How Does Christian Life Begin in the Mystery of Baptism?

Baptism is the first Mystery in Christianity that makes a person a Christian worthy to receive the gifts of grace and through other Mysteries. Without it one cannot enter the Christian world—become a member of the Church. The Eternal Wisdom created a house for herself on earth: the door leading into this house is the Mystery of baptism. Through this door one not only enters the house of God, but at it one is also clothed in worthy garb, receives a new name and a sign imprinted on the entire being of the baptized person, by which both the heavenly and the earthly come to know and distinguish him.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”, teaches the Apostle (2 Cor. 5:17). In baptism the Christian becomes this new creation. From the baptismal pool one comes out a completely different person than the one who went in. As light to darkness, as life to death, so the baptized is the opposite of the unbaptized. Begotten in lawlessness and born in sins, a person before baptism carries in himself all the poison of sin, with all the burden of its consequences. He stands under God’s displeasure, is by nature a child of wrath; he is corrupted, disordered in himself, in the relationship of his parts and powers and in their direction especially toward multiplying sin; he is subject to Satan’s influence, who acts in him powerfully because of the sin living in him. As a result of all this, after death, he is inevitably a subject of hell, where he must suffer together with his prince and his cohorts and servants.

Baptism delivers us from all these evils. It removes the curse by the power of the Cross of Christ and returns the blessing: the baptized are God’s children, as the Lord Himself gave them the capacity to be named and to be called. “And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the one being baptized already by baptism itself. He is taken from under Satan’s dominion, who now loses his power over him and the ability to act in him at will. By entering the Church—a house of refuge—Satan’s approaches to the newly baptized are barred. He is here as in a safe enclosure.

All this—spiritual-external advantages and gifts. What happens within? — Healing of sin’s sickness and corruption. The power of grace penetrates within and restores here the Divine order in all its beauty, heals the disorder both in the composition and relationship of powers and parts, and in the chief direction from self to God—toward pleasing God and the increase of good works. This is why baptism is rebirth or new birth, placing a person in a renewed state. Apostle Paul compares all the baptized to the risen Savior, giving us to understand that they too have such a bright transformedness of being as appeared in the humanity of the Lord Jesus through His resurrection in glory (see Rom. 6:4). That the direction of activity in the baptized is also changed is evident from the words of the same Apostle, who says in another place that they “no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15). “The one who died has been freed from sin once for all; the one who is alive lives to God” (Rom. 6:10). “We were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4), and: “Our old self was crucified with Him… so that we should no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6). Thus by the power of baptism all of a person’s activity is turned from himself and sin toward God and righteousness.

Remarkable is the Apostle’s word: “we should no longer be enslaved to sin” and the other: “sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom. 6:14). This makes clear to us that what in our corrupted, fallen nature constitutes the force drawing toward sin is not destroyed utterly in baptism, but only placed in such a state in which it has no power over us, does not dominate us, and we do not serve it. It remains in us, lives and acts, only not as a master. Dominion from this point onward belongs to God’s grace and to the spirit, consciously surrendering itself to grace. Saint Diadoch, explaining the power of baptism, says that before baptism sin lives in the heart and grace acts from outside; but after this grace dwells in the heart and sin pulls from outside. It is driven out of the heart like an enemy from a stronghold and takes up residence outside, in the parts of the body, from where it acts in fragments with attacks. Hence it is an unceasing tempter, seducer, but no longer a master: it troubles and disturbs, but does not command.

Thus a new life is born in baptism! What is required from the human side for this, or how one comes to be renewed in baptism, is depicted in the “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching,” especially in the article “The Norm of Christian Life.” It is not repeated here because the youth coming to baptism is the same as a sinner who has turned to God in repentance; and about the latter, a lengthy discussion will follow ahead in the second section. Then the full satisfaction of everyone’s desire to know about this matter will be given.

Here attention is directed to how Christian life begins through baptism in those who are baptized as infants, as happens chiefly among us. For here the beginning of Christian life is arranged with a certain characteristic feature flowing from the relationship of grace to freedom.

You already know that grace descends on free desire and seeking, and that only by their mutual union is a new gracious life in harmony with grace and with the nature of a free creature conceived. The Lord gives grace freely, but requires that a person seek it and willingly receive it, dedicating himself entirely to God. The fulfillment of this condition is evident in the repentance and baptism of those of adult age. But how is it fulfilled in the baptism of infants? An infant has no use of reason and freedom, consequently cannot fulfill the condition for the beginning of Christian life from his side, that is, the desire to dedicate himself to God. Meanwhile this condition must necessarily be fulfilled. The way in which this condition is fulfilled results in the beginning of life through the baptism of infants being accomplished with a certain characteristic feature. Namely.

Grace descends on the infant soul and produces in it everything alone, as if freedom were participating in it, on the sole ground that in the future, this one who does not know himself and does not act personally, the infant, when he comes to consciousness, will himself willingly dedicate himself to God, will willingly receive grace, finding in himself its action, will be glad that it is, will give thanks that this was done for him, and will confess that if at the moment of baptism he had been given reason and freedom, he would not have acted otherwise than as it was acted, and would not have wanted anything else. For the sake of such future free dedication of himself to God and union of freedom with grace, Divine grace is entirely given to the infant and without him does everything in him that is proper for her to do, on the sole confidence that the required desire and self-dedication to God will surely come—a confidence which the sponsors give, vouching to God before the Church that this infant, when he comes to consciousness, will indeed show such an exercise of freedom as is required for grace, taking upon themselves the obligation by actual deeds to lead the infant they receive to that point.

