are 1600 churches, or at least something approaching
that number. There is but one
statement written up by order of the Government declaring “ Religion is the opium of the
people.” What will the future say of a
Church which fails in its mission by refusing
to accept the great tasks which lie before it,
and refuses by its works to endeavour to prove
the falsity of the charge laid at its doors.
Long years ago a prophet of Israel looked over the valley of dry bones and cried out “ Can these dry bones live ? ” Often in Moscow, driving and walking about the streets, seeing the beautiful churches and the people making obeisance to the Ikons, these words would come flooding into my mind, and I remembered some other words : “ Not by might but by My spirit saith the Lord.” Surely Christians will ultimately judge the Bolshevik dealings with the Russian Church and religion in the spirit of these words, and surely also we who think there must be a religious ethical basis for life will believe that the Russian Church shall rise purified and sanctified from the troubles of to-day and with a whole-hearted purpose join Lenin and his comrades in recreating the moral and material life of the great nation which for nearly six long weary years has been the prey of war, pestilence and famine.
