Words and Thoughts on Vodka, Tobacco, and Foul Speech, Drawn From the Instructions of Father John of Kronstadt and Other Preachers

Look attentively at the life of the man of our own day, how unnatural it is—not to say ungraced—how un-Christianly it is spent. See how he has perverted his very sensual pleasures. For smell and taste, and even, in part, for breath itself, he has invented, and burns almost incessantly, a sharp and pungent smoke—offering this, as it were a perpetual censer, to the demon that dwells in his flesh—infecting with this smoke the air of his own dwelling and the outer air as well, and, before anything else, saturating himself with this foul odor. And here you have the constant coarsening of his own feeling and his own heart: smoke, breathed in constantly, cannot fail to act also on the delicacy of the heart’s feeling; it imparts to it fleshliness, coarseness, sensuality. The belly has become an idol; many keep no fasts at all, counting them burdensome; feasting and drunkenness have become constant occurrences; money has positively become the idol of our age, and to acquire it easily people scorn no means, however base, however impious; every thought, care, amusement—gambling among them—in a word, every pleasure, every pursuit, every intention, every undertaking, even learning itself, is directed toward the earth; of heaven, of the heavenly calling, of heavenly teaching and heavenly life, there is not even a mention in many homes. Man has become wholly earth, wholly dust! And yet God came down to earth for this very purpose—to lead us up to heaven. Adam, where are you? (Gen 3:9). Christian man, where are you? How deeply you have fallen! Into what darkness have you willingly gone? — Arise, come out into the light of God, know your own divine nobility, your own heavenly calling, return to God—cast off the sensuality that deadens the spirit—begin to live according to the spirit of virtue, put to death the passions of the flesh, repent and be united with God, that He may lead you up to heaven and seat you with Himself upon the throne of His kingdom.

In speaking of the earthly, passion-driven, unworthy direction of people’s lives, I do not lose sight of the many bright sides in the lives of many Christians, and of truly Christian virtues—but this is a weak minority. God grant that this minority may surpass the majority. Amen.

Once, while occupied in my little garden, I heard, not far from me, a sixty-eight-year-old old man cursing terribly. I began to persuade him to give up this bad habit, but the foul-mouthed old man was so wedded to it that even as he walked away from me he kept on cursing. Soon afterward I met him near his house—and he, remembering my remarks, now seemed as if ashamed before me. I took advantage of the occasion and began a conversation with him.

«Tell me, please, what has grieved you so early and so strongly today, that in my very sight, in view of the house of God, you cursed so dreadfully?»

«Ah, batushka,» he answered me, «how can I help being grieved, when almost the whole herd of horses got into my spring-sown field.»

«Yes,» I said, «that is certainly vexing for the owner; but why must you defile your lips, with which you say your prayers and receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ?» — My words, unfortunately, did not fall upon the old man’s heart. That same day he again began to belch out foul words, in no way expecting the calamitous fate that was to overtake him that same day.

When I returned home from my parish duties, I was told: «Batushka, Pakhomych is dying.» «What has happened to him?» «They say that out in the field he got caught under his plow, and the plowshares tore open his belly.» I went at once to the unfortunate man—he was groaning terribly: his belly was torn open so badly that his insides could be seen; and yet, in the midst of his mortal suffering, he still had strength enough to tell me of his misfortune: «When you left me,» the sick man said, «I went off to plow; I began the work without prayer and continued it without prayer. I had made five or six furrows—I see the horse is not walking as I would like—and I went up to it with foul curses and struck it, and it suddenly somehow threw me down beneath it; I could not master it, and I fell under the plow, onto the plowshares, on which I was dragged some quarter of a verst from the field toward home; on the road my own brother met me and lifted me off the plowshares.»

Truly the calamitous fate that overtook this man was worthy of the utmost compassion; but at the sight of that uncomplaining submission to the will of God with which he bore the most grievous sufferings, as cleansing for a soul defiled by a sinful habit, one could not but bless, together with him, the Lord, whose goodness, in saving us from eternal ruin, leads us by every means to repentance.

Indeed, this poor sufferer’s repentance was deep and sincere: having confessed and received the Holy Mysteries, he remained alive for a whole twenty-four hours more, and to his very last breath continued unceasingly to repeat words of prayer.