Thus through baptism in the infant is laid the seed of life in Christ and it is in him; but it is still as if not his own, it acts as a forming power. The spiritual life, born by the grace of baptism in the infant, will become his own, will appear in its full form, in harmony not only with grace but with the nature of a rational creature, from the time when he, awakening to consciousness, by free will dedicates himself to God and by willing, joyful, and thankful reception assimilates to himself the gracious power found in himself. And until this time true Christian life acts in him, but as if without his knowledge, acts in him, yet is still as if not his own; from the moment of consciousness and choice it becomes his own, not gracious only, but also free.

Because of this, more or less prolonged, interval between baptism and dedication of oneself to God, the beginning of Christian moral life through the grace of baptism in infants is, so to speak, extended over an indefinite span of time, during which the infant matures and is formed into a Christian in the Holy Church amid Christians, just as previously he was physically formed in his mother’s womb.

Hold firm to this idea, reader. We will greatly need it when determining how parents, sponsors, and educators should deal with the baptized infant entrusted to them by the Holy Church and the Lord.

It is obvious that after an infant’s baptism a most important work lies before the parents and sponsors: to guide the baptized one so that he, when he comes to consciousness, becomes aware of the gracious powers in himself, receives them with joyful desire, as well as the obligations bound up with them and the way of life they require. This places him face to face with the question of Christian upbringing or upbringing in accordance with the demands of baptismal grace, for the purpose of preserving this grace.

To make clearer how one should deal with a baptized infant in the stated purposes, one must call to mind the thought expressed earlier, that grace overshadows the heart and dwells in it when there is in it a turning from sin and from self to God. For the sake of this disposition, actively shown, all other gifts of grace are given, and all advantages of those graced: God’s favor, joint heirship with Christ, setting outside the domain of Satan, outside the danger of being condemned to hell. But as soon as this disposition of mind and heart diminishes or is lost, sin immediately begins again to dominate the heart, and through sin the bonds of Satan are laid and God’s favor and fellowship with Christ are taken away. Grace in the infant subdues and stifles sin; but it can come alive again and rise up if given food and freedom. Thus all attention of those on whom lies the obligation to guard in wholeness the child-Christian taken from the baptismal pool should be directed to preventing sin from gaining dominion over him again, by all means to suppress this latter and weaken it, while strengthening the direction toward God. It is necessary to make such a disposition in the growing Christian grow, though under external guidance, yet by his own activity, so that more and more he becomes accustomed to prevailing over sin and overcoming it for pleasing God, becomes accustomed to using the powers of spirit and body in such a way that this is not slavery to sin but service to God. That this is possible is evident from the fact that the one born and baptized is wholly—a seed of the future or earth filled with seeds. The new disposition infused by baptismal grace is not merely a thought or imputed, but actual, that is, it is likewise a seed of life. If all seeds in general develop according to their kind, then the seed of gracious life in the baptized can also develop. If in him is laid the seed of a turning toward God that prevails over sin, then it can likewise be developed and nurtured as other seeds are. One need only employ effective means for this or determine a purposeful way to act on the baptized infant.

The goal to which all should be directed consists in this: that this new person, when he comes to consciousness, becomes aware of himself not only as a rational being with free will, but also as one who has entered into an obligation with the Lord, with whom his eternal fate is indissolubly linked; not only to become aware of this but to find in himself the capacity to act in accordance with this obligation and to see in himself a predominant inclination toward that. The question arises: how is this to be achieved? How should one treat a baptized person so that, when he grows up, he desires nothing more than to be a true Christian? Or—how should one educate him Christianly?

In answer to this we do not undertake to examine everything in detail. We will limit ourselves to a general overview of the whole work of Christian education, aiming to indicate how in each case to support and strengthen the good aspect in children and how to weaken and suppress the bad.

Here first of all attention is focused on the infant in the cradle, before any abilities awaken in him. The infant is alive, consequently one can influence his life. Here the Holy Mysteries are applicable, and with them all that is of the Church; and with them also the faith and piety of the parents.

All this, taken together, will constitute a saving atmosphere around the infant. By all this, mysteriously, gracious life is overshadowed, the life conceived in the infant.

Frequent communion in the Holy Mysteries of Christ (one may add: as frequently as possible) vividly and actively unites with the Lord this new member of His, through His most pure Body and Blood, sanctifies him, establishes peace in him, and makes him inaccessible to the dark powers.

Those who proceed in this way notice that on the day when the child takes communion, he is immersed in deep peace, without strong movements of all natural needs, even those which act more powerfully in children. Sometimes he is filled with joy and the playing of the spirit, in which he is ready to embrace everyone as his own. Not rarely does holy communion bring with it miracles. Saint Andrew of Crete did not speak for a long time in childhood. When his sorrowing parents turned to prayer and gracious means, then during communion the Lord by His grace loosed the bonds of his tongue, after which he refreshed the Church with streams of sweet speech and wisdom. One doctor testified from his observations that in most childhood illnesses one should bring children to holy communion, and very rarely had need to employ medical aids afterward.

Great influence is had on children by frequent attendance at church, making prostrations to the holy cross, the Gospel, icons, being covered by the altar cloths; also at home—frequently taking them before the icons, frequently making the sign of the cross over them, sprinkling them with holy water, censing with incense, making the sign of the cross over the cradle, the food, and everything touching them, the blessing of the priest, bringing icons from church into homes and services; in general—all that is of the Church in a wondrous way kindles and nourishes the gracious life of the child, and is always the safest and most impenetrable barrier against the attacks of the invisible dark powers, who are everywhere ready to penetrate the only developing soul, to infect it with their breath.

