They, being darkened by the darkness of their passions, lusts and desires, and walking in this darkness, as in the dead of night, fall upon the same teachers. And naturally. For the ruler of darkness has, of course, disciples and servants who walk in this darkness; Those who are like them fall upon them and receive them with joy, finding them according to their thoughts, and learn from them the same things that they themselves have chosen beforehand and what they have decided to do to their own destruction.

For such do not work for our Lord Jesus Christ, but for their own belly, which deceive the hearts of those who are not malicious with good words and blessings (Romans 16:17-18). Therefore, those who wish to avoid such, as the Apostle commands, must for this reason shun the works of darkness, for as long as one is enslaved to such works and walks in darkness, so long can he not escape such teachers, and cannot come into the world of true teachers.

And you, my spiritual child in the Lord, hearing the Divine Scriptures, which say: "Woe, who are wise in yourselves, and understand before yourselves" (Isaiah 5:21), with fear and trembling, listen to what is said here, for this word is for the salvation of the soul. And if you want to get a true teacher, a holy and spiritual man, do not expect to be able to know him by yourself, by your own consideration, because this is impossible. But above all else, as I have already said, strive in good works, in almsgiving, in fasting, prayer and unceasing supplication, may God be your helper and co-worker in this.

3. Since, with God's help, by His grace, you are vouchsafed to find such a person, show him the utmost attention and all kindness to him, great humility and reverence, high reverence and pure and undoubted faith. For what? In order that, unfortunately, you may not otherwise deserve execution and torment instead of a bribe. For of such our Saviour and God said: "Whosoever receiveth you, receiveth me" (Matt. 10:40); but be rejected by you, and I am rejected (Luke 10:16). And so, it behooves us to receive such as Christ Himself, for that which is shown to them is lifted up to the Lord Christ Himself and our God, and He appropriates it to Himself and has an account of it as if He Himself had personally received all this; as, on the contrary, that which is shown to false teachers ascends to the Antichrist himself, and those who accept them accept the devil himself. And let no one make excuses that he does not know them, saying: "How can I recognize them? And I am a man, and no man knows what is hidden in the soul of another, except the spirit that dwells in him." Do not take this saying as a blessed pretext, for if it were impossible to discern such people, the Lord would not have given such a commandment: "Hearken unto the lying prophets, that is, beware of false teachers, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves," and He would not add after this: "By their fruit ye shall know them" (Matt. 7:15-16).

If now our Lord Jesus Christ is true, as truly He is, then it is evident that we can recognize such from what they say and do. Thus, let us show in advance the fruits of the true Holy Spirit, then the fruits of the evil spirit opposite to Him will be revealed by themselves, and by these fruits we can then very well discern which teachers are true, holy, and righteous teachers, and which are not, but only pretend to be such. I will say nothing of my own behalf, but everything from the words of the Saviour and His holy Apostles, by which I will try to confirm your love, that the signs of true and false teachers indicated by me are true and easily recognizable to us. Hearken therefore to what our Lord Jesus Christ says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek (Matt. 5:3-5). And again: love your enemies... do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who do you harm (Matt. 5:44). Let not an idle word proceed out of your mouth. I say unto you, That every idle word, if men speak, shall give a word about it on the day of judgment (Matt. 12:36). And again: "Except ye be converted, and ye shall be as children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). In another place He says again: "Of this all men understand, that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Again: how can you believe, receiving glory from one another, and do not seek glory from God alone? (John 5:44). For everyone who exalts himself will humble himself, but he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). He does not say that he will be exalted by worldly glory, but gives a promise that he will be exalted mysteriously by some spiritual change. This is what our Lord and Lord Christ calls out to all of us every day. Listen now to what the Apostle Paul also says: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). And again: love is not exalted, is not proud, does not riot, does not seek his own... covers everything... He endures everything. Love falls away (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Listen also to John the Theologian, who says: "Love not the world, neither is he in the world, except that any man love the world, and love the Father in him" (1 John 2:15). And again: everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and it is known that every murderer has no eternal life abiding in himself (3:15). For this reason the essence of the child of God and the child of the devil is revealed (3:10), that is, out of love and hatred. He who loves God also loves those who are born of Him, that is, his brethren, but he who hates any of his brethren is born of the devil, and the love of God is not in him. and the fruits of the Holy and All-Good Spirit are those which we have indicated above.

