VIII
THE WAY OF MARTHA
The way of Russia is more the way of Mary, and
yet no people are more given to working for their
neighbours and being actively kind than the Russians.
There are many Marthas among them. They visit
the poor, bring food to the hungry, clothe the
wretched. They work for the suffering people
around them. Almost every cultured Russian of
grace or character has some social or personal
responsibility or care, the passion to put right the
affairs of some unhappy family, the will to raise
drunkards and law-breakers from spiritual death.
It is national and natural, and it is strange that this
should be the characteristic of a people who also
have a passion for going into the desert and saving
their souls.
But it is impossible for every one to go into the desert or take to a cell, and indeed the impulse to go away does not come to every one, and when it does come it is seldom sufficiently strong to break down the ties of everyday life and make a road of the affections—the narrow road that leads away from