Under this visible protection is an invisible one: the Guardian Angel, appointed by the Lord to the infant from the very moment of baptism. He keeps watch over him, by his presence invisibly influences him, and in necessary cases inspires the parents as to what must be done with the child in extremity.

But all these so strong barriers, these powerful and actual influences can be destroyed and robbed of their fruit by unbelief, negligence, impiety, and the bad life of the parents. This is already so because with these the means are either not employed or employed not as they should be; but especially by the inward influence. It is true that the Lord is merciful, especially toward the innocent, but there is an incomprehensible connection between the soul of the parents and the souls of the children, and we cannot determine the extent to which the influence of the former extends to the latter; and likewise, to what extent, under the infectious influence of the former, the mercy and condescension of God extend to the latter. It happens that this ceases, and then the causes prepared bring forth their fruit. Therefore the spirit of faith and piety of the parents should be regarded as the most powerful means for the preservation, upbringing, and strengthening of gracious life in children.

The spirit of the infant has, as it were, no movement in the first days, months, and even years. There is no way to transmit something to him for his understanding by the usual path. But one can act on him indirectly.

There is a certain special path of communion between souls through the heart. One spirit influences another through feeling. Such influence on the soul of an infant is the easier, the more fully and deeply the parents are turned with their hearts toward the infant. Father and mother disappear in the child and, as they say, lose their mind over him. And if their spirit is permeated with piety, it cannot be but that it acts according to its own nature on the soul of the child. The best outward conductor for this is the look. While in other senses the soul remains hidden, the eye reveals it to the gaze of another. This is the point where one soul meets another. Let then through this opening pass to the soul of the child the souls of mother and father with holy feelings. They cannot fail to anoint it with this holy oil. It is necessary that in their gaze there shine not only love, which is so natural, but also faith, that in their arms is more than a simple child, and hope that He who gave them this treasure to watch over, as a kind of vessel of grace, will grant them sufficient strength for that, to preserve it, and finally, prayer continuously performed in the spirit, aroused by hope through faith.

When parents thus fence the cradle of their child with this spirit of sincere piety, when with this, on the one hand, the Guardian Angel, on the other—the Holy Mysteries and all that is of the Church will act on him from without and within, then there will be formed around the beginning life a spiritual atmosphere akin to it, which will transfuse into it its own character, just as blood, the source of animal life, in its properties depends greatly on the surrounding air. It is said that a newly made vessel for a long time, if not always, retains the smell of the substance poured into it at that time. The same should be said of the arrangement shown around children. It graciously and salvationally penetrates the establishing forms of the child’s life and will place its seal upon them. Here is also an impassable barrier to the influence of the spirits of wickedness.

Having begun such an arrangement from the cradle, one must continue it then throughout the whole time of upbringing: both in childhood, infancy, and youth. The Church, all that is of the Church, and the Holy Mysteries—as a tabernacle for children, under which they should remain constantly. Examples show how salutary and fruitful this is—Samuel, Theodore of Sykeon (April 22), and others. Even by this alone can all means of upbringing be replaced, as they are successfully replaced, ancient methods of education consisted chiefly in this.

When the child’s abilities begin to awaken, one after another, parents and educators must redouble their attention. For when, under the overshadowing of the means indicated, the inclination toward God will grow and strengthen in them and draw the powers after itself, at the very same time the sin living in them does not slumber, but strives to seize those same powers. The inevitable result of this—an inner warfare. Since children are not capable of waging it themselves, parents reasonably take their place. But since it must still be waged by the powers of the children, parents must strictly watch the first stirrings of their awakening, so as from the first moment to give them an inclination in harmony with the main goal toward which they should be directed.

Thus warfare begins for the parents with sin living in the child. Though this sin lacks a firm foothold, it nonetheless acts and, to establish itself on something firm, tries to seize the powers of body and soul. One must not allow this and must, as it were, snatch the powers from the hands of sin and give them to God. But in order to act in this not without foundation, but with rational knowledge of the truth of the chosen way, one must understand well what the remaining sin seeks, what it feeds on, through what exactly it seizes us. The primary instigators drawing toward sin are presumption (or inquisitiveness) in the mind, willfulness in the will, self-indulgence in feeling. Therefore one must direct and guide the developing powers of soul and body so as not to give them into captivity to carnal pleasure, inquisitiveness, willfulness, and self-indulgence—for this will be captivity to sin—but on the contrary, teach them to detach themselves from these and to prevail over them, and thus, as much as possible, to weaken them and bring them to harmlessness. This is the principal rule. All upbringing must be conformed to it afterward. Let us review with this aim the principal actions of body, soul, and spirit.

Above all, the needs of the body awaken first and then remain in constant activity until death itself. For this very reason they must be placed within proper limits and secured by habit, so that later there will be less disturbance from them. In terms of the bodily life, nutrition is the most essential function. In a moral sense, it is the dwelling place of a passion for sinful gratification of the flesh, or the field for its development and nourishment. Therefore, one must nourish a child in such a way that, while developing bodily life and providing it with strength and health, one does not inflame sensual pleasure in the soul. One should not think that because the child is small, instruction can wait—from the very first years one must begin to restrain the flesh, which is inclined toward gross matter, and accustom the child to master it, so that in childhood, youth, and afterward one can easily and freely manage this need. The first leaven is very precious. Much depends on how a child is nourished for all that comes later. Almost imperceptibly one can develop gluttony and intemperance in food—two forms of bodily excess, these harmful inclinations that attach themselves to eating.

