The yearly circle, having turned ten times, now brings back to us, rejoicing Russians, that most radiant day. On that day, in this very temple, we beheld our most pious Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich receive the hereditary imperial crown and be sealed with sacred anointing.
This crown shines. The crowned head prospers. Therefore, in our present joy, we may sing with the royal Psalmist: "Thou hast set," O Lord, "upon his head a crown of precious stone." With hope confirmed by experience, we may add the following Psalm verse: "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him length of days forever and ever" (Ps 20:4-5).
At the thought of the crown, another verse comes to my memory from the ancient and reverent contemplator of nature: "Thou shalt bless the crown of the year with Thy goodness," O Lord, "and Thy fields shall be filled with fatness" (Ps 64:12).
If the year of the earth forms for it a kind of crown, more or less adorned with its fruits, then should we not much more regard the year of a king in this way? Should we not still more regard the decade of our most pious Emperor as a new crown over the crowned head?
This crown is composed not of branches, flowers, or precious stones, but of wise undertakings, beneficent deeds, and blessed successes. It is a crown wrought and adorned by properly royal labor. Yet it is also sanctified by the blessing of God.
For wise undertakings are brought into action and crowned with success not by human will and strength alone, but by the blessing of God above them.
Shall I point out, though only with a passing glance, some of the jewels of this crown, which you can see without me? Shall I point them out simply because, when we rejoice at what we see, we love to show one another what all behold?
Look. Foreign enemies have been conquered and subdued. Domestic enemies have been destroyed. Alliances especially favorable to the peace of kings and peoples have been especially strengthened. By rare royal skill, enemies have been remade into friends.
Against the force of calamities which human power could neither prevent nor avert, the personal presence of mind of the most pious Emperor has more than once been powerfully and beneficently set.
The military forces, by vigilant care, have continually been kept and are kept in a development corresponding to the dignity and security of the state. The naval forces in particular have not only been increased, but, I hardly know whether to say it, raised from the dead by the attentive, life-giving royal gaze.
Education, the arts, and industry have been encouraged in many ways. Legislation and justice have received their special crown in the systematic body of laws.
Philanthropic institutions for upbringing, healing, and care have grown in number and flourish beneath the never-setting sun of direct royal protection. Every need, poverty, and misfortune, public or private, has continually found and still finds the beneficent royal hand opened.
In accordance with the needs of the Holy Church, her pastors, her temples, and her monasteries have partly been multiplied and partly enriched by benefaction.
In regions where, in former unhappy times, Eastern piety had been oppressed by the violence of the West, the most pious Sovereign's own eye saw the unseemliness of the Orthodox churches. His special will clothed them with fitting splendor.
His love for the Orthodox Church has animated the zeal of her servants. Many thousands of her children have been returned to her maternal embrace. Some had been torn from her in their forefathers during days of disorder and persecution. Others had gone astray in years of ignorance.
Behold some parts of the lofty workmanship in the crown of the royal decade. It shines majestically and sweetly before the eye of the Russian heart. It reflects the light of good hopes not only upon the present, but also upon the future.
The hand that holds the scepter of all Russia, firm from the beginning, has naturally gained greater blessed mobility through ten years of experience. Meanwhile, care and security have been extended to the further future of the realm through the upbringing of the heir to the throne.
The natural love of Russians for their king has naturally been increased by acquired love for the king who continually cares for us, lives and acts for us, and from His sacred height draws so near to His people that our hearts, one may say, touch His heart.
What then shall we say, rejoicing Russians? "Command, O God, by Thy strength. Strengthen, O God, this which Thou hast wrought in us" (Ps 67:29). "Thou shalt add days to the days of the King, His years unto the day of generation and generation" (Ps 60:7).
But it is time for me to remember that this place and these moments are appointed not simply for portraying impressions and pouring out feelings, but chiefly for instruction.
Does not the teaching which our very heart now requires concern what we might render to the king who struggles continually for our good, and what we might render to God, who blesses his labors?
Not only the benefactions of the heavenly King, but even the earthly king's labors for our benefit, are beyond our repayment. On our part, repayment is impossible. Only correspondence is possible.
What correspondence? It is the continual stirring of ourselves to fulfill our duties before the heavenly and earthly King, as the apostolic word teaches: "Submit yourselves to every human institution," that is, to every authority over men established by God, "for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors as sent by him" (1 Pet 2:13-14).
What satisfying teaching. By obeying the king and authority, you please the king. At the same time, by obeying for the Lord's sake, you please the Lord.
Must it be proved that one ought to obey? Wherever there is human society, there must necessarily be authority, joining people into the composition of society. Without authority one can imagine only an unorganized multitude of people, not society.
