in spite of great shortcomings in their cognition, but only because diseases, in fact, are cured by themselves." And again: "The lion's share of any cure, and often the entire cure, falls to the share of -49-

self-healing power of nature, and our participation has, in comparison, an extremely insignificant effect"100. It's like saying: God heals. That's what we'll say.

For me, of course, we can only talk about Christian, church-minded doctors, and external doctors – what should I judge? But God judges those who are outside, says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 5:13). It is about Christian doctors and about their treatment that I will continue my discussions.

Serving the sick, even as an orderly or nurse, is an excellent and most useful thing for the soul. As long as it is done with a reasonable purpose.101 I will quote the words of Elder John the Seer of the famous Serida Monastery,

who says: "To have compassion on the sick and to help them with healing,

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good deed" and "A doctor who cares for the sick receives a reward" from God. But for all this it is necessary that he should be pious, that just as he himself should be nourished by the sacraments of the Holy Church, so that he should not forbid his patients to do the same, but that he should first of all advise them.103 He must be humble and think not about his own glory, but about God's, remembering that "for this reason He gave knowledge to men, that they should glorify Him in His wondrous works" (Sirach 38:6). A doctor must constantly control his relations with the patient and his prescriptions by the commandments of the Gospel and the Church, without unnecessarily forcing his conscience in relation to the violation of fasts, chastity, and the like (undressing, for example, in many cases is completely superfluous – there is a whole medical school abroad that makes diagnoses on the basis of one patient's face). If the physician does this, he will see for himself that certain things, which, as we have seen, have been tempted and indignant by society, will be forbidden to him by his personal conscience. And they are easy for him to understand. For example, the case told by Veresaev about an unsuccessful, fatal throat operation, he himself equates with the so-called (in church canons) involuntary murder, punishable by penance of five years or more; the case of the American doctor Nitus is already a "voluntary", that is, deliberate, murder. His penance is twenty years or more.104 This also includes abortions, the use of such means that entail miscarriage, and the like, although the punishment for them is somewhat (half) reduced.105 Conscience will tell a good doctor where he acts out of duty, and where out of passion.

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But in practice, it will be said, all this is impossible to fulfill. For His true servants—and there are few of them—God will always find a place and an opportunity for them to fulfill His commandments without difficulty. It is impossible only for non-believers and those who do not want to be saved, they create for themselves this impossible environment, which is pleasant to them, from which they do not want to part. What is impossible of what is impossible? If you can't, do what you can. If your conscience does not allow you to do this, go away and do what your soul strives for (up to becoming a monk). Therefore, it is more correct to ask the question not about the possibility or impossibility of being a doctor at the present time, familiar with all the rules of science, and at the same time a true Christian, but about the possibility and necessity for everyone to fulfill the commandments of Christ in a given situation and to the extent of his spiritual strength (and it is certainly not appropriate for the Church to take under its protection all the modern debauchery of medicine without exception).

As for the sick, their work is less responsible before the law of God. Only crowns await them for enduring sorrow, torment, and suffering. If only they were humble. In any case, there is no sin to be cured. In the answers of St. Barsanuphius the Great to a layman we read: "As for showing oneself to a doctor, I will say: leaving everything to God is the work of the perfect, although it is difficult, and the weakest thing is to show oneself to the doctor, because this is not only not a sin, but also a sign of humility, when he, as the weakest, wished to show himself to the doctor. But even then it must be recognized that without God even a physician cannot do anything; but if it pleases God, He will give health to the sick."106

The greatest of the saints themselves did not refuse medical remedies in some cases. It is only worth remembering how St. Basil the Great wrote from

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desert (according to our words - from the resort), not without irony over himself, to a certain high civil official, apologizing for his absence from the city and the inability to meet him as befits him: "For a whole month now I have been treated with native warm waters in order to get some benefit from it. But in vain, apparently, I work in the desert, or even seem worthy to many

laughing, not listening to the proverb that says that it will not benefit the dead and