For this reason even doctors and educators advise: choose healthy and suitable food, judging by the age of the child being educated; for one food is appropriate for an infant, another for a child, still another for a youth, and yet another for a young man; subject the consumption to known rules (again adapted to age), in which the time, quantity, and manner of eating are determined, and then do not depart without good reason from the order established in this way.

By this a child becomes accustomed not to always demand food whenever he wishes to eat, but to wait for the appointed hour; here are the first trials of practice in denying oneself one’s own desires. Where a child is fed every time he cries, and then every time he asks for food, there he is so weakened that later he cannot refuse food without suffering. Along with this he becomes accustomed to willfulness, because he succeeds in begging for or crying out everything he wants. One must subject sleep, warmth and cold, and other comforts, which are naturally necessary in the matter of nourishment, to the same measure, keeping unwaveringly in mind—not to inflame passion for sensual pleasures and to train self-denial. This must be strictly observed throughout the time of upbringing—changing, as is self-evident, the rules in application, not in essence—until such time as the child, having become established in them, takes himself in hand.

The second function of the body is movement; its organ is the muscles, in which lie the strength and vigor of the body—the instruments of labor. In relation to the soul it is the seat of will, and is very capable of developing willfulness. Measured, judicious development of this function, communicating vigor and liveliness to the body, trains one to labor and forms moderation. On the contrary, perverse development, left to its own devices, in some develops immoderate vivacity and scattering of attention, in others—sluggishness, lifelessness, sloth. The first confirms and turns into law willfulness and disobedience, along with which are found insolence, hot-temperedness, and lack of restraint in desires. The latter plunges one into the flesh and delivers one over to sensual pleasures. So one must have in view, while strengthening the body’s powers, not to inflate willfulness through them and for the sake of the flesh not to destroy the spirit. For this, the main thing is measure, prescription, oversight. Let the child be lively, but at the time, in the place, and in the manner prescribed to him. The will of parents must stamp every step they take, reasonably speaking, in general. Without this, the character of a child can easily become twisted. Having played about on its own, a child always returns without readiness to obey even in small matters. And this happens after one instance; what then when this part is completely neglected? How difficult it is afterward to destroy willfulness, once it has settled in the body as in a fortress. The neck does not bend, the arm and leg do not move, and even the eye does not wish to look as commanded. On the contrary, a child becomes ready for every command, where from the beginning its movements were not given free rein. Besides this, there is no better way to become accustomed to ruling one’s own body than by making it exert itself according to one’s direction.

The third bodily function lies in the nerves. From the nerves come the senses—the instruments of observation and food for curiosity. But we will speak of that later. Now, regarding another general function of the nerves, as the seat of bodily sensitivity, or the capacity to receive pleasant and unpleasant external impressions. In this regard, one must establish as a rule to accustom the body to endure painlessly all kinds of external influences: from the air, water, changes of temperature, dampness, heat, cold, wounds, pain, and so forth. Whoever has acquired such a habit is the happiest of people, capable of the most difficult deeds, at any time and in any place. The soul in such a person appears as the full master of the body, does not delay, does not change, does not abandon tasks, fearing bodily unpleasantness; rather, with some desire it turns to that which can embitter the body. This is very important. The main evil in relation to the body is its coddling and pampering. It takes away all power of the soul over the body and makes the latter the slave of the former; on the contrary, he who does not pamper his body will not be troubled in his undertakings by fear from blind animal self-love. How blessed is one trained to this from childhood! Medical advice concerning bathing, the time and place of walks, and clothing applies here; the main thing is to maintain the body not so that it receives only pleasant impressions, but rather to maintain it under discomfiting impressions. With the former the body is softened, with the latter it is strengthened; with the former the child fears everything, and with the latter is ready for everything and able to endure patiently in what is undertaken.

Such treatment of the body is prescribed by pedagogy. Here it is shown only how these counsels are also fitting for the development of Christian life, namely in that zealous fulfillment of them shuts the door to the soul against the wicked poison of sensual pleasures, willfulness, bodily love or self-pity, creates opposite dispositions, and in general trains one to rule the body as an instrument and not to submit to it. This is very important in Christian life, which by its very nature is detached from sensuality and every indulgence of the flesh. So one must not leave the development of a child’s body to chance, but must keep it under strict discipline from the very beginning, so as then to hand it over to the pupil himself already adapted to Christian life, and not hostile to it. True parents who are Christians and who love their children should not spare anything, not even their own parental heart, to bestow this good upon their children. For otherwise all their subsequent acts of love and care will be either little fruitful or even barren. The body is the seat of passions, and for the most part of the fiercest of them, such as lust and anger. It is also the instrument through which demons penetrate into the soul or settle near it. It is self-evident that in all this one must not lose sight of churchliness, and from it one must do nothing by which one would touch the body, for by this the body will be sanctified and wild animality will be subdued.

Not everything is written here, and only the main tone of action on the body is indicated. The details will be shown by experience, for those who need them. By this outline it is also understood how one must treat the body at all other times of life: for we have to do with it only as one.

