, and all pleasure and longevity abundantly, cites the following moral teaching, saying: "For this reason I restrain their pride to the end: clothed with unrighteousness and their wickedness," and other things that are further said about their wickedness (Psalm 72:1-6). All this, he says, took possession of them. Since they "are not in the labors of men, they shall not receive wounds from men," that is, because they are ungrateful to the Creator of all and the Nourisher of all by their immeasurable impiety and arrogance, and since they annoy Him in various ways, saying: "As God has taken away, and if there be understanding in the Highest," therefore they are not vouchsafed punishment from God and His saving visitation, according to what is said in the Divine Scriptures: "Whom the Lord loveth, chasteneth, and beateth every son, and receiveth him" (Proverbs 3:12). Therefore, "blessed is man," says the same divine Prophet (David), "if thou chastest him, O Lord, also of Thy law," that is, by Thy holy commandments, "teach him" (Psalm 93:12), that is, thou shalt turn him to the knowledge of the gravity of his sins, so that he, knowing them and sighing for them with a sickness of heart, may receive salvation and help from God. Therefore, it is good and very salvific to be "in the labors of men," that is, to endure sorrows in the present life with all the righteous and to receive wounds with them, that is, to be punished fatherly by the Lord.

This is the power created in the Lord, of which the Prophet teaches, saying: "O God, let us create power: and He will despise those who afflict us" (Psalm 59:14). Let us not deceive ourselves, thinking that by one prolonged prayer we will receive help from above, while at the same time remaining in our sins; for it is written: "Ask and do not receive, but ask not evil" (James 4:3). And in another place: "Salvation is far from sinners, for I have not sought Thy justifications" (Psalm 118:155).

When, by the command of the Creator, it is separated from it, this perishable abode remains breathless, without feeling or movement, and in the course of a few days it begins to stink, turn black, and, alas, it becomes the food of worms, and it itself is taken to the dwelling that it has prepared for itself, either by good or evil deeds, that is: either to a bright place, full of all joy and divine fragrance, from which "all sickness, sorrow, and sighing flee away" (Isaiah 35:10), which in the Gospel of Luke is also called the bosom of Abraham; or into endless bitter torments, such as the unquenchable fire, utter darkness, gnashing of teeth and incessant weeping because of unbearable sufferings. This is evident both from many other divinely inspired writings, and especially from the parable of the poor Lazarus and that senseless rich man who, for his inhumanity to the wretched Lazarus, was condemned to the fire of Gehenna and, burning in it, was not vouchsafed to receive drops of cold water from the patriarch Abraham, who covered all people with his love of strangers.

For there is no other way for us to receive then you stand at the right hand of the unwashed Judge and hear that blessed and longed-for voice that will say: "Come, by the blessing of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," and so on (Matt. 25:34). To the extent that one surpasses others in power and abundance of wealth, whether it be a king, or a saint, or a prince, so much must he surpass others in mercy and beneficence to those who are in need and in the poverty of worldly needs, so that he, too, may be vouchsafed with all the righteous to hear the voice of the most gracious Lord, saying to us: "Inasmuch as thou hast made one of these My least brethren, ye have created Me" (Matt. 25:25). 40). Therefore blessed is he truly and most blessed, "he who understandeth the poor and the needy," for "in the day of death the Lord will deliver him" (Psalm 40:2).

The three main passions, as the Holy Fathers say, are for the most part incessantly and intensely fought by every soul endowed with reason, and especially by the one who holds the royal sceptre and government. These passions are voluptuousness, love of glory and love of money. Their offspring are very terrible and pernicious, for they, like bloodthirsty beasts, devour human souls and give them over to eternal fire, when they are separated from their bodies by death. The offspring of voluptuousness is the insatiable pleasing of the belly, the delight of the larynx with various foods, and the enslavement to the abdomen of bestial-like desires. From the love of glory comes that a man does nothing for the glory or for the glory of God, but tries to do everything for the sake of pleasing people, so that he may always receive glory and praise from them, and if he receives what he desires, he treats everyone with meekness and generously does good to all; but if he ever learns that he is being ridiculed, then, putting aside his meekness, he irresistibly gives himself up to a frenzy and tries to take revenge more severely than any beast on him who does not praise him. The root of all evil, the love of money, has as its evil offspring an insatiable desire for wealth, an excessive desire to accumulate gold and silver in every way, and to accumulate for oneself by means of robbery, unrighteousness, and covetousness; hence—

Cast away your riches, and eat your garments with moths. Your gold and silver shall be rusted, and their rust shall be upon you for obedience, and your flesh shall be consumed as fire: which you shall find in the last days" (James 5:1, 3).

If anyone has trampled upon and overcome the above three passions, he is truly a faithful saint and faithful worshipper of the Almighty and Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is king and autocrat to himself and to all those subject to him. And whoever is possessed and led by these passions, let him clearly hear the saying of the Lord common to all: "Whosoever commits sin, the servant is sin, but the servant abideth not in the house for ever" (John 8:34, 35). What can be more shameful, not to say more accursed, than when he who thinks to possess glorious cities and innumerable peoples, is himself in the power and under the guidance of irrational passions, and is called a slave by the mouth of the Saviour. "He who understands, let him understand" is clearly said.

Among the many wondrous righteous deeds with which the soul of a pious king is excellently adorned and loved and praised by all, I find it most useful and necessary for the power of pious kings to be the work of love of strangers, that is, to treat arriving foreigners with a sense of humanity, with meekness and respect, whether they be merchants or those invited by them, and to take care of their comfortable stay during all the time, as long as they are with them, so that they may not be subjected to insults from the local inhabitants, and so that they will not be forcibly detained and there will be no obstacles to their return to their homeland. They should be allowed to arrive willingly and return again without hindrance, and to let them go with all safety, peace, and honor.

And what can be more useful than this for the power of pious kings? For all who hear of such prudence, of meekness, and of solicitude for foreigners, will repay them with fervent prayers, and will exalt them with great praise, and every one will endeavour to come hither to see for himself their goodness, and to enjoy their meekness and superiority. And those who treat foreigners differently, neglecting the injury and disgrace done to them, what displeasure and slander they incur upon themselves, both on the part of these foreigners themselves, and on the part of those who happen to tell them of such neglect and such untruth, I dare not speak of this. Anyone who has a sound understanding and reasoning not only knows it himself, but will not want to hear about it. Let us not, therefore, be wise enough to be inferior to the villagers who catch pigeons, who, in order to catch a flock of pigeons, anoint the throat of a domestic dove with some good and let it fly at will to a flock of wild pigeons, and when it joins them and they enjoy the fragrance of fragrant myrrh with which its throat is smeared, it voluntarily leads everyone to the house of its masters. Let pious kings imitate this wisdom of fishermen, and let them willingly and respectfully dismiss foreigners who come to them, if they wish to receive praise and enjoy friendship with all peoples living everywhere; but even the cities under their power will be decorated and abounded in this way by people experienced in all wisdom, in the art of words and in the arts of life. For it is characteristic of every man to strive to go where he hears that the art of literature or the art of life inherent in him is held in the greatest respect.

Said Menander the Philosopher: Three virtues make the Orthodox earthly kingdom glorious and lasting most of all: "righteousness," that is, the justice of judgment, which does not look at the face of those who are judged and does not take bribes; the second is "chastity," that is, purity of life and the curbing of natural movements by God-pleasing abstinence; and thirdly, "meekness" dissolved by royal fear to the subordinates, for their correction, and not for their destruction. The Tsar who directs his life according to these three virtues is truly an Orthodox Tsar and the animated image of the Heavenly King Himself.