Page 320 - the-idiot

Judas. Only God knows what may be hidden in the hearts
of drunkards.’
‘Well, I went homewards, and near the hotel I came
across a poor woman, carrying a child—a baby of some six
weeks old. The mother was quite a girl herself. The baby was
smiling up at her, for the first time in its life, just at that mo-
ment; and while I watched the woman she suddenly crossed
herself, oh, so devoutly! ‘What is it, my good woman I asked
her. (I was never but asking questions then!) Exactly as is
a mother’s joy when her baby smiles for the first time into
her eyes, so is God’s joy when one of His children turns and
prays to Him for the first time, with all his heart!’ This is
what that poor woman said to me, almost word for word;
and such a deep, refined, truly religious thought it was—a
thought in which the whole essence of Christianity was ex-
pressed in one flash—that is, the recognition of God as our
Father, and of God’s joy in men as His own children, which
is the chief idea of Christ. She was a simple country-wom-
an—a mother, it’s true— and perhaps, who knows, she may
have been the wife of the drunken soldier!
‘Listen, Parfen; you put a question to me just now. This is
my reply. The essence of religious feeling has nothing to do
with reason, or atheism, or crime, or acts of any kind—it has
nothing to do with these things—and never had. There is
something besides all this, something which the arguments
of the atheists can never touch. But the principal thing, and
the conclusion of my argument, is that this is most clearly
seen in the heart of a Russian. This is a conviction which
I have gained while I have been in this Russia of ours. Yes,

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