In order to find out the meaning of any substance, science is obliged to decompose it into its component, indecomposable parts, and then to recreate the decomposed substance from the component parts. Science accepts the knowledge of matter obtained in this way as correct; suppositions, unless they are positively proved, are not admitted into the body of knowledge, into the treasury of science, although human arbitrariness proclaims them both orally and in print, as if they were truths, mocking the ignorance and credulity of mankind. In order to decompose the human body satisfactorily, it is necessary to do so while the body is still alive. There is no way to determine the meaning of life except by grasping it and considering it alone in itself. The correctness of decomposition must be proved by the formation of a living body from its component parts. This is impossible. We decompose only corpses, not knowing what life leaves in the body it leaves behind, and what it carries away with it. In uncovering the corpses, we become acquainted with the structure of a machine hidden in the interior of the body, but a machine no longer capable of movement and action, a machine already deprived of its essential significance. What do we know about our body? Something far removed from the knowledge of the complete and perfect.

Let us make a request to our mind, this main instrument for the acquisition of knowledge, so that it should give an essential definition to itself: what is it? Soul strength? But this expresses only the concept that has appeared in us from the impressions produced by the actions of the mind—it does not determine the essence of the mind. We must say exactly the same about the human spirit, that is, about those sublime feelings of the heart which animals lack, about the feelings by which the heart of man differs from the heart of animals, and which constitute an elegant excess of feelings in the human heart before the hearts of animals. Spirit is the power of the soul. In what way are the powers of the soul united with the soul itself? The image of union is incomprehensible, since the image of the union of the body with its senses, sight, hearing, and other diverse sense of touch is incomprehensible. The feelings of the body leave the body at the time when it leaves its life, are carried away from it by the departing soul. This means that the bodily senses belong to the soul proper, and when it is in the body, they become, as it were, the senses of the body. From this follows the necessary natural consequence: the ability of the soul to feel the same as the body feels; The affinity of the soul with the body is not the perfect opposite which some have rashly ascribed to the soul and created spirits, and which is hitherto ascribed to them by ignorance. There is gradualness between creatures and a difference arising from gradualness, as well as between numbers. The difference can be very significant; but it does not destroy either affinity or gradualness. In this gradualness, the one is coarser towards us, the other more subtle; But everything created, limited, existing in space and time, cannot be alien to matter, which is an integral part of all that is limited. God alone is immaterial: He is distinguished by a decisive distinction from all creatures; It is opposite to them in essence and properties, just as the infinite is opposite to numbers, all without exception. This is what we know about our soul, about our mind, about our heart! What do we know? Something, the most limited something.

Who knows all this with all satisfaction? There is only one God! He, by virtue of the nature of the infinite, has a perfect concept of everything, devoid of any defect, and He proved this concept by a perfect proof: the creation out of nothing of innumerable worlds, visible to us and invisible, known and unknown. It is characteristic of the infinite to animate the non-existent into existence, which no number, no matter how great they may be, can create. The proof of the infinity of the Mind which governs the universe continues to be magnificently expressed in the existence of all that exists. The slightest number of the laws of creation and existence, and to some extent, are comprehended by men. They also comprehended the fact that the whole of nature is embraced by the Legislation that surpasses human comprehension. If the mind is needed to comprehend a particle of laws, so much the more necessary is He to compose them.

