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appear to be converted. Thus in the first instance Paul began to clip the demands of Christ & to adapt them to the existing order of things; this, but in enormous dimensions, Constantine5 in order to make them accessible to himself & his nation. Thus dealt all those introducers of Christianity into England, France, Russia, who almost compulsorily christened their people. And thus do pervert christianity all founders & organisators of sects from the Mormons6 to the Salvation Army. This haste has always been and continues to be the great drawback to the spreading of Christianity.

Let us with all our strength keep to the whole truth for ourselves in the full light in which it is unfolded to us, and this light will inevitably enlighten those around us, & this same truth will inevitably unite us all together without our troubling ourselves about it; because there is only one truth and men can unite only into them.

What profound and good undertakings were those of St. Simon,7 Fourier,8 Proudhon,9 Robert Owen10 and of hundred of other founders of communities in America, and what is now left of them? And how insignificant was the life of the Nasareth carpenter,11 who was hung for words which displeased the authorities of his time, and yet how enormous the results.12

Anarchism is a striking sign of the times. It is the beginning of the ruin of old order of things. And when the old is coming to ruin, it is impossible to build. All that is possible is to prove, to explain, to demonstrate the lawfulness of this ruin, the possibility and necessity of a new construction and to show the foundations upon which it can be done. In times like ours, when the existing order is falling to pieces under its own weight, what the men are especially in want of is a13 beacon, which would attract them. And it is this beacon of true (genuine) Christianity which we must endeavour not to obscure. This is the most important and fruitful work we can do.

Let us therefore retain for it all our strength. Let us retain our chief exertion, all our efforts and all our attention in order not to deviate from the truth, not to diminish it, not voluntarily to yield to any compromise. If in our lives we may not be able to accomplish completely the truth which we know, then let the fault of this lie solely in our imperfection and weakness, but not in our voluntary diminishment or deterioration of the truth.

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