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The Kingdom of God is within you

L >> Leo Tolstoy >> The Kingdom of God is within you




This miserable man, imbecile and drunk with power, outrages in
this utterance everything that can be sacred for a man of the
modern world. And yet all the Christians, liberals, and
cultivated people, far from resenting this outrage, did not even
observe it.

The last, the most extreme test is put before men in its coarsest
form. And they do not seem even to notice that it is a test, that
there is any choice about it. They seem to think there is no
course open but slavish submission. One would have thought these
insane words, which outrage everything a man of the present day
holds sacred, must rouse indignation. But there has been nothing
of the kind.

All the young men through the whole of Europe are exposed year
after year to this test, and with very few exceptions they
renounce all that a man can hold sacred, all express their
readiness to kill their brothers, even their fathers, at the
bidding of the first crazy creature dressed up in a livery with
red and gold trimming, and only wait to be told where and when
they are to kill. And they actually are ready.

Every savage has something he holds sacred, something for which he
is ready to suffer, something he will not consent to do. But what
is it that is sacred to the civilized man of to-day? They say to
him: "You must become my slave, and this slavery may force you
to kill even your own father;" and he, often very well educated,
trained in all the sciences at the university, quietly puts his
head under the yoke. They dress him up in a clown's costume, and
order him to cut capers, turn and twist and bow, and kill--he does
it all submissively. And when they let him go, he seems to shake
himself and go back to his former life, and he continues to
discourse upon the dignity of man, liberty, equality, and
fraternity as before.

"Yes, but what is one to do?" people often ask in genuine
perplexity. "If everyone would stand out it would be something,
but by myself, I shall only suffer without doing any good to
anyone."

And that is true. A man with the social conception of life cannot
resist. The aim of his life is his personal welfare. It is better
for his personal welfare for him to submit, and he submits.

Whatever they do to him, however they torture or humiliate him, he
will submit, for, alone, he can do nothing; he has no principle
for the sake of which he could resist violence alone. And those
who control them never allow them to unite together. It is often
said that the invention of terrible weapons of destruction will
put an end to war. That is an error. As the means of
extermination are improved, the means of reducing men who hold the
state conception of life to submission can be improved to
correspond. They may slaughter them by thousands, by millions,
they may tear them to pieces, still they will march to war like
senseless cattle. Some will want beating to make them move,
others will be proud to go if they are allowed to wear a scrap of
ribbon or gold lace.

And of this mass of men so brutalized as to be ready to promise to
kill their own parents, the social reformers--conservatives,
liberals, socialists, and anarchists--propose to form a rational
and moral society. What sort of moral and rational society can be
formed out of such elements? With warped and rotten planks you
cannot build a house, however you put them together. And to form
a rational moral society of such men is just as impossible a task.
They can be formed into nothing but a herd of cattle, driven by
the shouts and whips of the herdsmen. As indeed they are.

So, then, we have on one side men calling themselves Christians,
and professing the principles of liberty, equality, and
fraternity, and along with that ready, in the name of liberty, to
submit to the most slavish degradation; in the name of equality,
to accept the crudest, most senseless division of men by externals
merely into higher and lower classes, allies and enemies; and, in
the name of fraternity, ready to murder their brothers [see
footnote].

[Footnote: The fact that among certain nations, as
the English and the American, military service is not
compulsory (though already one hears there are some
who advocate that it should be made so) does not
affect the servility of the citizens to the government
in principle. Here we have each to go and kill or be
killed, there they have each to give the fruit of their
toil to pay for the recruiting and training of soldiers.]

The contradiction between life and conscience and the misery
resulting from it have reached the extreme limit and can go no
further. The state organization of life based on violence, the
aim of which was the security of personal, family, and social
welfare, has come to the point of renouncing the very objects for
which it was founded--it has reduced men to absolute renunciation
and loss of the welfare it was to secure.

The first half of the prophecy has been fulfilled in the
generation of men who have not accepted Christ's teaching, Their
descendants have been brought now to the absolute necessity of
patting the truth of the second half to the test of experience.