Along with the manifestation of bodily needs, in the soul too the lower faculties do not delay in showing themselves in their natural sequence. Here the child begins to fix his gaze on this or that object, on one more than on another, as if he likes one more and another less. These are the first beginnings of the use of the senses, which are at once followed by the awakening of the activity of imagination and memory. These faculties stand at the transition from bodily activity to spiritual activity and act together, so that what is done by one is at once transmitted to the other. Judging by the importance which they have in our life at the present time, how good and salutary it is to sanctify the first beginnings of their activity with objects from the realm of faith. First impressions remain deeply memorable. One must remember that the soul comes into the world as a bare faculty; it grows, becomes enriched in inner content, and becomes varied in activity only afterward. The first material, the first food for its formation, it receives from without, from the senses, through imagination. It is self-evident what character the first objects of the senses and imagination must have, so that they not only do not hinder, but even more facilitate the forming Christian life. For it is known that, as the first food has considerable influence on the temperament of the body, so the first objects with which the soul occupies itself have a strong influence on the character of the soul or the tone of its life.

The developing senses provide material for imagination; the imagined object is preserved in memory and constitutes, so to speak, the content of the soul. Let the senses receive their first impressions from sacred objects: an icon and the light of a lamp for the eyes, sacred songs for the ear, and so forth. The child does not yet understand anything of what is before his eyes, but his eyes and ears become accustomed to these objects, and they, preoccupying the heart, thereby set other objects at a distance. Following the senses, the first exercises of imagination will also be sacred; it will be easier for him to imagine these objects than others: such are his first bends. Then, for the future, the beautiful, which on one side is essentially connected with the forms of the senses and imagination, will attract him only under sacred forms.

So let them surround a child with sacred objects of all kinds; everything that can corrupt through examples, images, things—they remove. But then throughout all subsequent time one must preserve the same order. It is known how powerfully corrupted images act on the soul, in whatever form they touch it! How unhappy is the child who, closing his eyes or remaining alone and absorbed in himself, is overwhelmed by a multitude of wicked images, vain, seductive, breathing with passions. This is the same for the soul as smoke for the head.

One must also not lose sight of the manner of activity of these faculties. The function of the senses is to see, hear, touch, in general to test and investigate. Therefore they are the first awakeners of curiosity, which then on account of them passes into imagination and memory and, having acquired stability in them, becomes an irresistible tyrant for the soul. It is impossible not to use the senses: for only through them are things known which must be known for the glory of God and our good. But with this inevitably comes curiosity, which is an irresistible tendency—without aim to see and hear what is being done and how things happen. How then should one proceed? Investigation is already, necessarily, curiosity. Curiosity consists in trying to learn everything in disorder, without aim, without distinguishing whether it is necessary or not. So one must only observe measure and order in the exercise of the senses, and direct them to what is necessary and according to necessity—then curiosity will have no food; that is, one must accustom the child to investigate what is considered necessary for him; from everything else he must refrain and keep away. Then in the very act of investigation, one must observe gradualness—not to jump from object to object, or from one feature to another, but, examining one after another, to be concerned that afterward the object be imagined as it should be. This kind of occupation will preserve the child from the habit of becoming distracted even amid what is allowed, will train him to master the senses, and through them imagination. He will not jump from one thing to another without need, consequently will not daydream and become distracted by images and thus prevent the soul from resting, troubling it with the flux and reflux of his disorderly visions. He who cannot master his senses and imagination is necessarily scattered and inconstant, being tormented by curiosity, which will chase him from one object to another until his powers are exhausted, and all this without fruit.

At the same time with these faculties, passions arise in the child and begin to trouble him from an early age. The child does not yet speak, does not yet walk, has only just become accustomed to sit and take toys, but already gets angry, envies, claims things as his own, acts pretentious and so forth, in general shows the action of passions. This evil, based on animal life, is destructive; therefore one must oppose it from its first manifestations. How to do this is difficult to determine. Everything depends on the prudence of the parents. One may, however, establish the following: 1) prevent their arising in every way; 2) then, if some passion manifests, one must hasten to extinguish it with devised and tried means. By this their rooting will be prevented, or predisposition to them. The passion that manifests more frequently than others must be treated with special attention, because it can be the ruling disposer of life. The most reliable way of treating passions is the use of grace-filled means. To them with faith one must turn. Passion is a spiritual phenomenon, meanwhile parents at first have no ways of acting on the soul… Therefore first of all one must entreat the Lord, so that He will accomplish His work. The further guide for the zealous father or mother or nanny will be experience. When the child will have sense, then general means against passions can be used. One must arm oneself against them thoroughly and pursue them throughout all the time of upbringing, so that the child may be able and accustomed to master them, for their troubling assaults will not cease until the end of life.

If the prescribed order of action on the body and lower faculties is strictly observed, then the soul will receive from this beautiful preparation for truly good disposition; however, only preparation—the disposition itself must be built by positive action on all its powers: reason, will, and heart.