Person! "Pay attention to yourself", examine yourself! From a clear understanding of yourself, as far as possible, you will look more clearly and correctly at everything that is subject to your gaze outside of you. In what way, on what occasion did I come into existence and appear in the field of earthly life? I appeared in this field involuntarily and unconsciously; I do not know the reason for the entry into existence from non-existence. I ponder, search for the cause, and cannot but confess that I must of necessity recognize it in the definition of the unlimited, unknown, incomprehensible Will, to which I am unconditionally subject. I appeared with the faculties of soul and body, as with appurtenances: they were given to me, but not chosen by me. I appeared with various infirmities, as if already sealed with execution; He was a sufferer and doomed to suffering. I found myself in circumstances and surroundings, which I found, or which were prepared for me, I do not know. On the path of earthly pilgrimage I can very rarely act according to my will, fulfill my desire: almost always I am forcibly drawn by some invisible, omnipotent Hand, some Stream, to which I cannot offer any resistance. Almost constantly I encounter one unexpected and unforeseen thing. I depart from earthly life most suddenly, without any consent of mine to this, without any attention to my earthly needs, to the needs of those around me, for whom, in my judgment and theirs, I am necessary. I'm leaving the land forever, not knowing where I'm going! I leave in terrible loneliness! In an unknown land, into which I am entering by death, I will be met by one new, one that has never been seen before. In order to enter an unknown land, I must leave all earthly things on earth, I must throw off my very body. From there, from an unknown country, I cannot send any news about myself to earth, because there is no way for anyone clothed in a shell of earthly, coarse matter to hear the news from there. My life in this visible world is an uninterrupted struggle with death; Such is it from my cradle to my grave. I can die daily and hourly, but I do not know the day and hour of death. I know that I will die; of this there is not and cannot be the slightest doubt, but I live as if I were immortal, because I feel myself immortal. The presentiment of death has been taken away from me, and I would not have believed that it is possible for a person to die if I had not seen in all people that death is the inevitable fate of every person. The Gospel correctly depicts the weakness of our power over us. "No matter how much effort you make," says the Gospel to a man, "you cannot add one cubit to your age [192] and make your white hair black" [193].

"Why is it done this way? It must be confessed that much of what has been said here has been said with palpable justice. The suffering state of mankind on earth, the condition before the eyes of all, must have its cause. But how can the offspring be guilty of the sin of the forefather, who is distant from the offspring and is already alien to the offspring? Posterity is punished: this is obvious. Why is it, the innocent, punished? Why does it carry a terrible eternal punishment? The execution passes from generation to generation, falls ponderously on each generation, wipes out each generation from the face of the earth, having previously subjected each generation to innumerable torments. Each generation appears on the face of the earth unconsciously, involuntarily, forcibly. Every man enters earthly life without the ability to act voluntarily with faculties, which in an infant must be likened to seeds rather than to plants. What participation of posterity in the sin of the forefather, participation worthy of such punishments, when there was and is no very possibility for posterity to take part in sin, either by subtle heartfelt agreement, or by the slightest deviation of the mind? Where is God's justice here? Where is goodness? I see one thing that is contrary to them." Thus cries out the weak man, blinded by his sinful, material life. Thus he cries out and calls before him to interrogate the fate of God.

Thus cries out the ignorance of God! Thus cries out human pride! so cries out man's ignorance of himself! so cries out a false conception of himself and of his whole situation! so they cry out, and no one hearkens to the cry. By means of such exclamations, men, without realizing it, reveal only the affliction of self-conceit and self-deception that has seized them: by means of such exclamations they denounce the consciousness that dwells in themselves of the ability and desire to be the administrators of the universe, the judges and instructors of God in His administration of the world, and no one gives them the high thrones beyond the clouds, on which the rebellious angels wanted to sit before indignant men. A reckless undertaking sinks, as in a dark abyss, in its recklessness, tormenting the victims who have given themselves up rashly, carried away by this undertaking, tormenting them with fruitless torments in insoluble chains. Events take their course, there is no change in the economy of the universe, the destinies of God remain immutable. The insignificance and self-deception of people is proved to them positively and irrefutably by harsh experience.

The most precise mathematical consideration explains to man with all certainty the infinite difference between him and God, both in essence and in properties, although the same words are used to depict both because of the poverty of human language. The infinite is governed by quite different laws than anything that can be represented by numbers according to the method of positive science, on which all other sciences are based, just as the whole constitution of man is based on bones. From this axiom follows another axiom: the actions of the infinite are naturally inaccessible to the comprehension of all rational creatures that are depicted by number. A number, no matter how much it increases, remains a number, and differs from the infinite by an infinite difference, by which all numbers differ equally from the infinite. The striving to comprehend what is incomprehensible is nothing but the consequence of false knowledge composed of false concepts. This striving cannot but act in accordance with its origin: it must lead to the most disastrous consequences by the nature of all actions proceeding from falsehood. Where did this aspiration come from? Obviously: from a proud, erroneous opinion of oneself, which leads a person to give himself a meaning other than that given to him in the boundless universe.