CHAPTER IX.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF LIFE WILL EMANCIPATE
MEN FROM THE MISERIES OF OUR PAGAN LIFE.

The External Life of Christian Peoples Remains Pagan Though they
are Penetrated by Christian Consciousness--The Way Out of this
Contradiction is by the Acceptance of the Christian Theory of
Life--Only Through Christianity is Every Man Free, and Emancipated
of All Human Authority--This Emancipation can be Effected by no
Change in External Conditions of Life, but Only by a Change in the
Conception of Life--The Christian Ideal of Life Requires
Renunciation of all Violence, and in Emancipating the Man who
Accepts it, Emancipates the Whole World from All External
Authorities--The Way Out of the Present Apparently Hopeless
Position is for Every Man who is Capable of Assimilating the
Christian Conception of Life, to Accept it and Live in Accordance
with it--But Men Consider this Way too Slow, and Look for
Deliverance Through Changes in Material Conditions of Life Aided
by Government--That Will Lead to No Improvement, as it is simply
Increasing the Evil under which Men are Suffering--A Striking
Instance of this is the Submission to Compulsory Military Service,
which it would be More Advantageous for Every Man to Refuse than
to Submit to--The Emancipation of Men Can Only be Brought About by
each Individual Emancipating Himself, and the Examples of this
Self-emancipation which are already Appearing Threaten the
Destruction of Governmental Authority--Refusal to Comply with the
Unchristian Demands of Government Undermines the Authority of the
State and Emancipates Men--And therefore Cases of such Non-
compliance are Regarded with more Dread by State Authorities than
any Conspiracies or Acts of Violence--Examples of Non-compliance
in Russia, in Regard to Oath of Allegiance, Payment of Taxes,
Passports, Police Duties, and Military Service--Examples of such
Non-compliance in other States--Governments do not Know how to
Treat Men who Refuse to Comply with their Demands on Christian
Grounds--Such People, without Striking a Blow, Undermine the very
Basis of Government from Within--To Punish them is Equivalent to
Openly Renouncing Christianity, and Assisting in Diffusing the
Very Principle by which these Men justify their Non-compliance--So
Governments are in a Helpless Position--Men who Maintain the
Uselessness of Personal Independence, only Retard the Dissolution
Dissolution of the Present State Organization Based on Force.


The position of the Christian peoples in our days has remained
just as cruel as it was in the times of paganism. In many
respects, especially in the oppression of the masses, it has
become even more cruel than it was in the days of paganism.

But between the condition of men in ancient times and their
condition in our days there is just the difference that we see in
the world of vegetation between the last days of autumn and the
first days of spring. In the autumn the external lifelessness in
nature corresponds with its inward condition of death, while in
the spring the external lifelessness is in sharp contrast with the
internal state of reviving and passing into new forms of life.

In the same way the similarity between the ancient heathen life
and the life of to-day is merely external: the inward condition of
men in the times of heathenism was absolutely different from their
inward condition at the present time.

Then the outward condition of cruelty and of slavery was in
complete harmony with the inner conscience of men, and every step
in advance intensified this harmony; now the outward condition of
cruelty and of slavery is completely contradictory to the
Christian consciousness of men, and every step in advance only
intensifies this contradiction.

Humanity is passing through seemingly unnecessary, fruitless
agonies. It is passing through something like the throes of
birth. Everything is ready for the new life, but still the new
life does not come.

There seems no way out of the position. And there would be none,
except that a man (and thereby all men) is gifted with the power
of forming a different, higher theory of life, which at once frees
him from all the bonds by which he seems indissolubly fettered.

And such a theory is the Christian view of life made known to
mankind eighteen hundred years ago.

A man need only make this theory of life his own, for the fetters
which seemed so indissolubly forged upon him to drop off of
themselves, and for him to feel himself absolutely free, just as a
bird would feel itself free in a fenced-in place directly it tools
to its wings.