It behooves us now to show also the fruits of the evil spirit, so that, knowing them, you may be able to distinguish between light and darkness, sweet from bitter, good from evil. Hearken again to what our Lord and God says: "A good tree cannot produce evil fruit, nor an evil tree produce good fruit" (Matt. 7:18). And again: A good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart (Luke 6:45). Again: "If he destroys the one of these little commandments, and teaches these to men, he shall be called me in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach, this great one shall be called in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). And what does He say about the scribes and Pharisees? "They bind," he says, "heavy burdens and are poorly carried, and they lay them on the lash of men; but they do not want to move them with their fingers. And they do all their works, that men may be seen; and they enlarge their storehouses, and magnify the cries of their garments. And they love the reclining at the suppers, and the sitting before the assemblies, and the kissing at the marketplaces, and the names of men, "Teacher, teacher" (Matt. 23:4-7).

Therefore, when you see that someone does such things, carefully seeks the glory of man, and carelessly transgresses the commandments of God in order to please people, then know that this is a charmer, and not a true teacher. And the Apostle says: Where there is envy and zeal and strife in you, are you not of the flesh? (1 Corinthians 3:3). But a man who is carnal and natural does not receive the Spirit of God, for he is a fool (1 Corinthians 2:14). But whoever does not receive the Holy Spirit clearly does not have this Spirit in himself, and whoever does not have the Holy Spirit is not Christ's, as the same Paul affirms, saying: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9).

Have you heard who are Christ's and who are Antichrist's? "You can probably conclude from this that the attentive can easily distinguish between good and evil. And the inattentive do not know not only other people, but also themselves.

He knows himself only enough to say that it is he and not someone else; but his deeds show that he does not know what he is, does not know his state of mind and does not understand what he is doing. He lives as if he were immortal; with his lips he says: we are today, and not in the future; and immediately in fact he prepares so much of everything that it cannot be used up even in decades; he publicly confesses that the goods of this world are nothing, and yet for some small and insignificant thing he starts disputes and quarrels with his brethren; he philosophizes that he is dust and dust, and yet he always dresses magnificently, showing that he is much higher than all other people; he hears the Divine Scripture, which says: "Woe to those who love pleasure and are affectionate on soft beds" (Ezekiel 16:49, Amos 6:4), and he himself with all care sees to it that his bed be the most magnificent, the most splendid bed, and the table abounds in all kinds of expensive viands.

Tell me now, is it possible to agree that such a person knows himself, knows in what state he is in his soul and to what passions he is enslaved? You can't. No, he does not know himself, although he may think he knows. But he who does not know himself and his condition, how can he know another and his passions? How is it possible that a blind man can examine another and know whether he is blind or seeing? No, no; It's impossible.

And this very thing he cannot understand, that he is among those who are perishing, since this ignorance has the property of being a kind of thick veil over the intellectual eyes of the soul and does not allow them to see clearly the truth when he loves the world and worldly things.

For this reason also Saint David, after having sinned, experienced such evil, turning to God in repentance, besought Him, saying: "Open my eyes, and I will understand the wonders of Thy law" (Psalm 118:18).