On the reason. In children intelligence is soon displayed. It is contemporary with speech and grows together with the improvement of the latter. Therefore one must begin the education of reason together with the word. The main thing to have in view is sound concepts and judgments according to Christian principles about everything that the child encounters or which claims his attention: what is good and evil, what is right and wrong. This is very easy to do through ordinary conversations and questions. Parents themselves speak among themselves: children listen and almost always assimilate not only the thoughts but even the turns of their speech and manners. Let parents, then, when they speak, always call things by their proper names. For example: what is the meaning of this present life, how does it end, from whom does everything come, what are pleasures, what worth have various customs and so forth. Let them speak with children and explain to them, either directly, or best of all, through stories: is it good, for example, to dress up; is it happiness when one receives praise, and so forth. Or let them ask children what they think about this and that, and correct their mistakes. In a short time by this simple means one can impart sound principles for judging things, which afterward will not fade for a long time, if not for all of life. In this way, at its very root worldly wisdom will be suppressed and evil, insatiable curiosity. Truth binds the mind by satisfying it. Worldly wisdom does not satisfy and thereby inflames curiosity. Having freed them from it, great good is bestowed on children. And this even before they take up books. Further, one need only refrain from giving children books with corrupt concepts, and their reason will be preserved whole, in the health of the holy and Divine. It is vain to neglect to exercise the child in this way, under the assumption that he is still small. Truth is accessible to all. That a small Christian child is wiser than philosophers has been shown by experience. It is repeated now, but formerly it was everywhere. For example, during martyrdom, small children reasoned about the Lord Savior, about the folly of idolatry, about the future life and so forth; this was because a mother or father had explained it to them in simple conversation. These truths became native to the heart, which came to treasure them to the point of readiness to die for them.

On the will. A child is full of desires: everything occupies him, everything draws him to itself and gives rise to desires. Not knowing how to distinguish good from evil, he desires everything and is ready to fulfill whatever he desires. A child, left to himself, becomes uncontrollably willful. Therefore parents must strictly watch this branch of spiritual activity. The simplest means of placing it within proper limits consists in disposing children to do nothing without permission. Let them with every desire resort to their parents and ask: may I do this or that? Convince them by their own and others’ experiences that it is dangerous for them to fulfill their desires without asking, train them so that they even fear their own will. This disposition will be the most happy, but at the same time it is also the easiest to impress, for children in any case mostly turn to adults with questions, being aware of their own ignorance and weakness; one need only elevate this matter and make it an unbreakable law for them. The natural consequence of such disposition will be complete obedience and submission in all things to the will of parents, contrary to their own, a disposition to deny themselves in many things and the habit or skill at this; and primarily, practical conviction that one must not listen to oneself in everything. This is most clear to children from their own experience, that they desire many things, meanwhile these things desired are harmful to their body and soul. In training them away from their own will, one must train the child to do good. For this let parents themselves present a true example of good life and acquaint their children with those whose main cares are not about pleasures and distinctions, but about the salvation of the soul. Children are imitative by nature. How early they know how to copy their mother or father! Here something happens similar to what occurs with instruments tuned alike. Along with this, the children themselves must be called to good deeds, and at first be commanded to do them, and then be encouraged, so that they do them of their own accord. The most ordinary deeds in this are: almsgiving, compassion, mercy, yielding, and patience. All of this is very easy to train. The occasions are momentary; one need only take up the matter. From this will come a will with disposition to various good deeds and in general with inclination toward good. And one must be taught to do good, as much as anything else.

On the heart. Under such action on the reason, will, and lower powers, of itself the heart too will be disposed so as to have sound and true feelings, to acquire the habit of being pleased with what truly does please, and not in the slightest to sympathize with that which, under the cover of sweetness, pours poison into the soul and body. The heart is the faculty of tasting and experiencing satisfaction.

When man was in union with God, he found taste in Divine things and in things sanctified by God’s grace. After the fall he lost this taste and hungers for the sensual. The grace of baptism freed him from this, but sensuality is ready again to fill the heart. One must not allow this; the heart must be protected. The most effective means of cultivating a true taste in the heart is churchliness, in which children being educated must be continuously kept. Sympathy for everything sacred, the sweetness of remaining among it on account of its peace and warmth, aversion from that which is brilliant and attractive in worldly vanity, cannot better be impressed on the heart. The Church, spiritual singing, icons—the most exquisite objects both in content and in power. One must remember that according to the taste of the heart the future eternal dwelling will be determined, and the taste of the heart there will be such as is formed here. It is evident that theaters, sideshows, and the like are unfit for Christians.

A soul humbled and organized in such a way will not, through its natural disorder, hinder the development of the spirit. The spirit develops more easily than the soul and manifests its power and activity earlier than it. To it pertain: fear of God (corresponding to reason), conscience (corresponding to will), and prayer (corresponding to feeling). Fear of God gives birth to prayer and enlightens conscience. There is no need that all this be directed toward another, invisible world. Children have a predisposition to it and quickly assimilate these feelings. Especially prayer is grafted very easily and acts not through the tongue but through the heart. For this reason they willingly and without tiring participate in home prayers and church worship and are glad about this. Therefore one must not deprive them of this part of education, but gradually introduce them into this sanctuary of our existence. The earlier the fear of God is impressed and prayer is awakened, the more firm will piety be in all subsequent time. In some children this spirit manifested itself of its own accord, even amid visible hindrances to its manifestation. This is very natural. The Spirit of grace, received in baptism, if it is not extinguished by perverse development of body and soul, cannot but quicken our spirit, and with this—what can prevent it from manifesting in its power? Conscience, however, requires the nearest guidance. Sound concepts, with the good example of parents and other methods of teaching good, and prayer will enlighten it and impress upon it sufficient foundations for subsequent good activity. But the main thing is to form in it a disposition to moral sensitivity and consciousness. Consciousness is a matter of extraordinary importance in life; but how easily it is formed, so easily is it also stifled in children. The will of parents for small children is the law of conscience and of God. As much as parents have prudence, let them so arrange their commands that they do not put children in the necessity of being transgressors of their will: and if they do become such, let parents as much as possible incline them to repentance. What frost is to flowers, that is departure from parental will to a child; he does not dare look in the eye, does not wish to enjoy caresses, wishes to run away and be alone, meanwhile the soul becomes crude and the child begins to grow wild. How good it is to dispose him beforehand to repentance, to make it so that without fear, with confidence and with tears he comes and says: “Behold, I have done this and that badly.” It is self-evident that all this will concern only ordinary matters; but it is also good that here is laid the foundation for the future constantly truly religious character—at once to rise after a fall, the skill of swift repentance and purification or renewal with tears is formed.