I'm looking at myself! And here is the spectacle that was depicted before me when I examined myself! This is how I am described indisputably, described with true features, with living colors, described by the very experiences, the very events from my life! What conclusion should I draw about myself from this painting? The conclusion that I am by no means an original and independent being, that I am deprived of the most basic, most vital knowledge of myself. There is a real need, a necessity, that someone should explain me to me more satisfactorily, that he should announce to me my purpose, that he should show me the right activity, and thus protect me from activity without meaning and without purpose.

This urgent need, this necessity, was recognized by God Himself. He recognized it and gave people the Revealed Teaching, which leads us to knowledge that is inaccessible to our own comprehension. In the divinely revealed teaching, God revealed Himself to man, to what extent the unlimited and inexplicable God can be explained and revealed to limited man. In the divinely revealed teaching, God revealed to man the meaning and purpose of man, his relationship to God and to the worlds, visible and invisible. God revealed to man the knowledge of man, as far as this knowledge is accessible to the mind of man. The complete and perfect knowledge of man, like that of every other creature, is possessed by one who is capable of complete and perfect knowledge of all things, the all-perfect God.

Divine revealed teaching, being compared with the knowledge given to man by an accurate examination of himself, is confirmed by this knowledge and confirms it. Knowledge, confirmed by one another, stands before humanity in the bright light of irrefutable truth.

The divine revealed teaching proclaims to me, the experiences of life prove to me that I am a creature of God. I am a creature of my God! I am a slave of my God, a slave wholly subject to the power of God, encompassing, contained by His power, an unlimited power, autocratic in the strict sense of the word. The authority does not consult with anyone, the authority does not give any account of its assumptions and actions to anyone: no one, neither of men nor of the Angels, is able to give advice, or to listen, or to understand the account. From time immemorial His Word was to God [194].

I am a slave of my God, despite the fact that I have been given free will and reason to control my will. My will is free almost only in the choice of good and evil; in other respects it is fenced off everywhere. I can wish it! but my wish, meeting with the opposite will of other people, with the opposite direction of insurmountable circumstances, remains, for the most part, unfulfillable. I can wish for many things, but my own infirmity makes many of my desires fruitless. When a wish remains unfulfilled, especially when the wish seems to be prudent, useful, and necessary, then the heart is struck with sorrow. In accordance with the meaning of the wish, sorrow can increase, often turning into despondency and even despair. What is soothing in the fierce times of spiritual distress, when any human help is either powerless or impossible? The mere consciousness of oneself as a slave and a creature of God calms down; This consciousness alone has such power. As soon as a man says prayerfully to God with all his heart: "Thy will be done unto me, O my Lord," the agitation of the heart subsides. From these words, pronounced sincerely, the most grievous sorrows lose their predominance over man.

What does this mean? This means that man, having confessed himself to be a servant and creature of God, having given himself over entirely to the will of God, immediately enters with his whole being into the realm of holy Truth. Truth brings the right mood to the spirit, to life. He who ascends to the realm of Truth, who submits to the Truth, receives moral and spiritual freedom, receives moral and spiritual happiness. This freedom and this happiness do not depend on people and circumstances.

If ye abide in My word, said the Saviour to the Jews, verily ye shall be My disciples, and ye shall understand the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free. Everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin. For if the Son of God, Who is Self-truth, sets you free, you will be free indeed. Service to sin, falsehood, and vanity is slavery in the full sense of the word, even if it appears outwardly as a brilliant freedom. This slavery is eternal slavery. Only he is completely and truly free who is a true slave of his God.