But authority acts in society and preserves it through obedience. Therefore obedience is necessarily joined to the existence of society. Whoever would shake or weaken obedience would shake or weaken the foundation of society.
Yet the Apostle is not content to teach obedience in just any manner. He teaches obedience with a definite motive: "for the Lord's sake." Here it is evident that he had in view other kinds of obedience, according to other motives.
These include obedience for one's own sake, for society's sake, and for authority's sake. But above the others, for his disciples he chose one kind: obedience "for the Lord's sake."
Whoever obeys from fear of punishment obeys for his own sake, to protect himself from the unpleasantness of punishment. There are people who need even this motive for obedience. Yet no one will wish to boast that he has chosen precisely this kind of obedience for himself.
Whoever obeys in order to gain advantage, reward, or honor likewise obeys for his own sake. Authority acts prudently and beneficently when it uses such inducements to obedience. But by their nature they can have a place only in certain cases.
They cannot establish and secure universal obedience. The acts of obedience that are most common and necessary for society, such as the payment of taxes, are least capable of being joined to some recompense or honor.
The philosophic mind will praise obedience for the sake of society and also for one's own sake. A person's good cannot be established and preserved except through society.
Society gives a person personal security, the development of abilities, occasions to use them, means of acquiring possessions, and again security for what has been acquired.
But since obedience is necessary for preserving society, each person must obey for society's sake, out of gratitude to it for himself, and also for his own sake. By preserving society through obedience, he preserves for himself what he enjoys from society.
This speculation is correct. Yet are there many people in society capable of establishing their obedience according to ideas and speculations?
When I look at the attempts of some peoples and states in our time to found obedience on such speculations, I see that nothing there stands firm. Thrones and altars are shaken. In the Prophet's words, "as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master" (Is 24:2).
The reins of government are torn. Rebellions swarm. Vices grow shameless. Crimes mock justice. There is no unanimity, no confidence, no security. Each coming day threatens.
Seeing all this, I cannot but conclude that the good order of the state must plainly not be founded upon human speculations.
There is obedience for the sake of society and authority, not so much by speculation as by heartfelt feeling, by love for the sovereign and the fatherland. Happy is the people animated by this love.
This is the vital warmth in the body of the state, a self-moving direction toward public unity, the winged chariot of authority, free submission, and submissive freedom.
We Russians, nourished from our mother's milk with love for the sovereign and the fatherland, know from old and recent experience how strengthening this food has been for the most difficult struggles in the most difficult times.
Continue, and do not forget, to gather across the fatherland this food, in some way wondrous, and even on earth higher than any earthly quality. It is the manna of national life. The sooner you gather it, the better. Feed yourselves and your children with it daily.
For we warn you: there are peoples among whom the sweet manna of love for the fatherland, not used rightly and in due time, has spoiled, or has come to seem less pleasant to a corrupted taste.
There are lands where, under the burning sun of false enlightenment, it has melted, evaporated, and flown away.
But in what must precaution consist? It consists in knowing and observing the God-given law that descends from the highest heaven, the law of how to gather, preserve, and use the manna.
Let us speak without allegory. In order that natural love for the sovereign and the fatherland may be unchanging, pure, and saving, it must be guarded and guided in its actions by the higher, wholly heavenly and divine law of Christian love.
Thus, as far as possible, we have reviewed various motives for obedience which the holy Apostle Peter either rejected or passed by in his exhortation to obedience.
If I am not mistaken, from what has been said you could see that all of them leave us feeling the need for a stronger, more universal, purer, and higher motive. The Apostle chose this alone as perfect: "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake."
"The authorities are ordained by God," says another Apostle. "Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God" (Rom 13:1-2).
"Submit yourselves, therefore, to every human authority," to every lawful authority, and especially to the supreme authority, "for the Lord's sake." Obey with full and unquestioning obedience for the sake of the almighty and righteous Lord.
He cannot permit resistance to His ordinance to go unpunished. Obey sincerely for the sake of the Lord who knows the hearts. He sees and condemns not only every deed of disobedience, but every stiff-necked or murmuring thought.
Obey with hope for the sake of the Lord, the all-wise and all-good Provider. He continually watches over the bringing of His order to saving ends for us. He especially has "the heart of the king" in "His hand" (Prov 21:1).
Obey with love for the sake of the Lord. His glorious kingdom in heaven and His gracious kingdom in human souls are both a kingdom of love.
He commanded us to strive with the whole strength of our soul that "His will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and therefore also in the earthly kingdom.
Behold an obedience always satisfying to authority and always blessed for the one who obeys. Put it to the strongest trial.
THEOSIS