Do you see how closed his eyes were? Do you see how he cries out to God to reveal them? Do the same, my son, and the Lord will not despise your petition if you send it to Him with all your soul, but will hear you and open the eyes of your soul. And then, as soon as you see clearly, first and at the beginning of everything you will know yourself and your state, and then everything else that you need to know. The consequence of this will be that with all your heart you will begin to consider incomparably higher than yourself and holy not only pious and virtuous people, but also every person in general, great and small, righteous and sinful, even those who sin openly. And let this be a clear sign to you and to everyone else that you have received the remission of all your sins, if you come to this measure and attain this good state. For holy humility is found at this measure, and to him who attains this measure, it gives him the first gift, so that he thinks that of all people there is no one more sinful and insignificant than he, and that with all the feeling of his soul, with full conviction, he considers himself a sinner alone and believes that he alone has to perish and be given over to eternal torment. And so, my beloved child and my brother, strive to acquire such humility and do not say: "This is impossible for me," nor again: "This goes to monks alone, and not to those who live in the world." For Christ determined His commandments in general for everyone, and did not lay down anything especially for monks, and especially for laymen. Both the forefathers who were before the law of Moses, and those who lived after it, fulfilled this commandment (about humility). Listen to what Job says: "I give myself earth and ashes" (42:6). And David: "I am a worm, and not a man" (Psalm 21:7). Do you see the words of humility? Do you see the soul that considers itself the most contemptible than any man, great and small? Imitate David's repentance, and you will gain his humility. Through repentance, the cloud of ignorance that covers the mind is dispersed, and the veil lying on it is removed. let us see the wounds and defilements of our souls, and then we will not only begin to philosophize and speak humbly, but we will begin to be ashamed of the sun, and the stars, and all the creatures of God created for our sake, to be ashamed because we have angered God, Who created all these things for our sake, and have sinned against Him, transgressing not one, but all of His commandments. For this reason let us not dare to lift up our eyes to look at these creatures, and let us consider ourselves unworthy to partake of the fruits of the earth, having pronounced upon ourselves that it would be righteous for us to die of hunger and thirst. Let us also not dare to look and look at the icon of Christ the Lord and His saints, recognizing ourselves as filthy, unclean and many sinners. It will seem to us that the icons themselves are ashamed of us and of our deeds; therefore we will not have the courage to approach them and venerate them; it will be extremely shameful for us to touch the pure and holy with our unclean and defiled lips. Even when we intend to enter the temple of God, let us feel how fear and trembling overwhelm us, realizing that we are entering unworthy, fearing that the floor of the temple will open and cast us alive into hell. This and more than this will always teach us holy humility, and by changing us, rebuilding and transforming us, our whole nature will penetrate to such an extent that later, even if we wanted to, we will no longer be able to think or say anything great and lofty about ourselves. This holy humility will assure us that without a teacher we cannot learn any good, and those who ask us, saying: "Do you understand more than you read?" It will teach us to answer: "How can I understand, if no one will instruct me?" (Acts 8:30,31). It will teach us not to enter without a guide on a path that we do not know. It will tell us that if we wish to repent, we must not approach God without a mediator and guide. Since, if it prompts us to be ashamed of heaven and earth and of every creation of God that exists in them, to revere with fear before the icon of the Savior and His saints, we should not dare to look at these icons or, approaching, kiss them; Will it not force us all the more not to approach the Creator and Master of all things, God Himself, without an intermediary? For although He loves mankind, He rejoices much in our humility and contrition, and greatly praises when someone considers himself unworthy to approach Him by himself, without a mediator.

In another way (so you can see for yourself). Our Lord and God, wishing to teach us that we must approach God with the help of some mediator and surety, He Himself showed us an example and a model in all other things, so in this He Himself was the first mediator and intercessor of human nature, bringing it in Himself to His Father and God. Then He appointed His holy Apostles as ministers of this mediation and intercession, who also brought to the Lord Christ all those who believed in Him. The Apostles again chose the worthiest from among these believers, and they ordained them as their successors, to be ministers of the same mediation. These again (chose and ordained) others, and these those who followed them. And thus this rite is successively observed even to this day. God does not want us to transgress and trample on His institution and tradition, but wants us to live according to the order that He has determined for us. Why does the Lord and Saviour say, as of Himself with the Father: "No one can come to Me, except the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44), and again: "No one will come to the Father but by Me" (14:6), so He established that no one comes to faith in the Holy and One-in-Essence Trinity, unless he is taught the dogmas of the faith by some teacher, and no one is baptized and no one partakes of the Divine Mysteries by himself, without a priest. And whoever does not be baptized and partake of the Most-Pure Mysteries will not receive eternal life, as the Lord Himself again determines, saying: "He who has faith and is baptized will be saved; but whosoever hath not faith shall be condemned (Mark 16:16), and "Unless ye bear the flesh of the Son of man, neither drink of His blood, ye have life in yourselves" (John 6:53). Thus, since without holy Baptism and without communion of the Divine Mysteries no Christian can be vouchsafed eternal life, and these sacraments are taught to us not through the Holy Apostles and not through the Holy Fathers who came after the Apostles, but are given through those sanctified persons who now exist and live among us, it is obvious that we cannot and must not be alienated from their mediation in the matter of our salvation.