People talk about the liberty of the Christian Church, about
giving or not giving freedom to Christians. Underlying all these
ideas and expressions there is some strange misconception.
Freedom cannot be bestowed on or taken from a Christian or
Christians. Freedom is an inalienable possession of the
Christian.

If we talk of bestowing freedom on Christians or withholding it
from them, we are obviously talking not of real Christians but of
people who only call themselves Christians. A Christian cannot
fail to be free, because the attainment of the aim he sets before
himself cannot be prevented or even hindered by anyone or
anything.

Let a man only understand his life as Christianity teaches him to
understand it, let him understand, that is, that his life belongs
not to him--not to his own individuality, nor to his family, nor
to the state--but to him who has sent him into the world, and let
him once understand that he must therefore fulfill not the law of
his own individuality, nor his family, nor of the state, but the
infinite law of him from whom he has come; and he will not only
feel himself absolutely free from every human power, but will even
cease to regard such power as at all able to hamper anyone.

Let a man but realize that the aim of his life is the fulfillment
of God's law, and that law will replace all other laws for him,
and he will give it his sole allegiance, so that by that very
allegiance every human law will lose all binding and controlling
power in his eyes.

The Christian is independent of every human authority by the fact
that he regards the divine law of love, implanted in the soul of
every man, and brought before his consciousness by Christ, as the
sole guide of his life and other men's also.

The Christian may be subjected to external violence, he may be
deprived of bodily freedom, he may be in bondage to his passions
(he who commits sin is the slave of sin), but he cannot be in
bondage in the sense of being forced by any danger or by any
threat of external harm to perform an act which is against his
conscience.

He cannot be compelled to do this, because the deprivations and
sufferings which form such a powerful weapon against men of the
state conception of life, have not the least power to compel him.

Deprivations and sufferings take from them the happiness for which
they live; but far from disturbing the happiness of the Christian,
which consists in the consciousness of fulfilling the will of God,
they may even intensify it, when they are inflicted on him for
fulfilling his will.

And therefore the Christian, who is subject only to the inner
divine law, not only cannot carry out the enactments of the
external law, when they are not in agreement with the divine law
of love which he acknowledges (as is usually the case with state
obligations), he cannot even recognize the duty of obedience to
anyone or anything whatever, he cannot recognize the duty of what
is called allegiance.

For a Christian the oath of allegiance to any government whatever
--the very act which is regarded as the foundation of the
existence of a state--is a direct renunciation of Christianity.
For the man who promises unconditional obedience in the future to
laws, made or to be made, by that very promise is in the most,
positive manner renouncing Christianity, which means obeying in
every circumstance of life only the divine law of love he
recognizes within him.

Under the pagan conception of life it was possible to carry out
the will of the temporal authorities, without infringing the law
of God expressed in circumcisions, Sabbaths, fixed times of
prayer, abstention from certain kinds of food, and so on. The one
law was not opposed to the other. But that is just the
distinction between the Christian religion and heathen religion.
Christianity does not require of a man certain definite negative
acts, but puts him in a new, different relation to men, from which
may result the most diverse acts, which cannot be defined
beforehand. And therefore the Christian not only cannot promise
to obey the will of any other man, without knowing what will be
required by that will; he not only cannot obey the changing laws
of than, but he cannot even promise to do anything definite at a
certain time, or to abstain from doing anything for a certain
time. For he cannot know what at any time will be required of him
by that Christian law of love, obedience to which constitutes the
meaning of life for him. The Christian, in promising
unconditional fulfillment of the laws of men in the future, would
show plainly by that promise that the inner law of God does not
constitute for him the sole law of his life.

For a Christian to promise obedience to men, or the laws of men,
is just as though a workman bound to one employer should also
promise to carry out every order that might be given him by
outsiders. One cannot serve two masters.

The Christian is independent of human authority, because he
acknowledges God's authority alone. His law, revealed by Christ,
he recognizes in himself, and voluntarily obeys it.