Behold the order: let the child grow up in it, and the spirit of piety will be developed in him more. Parents must watch all movements of the opening powers and direct all toward one end. This is the law—to begin with the very first breath of the child, to begin with all at once, and not with one thing alone, to conduct all this uninterruptedly, evenly, gradually, without outbursts, with patience and expectation, observing, however, wise gradualness, noting the shoots and using them, not counting anything insignificant in a matter so important. The details are not revealed; for it is only intended to indicate the main direction of upbringing.

One cannot determine when a person comes to the consciousness of himself as a Christian and to the independent decision to live as a Christian. In practice this happens at different times: at seven, ten, fifteen years and later. There may come a time of education before this, as is most often the case. With this an unbreakable rule—to preserve all the previous order without change and for all the time of education: for it flows essentially from the nature of our powers and the demands of Christian life. The order of education in no way should be opposed to the disposition shown above, otherwise all that was created there will be destroyed; that is, one must protect children-students, as much as infants, with the piety of all surrounding them, churchliness, the Mysteries, and also must act on their body, soul, and spirit. With this, applicable to education one should only add: let education be so arranged that it is clear what is main and what is subordinate. The thought of this is most easily impressed by the distribution of subjects and time. Let the study of faith be considered main, let time rather be designated for the deeds of piety and, in case of conflict, let the latter prevail over scientific learning; let approval be deserved not only by success in sciences, but also by faith and good morals. In general, one must so dispose the spirit of students that in them the conviction not be extinguished that the main work for us is pleasing God, while scientific learning is an attached quality, chance, suitable only for the time of the present life. And therefore in no way should it be set so high and in such a brilliant aspect that it occupies all attention and absorbs all care. There is nothing more poisonous and ruinous for the spirit of Christian life than this scientific learning and exclusive concern with it. It directly plunges into coldness and then may hold one in it forever, and sometimes even add depravity if favorable circumstances meet.

Another thing to which one must attend is the spirit of teaching or the way of looking at the subjects of education. It must be made an absolute law that every science taught to a Christian be saturated with Christian principles, and moreover with Orthodox ones. Every science is capable of this, and will be truly a science in its kind only when it fulfills this condition. Christian principles are undoubtedly true. Therefore, without doubt, establish them as the common measure of truth. Our most dangerous error is that sciences are taught with no attention whatever to the true faith, allowing themselves liberty and even falsehood, on the assumption that faith and science are two realms decisively separated. Our spirit is one. It receives both sciences and is nourished by their principles, as it receives faith and is permeated by it. How then can they not come into favorable or unfavorable contact here? Besides, the realm of truth is one. Why then stuff the head with what is not from this realm, or with what cannot be shown in its bright court.

If education is conducted in such order that faith and life in the spirit of faith are elevated above all things in the attention of those educated and in the manner of study, and in the spirit of teaching, then there is no doubt that the principles laid in childhood will not only be preserved but will be elevated, strengthened, and come to proportionate maturity. How beneficial this is!

If one leads education in such order from a person’s first years, then gradually the character which his life should have will be revealed before him, he will become more accustomed to the thought that he has the obligation from the person of God and our Savior—to live and act according to His precepts; that all other affairs and occupations are below them and fitting only during the present life; and that there is another place of dwelling, another homeland, toward which he must direct all his thoughts and all his desires. In the natural course of the development of powers, each naturally comes to the consciousness that he is a human being. But if to his nature a new principle, gracious-Christian, is grafted, at the very first moment of the awakening of his powers and their movement (in baptism), and if then at all points of the development of these powers this new principle not only does not yield primacy but on the contrary always prevails, gives, as it were, form to all things, then, coming to consciousness, a person will at the same time find himself acting according to Christian principles, will find himself a Christian. This is the chief goal of Christian upbringing, so that a person as a result should say to himself that he is a Christian. But if, coming to full consciousness of himself, he should say: “I am a Christian, obligated by the Savior and God to live thus and so, so that I might be worthy of blessed communion with Him and His chosen in the life to come,”—then, having risen to independence, or to personal rational arrangement of life, he will make his first essential work—to keep independently and kindle the spirit of piety in which he walked before, under others’ guidance.

