Such a person can be a surgeon like Pirogov, a writer like Dostoevsky, a scientist like Newton, and an explorer of the earth like Semyonov-Tien-Shansky, and everywhere on all paths of the world he will realize high humanity. Christ's truth.

In the midst of all the conditions of the earth, we can be preserved from evil and sin. This is the miracle of life in Christ. Christ does this in us according to our faith. It is not by our own power, but by God's power that we are saved...

"What is impossible for man is possible for God." And we believe and know that the Lord is not only near us, but He is also in us. And His love for us and our love for Him is the greatest power in the world.

About Paradise and the Cross

The cross is not only suffering, but also elevation above suffering. The cross of the thief, crucified on the left side of the Saviour, who grumbled at his torments and rejected the healing power of Christ's sufferings, can be called one suffering. But for the right thief, who meekly gave himself over to the power and truth of Christ's innocent sufferings, the cross became the beginning of paradise... "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise," said the Saviour to the right thief hanging next to Him. This means after the exodus from this earthly life of suffering. But the believer began to come out of this life at the very moment of his belief. This great moment of suffering for him was already the beginning of his bliss. Paradise already... touched his heart.

Those who know what suffering for faith, for love, truth and purity is, understand that their paradise on earth is in the Cross. Their suffering is not a state, but a path to real life, its fullness, purity and bliss. Suffering is not a home where one should live, but the road to a real Home, where all the fullness and joy of life are. There is no such fullness in anything on earth! The earthly world is a road, not a dwelling. Humanity will not find paradise in this world without the Cross. What false materialistic human teachers dream of is impossible. Man will never build himself a joyful Home in a world where sin, sickness, and death reign. Man will always be homeless in this world. And this is a blessing. His suffering is short, but his joy can be eternal. And no person will fully embody the ideal of his Homeland on this earth, because the highest and eternal Homeland of each person is the world of Christ's truth.

The Cross is the power of God and the authority given to man on the path to God. The cross in this world is, of course, suffering, because it is death to sin and death to death, and man has united himself with sin. Breaking away from sin, he suffers, but this is the suffering of liberation. A mother suffers when she gives birth to life, and the human spirit suffers when she gives birth to eternal life...

Yes, paradise begins already in this world. All the disciples of the Lord of all times and peoples testify that Paradise for a person who aspires to heavenly truth begins already here, on earth.

The earth, where the Son of man suffered, is the place of our suffering, because the cause of suffering is sin. The cross is a bitter cure for suffering. The cross is salvation from sin; atonement for the suffering caused by sin. The holy suffering of Christ is superimposed on the unenlightened suffering of man. The suffering of human hopelessness is superimposed on the suffering of the cross, all the difficulty of the struggle with sin and evil in the world, of disobedience to evil, of victory over sin.

Кто горит страданием зла — нечистотой страсти, ревности, темного гнева, гордости, кто мучительно ищет тебе суетной славы в мире или призрачного богатства, пусть примет очистительную силу страданий чистой любви, искания богатства духа, Божией милости и Божией славы. Крест есть начало рая и страдание спасения от страданий.

Не напрасно говорят, что древо Креста Христова было поставлено на том самом месте, где росло райское древо жизни. Древо жизни, данное Творцом людям после падения, обратилось в Крест Божий и человеческий на земле.

Оно не исчезло, это сладкое древо райское, древо беспредельного доверия Бога к человеку и великой радости человека в Боге, — оно только изменилось.

И где бы мы ни поставили крест — мы всюду видим райское древо. Крест не умерщвляет человеческих чувств, он их возвышает и очищает. В то время, как грех истребляет человеческую красоту чувств, глубину мыслей и желаний, Крест приводит к гармонии человеческие чувства и расширяет до безмерности человеческое сердце. Всё входит в любовь сердца, открытого страданиям Креста…

Крест есть лестница, поставленная на земле к раю. Нижний ее край стоит на земле страданий, — верхний покоится в тверди небесного блаженства.