And this independence is gained, not by means of strife, not by
the destruction of existing forms,of life, but only by a change in
the interpretation of life. This independence results first from
the Christian recognizing the law of love, revealed to him by his
teacher, as perfectly sufficient for all human relations, and
therefore he regards every use of force as unnecessary and
unlawful; and secondly, from the fact that those deprivations and
sufferings, or threats of deprivations and sufferings (which
reduce the man of the social conception of life to the necessity
of obeying) to the Christian from his different conception of
life, present themselves merely as the inevitable conditions of
existence. And these conditions, without striving against them by
force, he patiently endures, like sickness, hunger, and every
other hardship, but they cannot serve him as a guide for his
actions. The only guide for the Christian's actions is to be
found in the divine principle living within him, which cannot be
checked or governed by anything.

The Christian acts according to the words of the prophecy applied
to his teacher: "He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any
man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not
break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth
judgment unto victory." (Matt. xii. 19, 20.)

The Christian will not dispute with anyone, nor attack anyone, nor
use violence against anyone. On the contrary, he will bear
violence without opposing it. But by this very attitude to
violence, he will not only himself be free, but will free the
whole world from all external power.

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." If
there were any doubt of Christianity being the truth, the perfect
liberty, that nothing can curtail, which a man experiences
directly he makes the Christian theory of life his own, would be
an unmistakable proof of its truth.

Men in their present condition are like a swarm of bees hanging in
a cluster to a branch. The position of the bees on the branch is
temporary, and must inevitably be changed. They must start off
and find themselves a habitation. Each of the bees knows this,
and desires to change her own and the others' position, but no one
of them can do it till the rest of them do it. They cannot all
start off at once, because one hangs on to another and hinders her
from separating from the swarm, and therefore they all continue to
hang there. It would seem that the bees could never escape from
their position, just as it seems that worldly men, caught in the
toils of the state conception of life, can never escape. And
there would be no escape for the bees, if each of them were not a
living, separate creature, endowed with wings of its own.
Similarly there would be no escape for men, if each were not a
living being endowed with the faculty of entering into the
Christian conception of life.

If every bee who could fly, did not try to fly, the others, too,
would never be stirred, and the swarm would never change its
position. And if the man who has mastered the Christian
conception of life would not, without waiting for other people,
begin to live in accordance with this conception, mankind would
never change its position. But only let one bee spread her wings,
start off, and fly away, and after her another, and another, and
the clinging, inert cluster would become a freely flying swarm of
bees. Just in the same way, only let one man look at life as
Christianity teaches him to look at it, and after him let another
and another do the same, and the enchanted circle of existence in
the state conception of life, from which there seemed no escape,
will be broken through.

But men think that to set all men free by this means is
too slow a process, that they must find some other means by which
they could set all men free at once. It is just as though the
bees who want to start and fly away should consider it too long a
process to wait for all the swarm to start one by one; and should
think they ought to find some means by which it would not be
necessary for every separate bee to spread her wings and fly off,
but by which the whole swarm could fly at once where it wanted to.
But that is not possible; till a first, a second, a third, a
hundredth bee spreads her wings and flies off of her own accord,
the swarm will not fly off and will not begin its new life. Till
every individual man makes the Christian conception of life his
own, and begins to live in accord with it, there can be no
solution of the problem of human life, and no establishment of a
new form of life.

One of the most striking phenomena of our times is precisely this
advocacy of slavery, which is promulgated among the masses, not by
governments, in whom it is inevitable, but by men who, in
advocating socialistic theories, regard themselves as the
champions of freedom.

These people advance the opinion that the amelioration of life,
the bringing of the facts of life into harmony with the
conscience, will come, not as the result of the personal efforts
of individual men, but of itself as the result of a certain
possible reconstruction of society effected in some way or other.
The idea is promulgated that men ought not to walk on their own
legs where they want and ought to go, but that a kind of floor
under their feet will be moved somehow, so that on it they can
reach where they ought to go without moving their own legs. And,
therefore, all their efforts ought to be directed, not to going so
far as their strength allows in the direction they ought to go,
but to standing still and constructing such a floor.

In the sphere of political economy a theory is propounded which
amounts to saying that the worse things are the better they are;
that the greater the accumulation of capital, and therefore the
oppression of the workman, the nearer the day of emancipation,
and, therefore, every personal effort on the part of a man to free
himself from the oppression of capital is useless. In the sphere
of government it is maintained that the greater the power of the
government, which, according to this theory, ought to intervene in
every department of private life in which it has not yet
intervened, the better it will be, and that therefore we ought to
invoke the interference of government in private life. In
politics and international questions it is maintained that the
improvement of the means of destruction, the multiplication of
armaments, will lead to the necessity of making war by means of
congresses, arbitration, and so on. And, marvelous to say, so
great is the dullness of men, that they believe in these theories,
in spite of the fact that the whole course of life, every step
they take, shows how unworthy they are of belief.

The people are suffering from oppression, and to deliver them from
this oppression they are advised to frame general measures for the
improvement of their position, which measures are to be intrusted
to the authorities, and themselves to continue to yield obedience
to the authorities. And obviously all that results from this is
only greater power in the hands of the authorities, and greater
oppression resulting from it.

Not one of the errors of men carries them so far away from the aim
toward which they are struggling as this very one. They do all
kinds of different things for the attainment of their aim, but not
the one simple obvious thing which is within reach of everyone.
They devise the subtlest means for changing the position which is
irksome to them, but not that simplest means, that everyone should
refrain from doing what leads to that position.

I have been told a story of a gallant police officer, who came to
a village where the peasants were in insurrection and the military
had been called out, and he undertook to pacify the insurrection
in the spirit of Nicholas I., by his personal influence alone. He
ordered some loads of rods to be brought, and collecting all the
peasants together into a barn, he went in with them, locking the
door after him. To begin with, he so terrified the peasants by
his loud threats that, reduced to submission by him, they set to
work to flog one another at his command. And so they flogged one
another until a simpleton was found who would not allow himself to
be flogged, and shouted to his companions not to flog one another.
Only then the fogging ceased, and the police officer made his
escape. Well, this simpleton's advice would never be followed by
men of the state conception of life, who continue to flog one
another, and teach people that this very act of self-castigation
is the last word of human wisdom.

Indeed, can one imagine a more striking instance of men flogging
themselves than the submissiveness with which men of our times
will perform the very duties required of them to keep them in
slavery, especially the duty of military service? We see people
enslaving themselves, suffering from this slavery, and believing
that it must be so, that it does not matter, and will not hinder
the emancipation of men, which is being prepared somewhere,
somehow, in spite of the ever-increasing growth of slavery.

In fact, take any man of the present time whatever (I don't mean a
true Christian, but an average man of the present day), educated
or uneducated, believing or unbelieving, rich or poor, married or
unmarried. Such a man lives working at his work, or enjoying his
amusements, spending the fruits of his labors on himself or on
those near to him, and, like everyone, hating every kind of
restriction and deprivation, dissension and suffering. Such a man
is going his way peaceably, when suddenly people come and say to
him: First, promise and swear to us that you will slavishly obey
us in everything we dictate to you, and will consider absolutely
good and authoritative everything we plan, decide, and call law.
Secondly, hand over a part of the fruits of your labors for us to
dispose of--we will use the money to keep you in slavery, and to
hinder you from forcibly opposing our orders. Thirdly, elect
others, or be yourself elected, to take a pretended share in the
government, knowing all the while that the government will proceed
quite without regard to the foolish speeches you, and those like
you, may utter, and knowing that its proceedings will be according
to our will, the will of those who have the army in their hands.
Fourthly, come at a certain time to the law courts and take your
share in those senseless cruelties which we perpetrate on sinners,
and those whom we have corrupted, in the shape of penal servitude,
exile, solitary confinement, and death. And fifthly and lastly,
more than all this, in spite of the fact that you maybe on the
friendliest terms with people of other nations, be ready, directly
we order you to do so, to regard those whom we indicate to you as
your enemies; and be ready to assist, either in person or by
proxy, in devastation, plunder, and murder of their men, women,
children, and aged alike--possibly your own kinsmen or relations--
if that is necessary to us.

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