It was mentioned before that there should be a special moment when one must intentionally renew in consciousness all the obligations of Christianity and lay upon oneself its yoke as an unbreakable law. In baptism they were received not consciously, then were preserved more by another’s mind according to another’s disposition and in simplicity. Now consciously one must lay upon oneself the good yoke of Christ, choose Christian life; devote oneself exclusively to God, so that afterward all the days of life one may serve Him with animation. Only here does a person by himself properly begin Christian life. It was in him before, but one might say, came not from independence, as if not from his own person. Now he himself, from his own person, will begin to act in the spirit of a Christian. Then the light of Christ was in him as the light of the first day, uncentered, diffused. But just as light needed to be given centers, drawn to the suns, the centers of planets, so this light must, as it were, gather about the starting point of our life, our consciousness. A person becomes fully human when he comes to self-knowledge and rational independence, when he becomes the complete master and disposer of his thoughts and deeds, holds to certain thoughts not because others have transmitted them to him, but because he himself finds them true. A person in Christianity also remains a person. Therefore here too he must be rational, only this rationality he must turn to the advantage of holy faith. Let him rationally convince himself that the holy faith he professes is the sole true path of salvation and that all other paths, not in accord with it, lead to ruin. It is an honor to a person not to be a blind confessor, but one who knows that, acting thus, he is acting as he should. All this he will do when consciously he lays upon himself the good yoke of Christ.

Only here does his personal faith, or good life according to faith, obtain firmness and unshakability. He will not be scandalized by example, will not be carried away by empty thoughts, because he clearly understands the obligation to think and act in a definite manner. But if he has not understood this, then as before a good example disposed him to act as he did, so now a bad example can dispose him to what is not good, draw him to sin; and as good thoughts of others before easily possessed his mind without contradiction, so now evil thoughts will possess it. And in experience one sees how unstable is the profession of faith and goodness of life in one who has not earlier understood himself to be a Christian. Whoever encounters few temptations will continue longer to shine in simplicity of heart. But for one who cannot avoid them, he stands before great danger. We see in the life of all who have preserved the grace of baptism that there was a moment when they decidedly devoted themselves to God. This is expressed in the words: the spirit was kindled, they were set on fire with Divine longing.

Having understood himself to be a Christian, or having consciously decided to live as a Christian, let him now himself preserve, with all care, the perfection and purity of life received from the former age, as others before preserved it for him. There is no need to set forth special rules in guidance for him. At this point he meets with the penitent, who, having turned away from sin, receives the inspired decision to live as a Christian. Therefore from here he must be guided by the same rules with him, of which will be spoken in the third section.

What distinction there is for him with the penitent in the ascent to perfection will be clear of itself.

Now it is necessary to make only certain, though very important, warnings for the adolescent years, belonging exclusively to them. How good and salutary it is not only to be disposed in upbringing as a Christian, but also then to understand oneself and to decide to be a Christian before entering the adolescent years. This is necessary in view of the great dangers to which a youth is inevitably subjected 1) according to the nature of his age and 2) according to great temptations throughout its course.

The river of our life is cut by a waving stripe of youth. This is a time of ferment of bodily-spiritual life. A child lives quietly and a youth, few rapid impulses in a man, honored gray hair inclines toward rest; youth alone seethes with life. One must have a very firm support to stand in this time against the rush of waves. The very disorder and impetuousness of movements is dangerous. His own first movements begin—the first awakening of his powers, and have for him all their charm: by the force of their influence they crowd out all that before was laid on thought and heart. What was before becomes for him a dream, a prejudice. Only present feelings are true, only they have reality and significance. But if before the awakening of these powers he bound himself by obligation of the profession and life of a Christian, then all the awakening, being already secondary, will be weaker and more easily yield to the demand of the former, already because those are older, previously tested and chosen by the heart, and especially—confirmed by vow. A youth decidedly wishes to keep always his word. What is to be said of one who not only did not love Christian life and truth, but even never heard of them?

In this case he is a house without a fence, given over to plundering, or dry kindling given to burning in fire. When his own willful thought casts a shadow of doubt on everything, when the awakenings of passions trouble him mightily, when all his soul is filled with tempting thoughts and movements—the youth is in fire. Who will give him a drop of dew for coolness or hold out a hand to help, if from his heart there does not come forth a voice for truth, for good and purity? And it will not come forth if love for them is not planted before. Even counsels in this case do not help. There is then nothing to which to graft them. Counsel and persuasion are powerful if, descending through the ear into the heart, they awaken there feelings which exist and have value for us, but only in the present moment are set aside by others, and we ourselves do not know how to free them and give them their proper power. In this case counsel is a precious gift to the youth from the counselor. But if there are no beginnings of pure life in the heart, it is useless.

A youth lives by himself, and who investigates all movements and deviations of his heart? It is the same as investigating the way of a bird in the air or the course of a ship in water! What is the ferment of rising liquid, what is the movement of elements in disorderly mixture, that is the heart of a youth. All the needs of so-called nature are in lively awakening; each gives voice, seeks satisfaction. As disorder ferments in our nature, so the combination of these voices is the same as the disorderly cries of a noisy crowd. What will become of a youth if he has not beforehand been trained to put his movements into some order and has not laid upon himself the obligation to keep them in strict subjection to certain higher demands. If these principles are deeply impressed on the heart in first upbringing and then consciously accepted as a rule, then all the ferment will occur, as it were, on the surface, in passing, not moving the foundation, not shaking the soul.

What we become when we leave the adolescent years greatly depends on what we are when we enter them. Water falling from a cliff seethes below and billows, and then flows quietly through various channels. This is an image of youth, into which each is plunged like water into a waterfall. From it two kinds of people emerge: some shine with virtue and nobility, others are darkened by wickedness and depravity; and a third—a middle class, a mixture of good and evil, whose likeness is a firebrand from fire, which inclines now toward good, now toward evil, like broken clocks which sometimes run correctly, sometimes run fast or slow.

Whoever has already bound himself with obligation is as if hidden in a strong, watertight boat or conducted a quiet trough through the whirlpool. Without this, even good upbringing will not always save. Let another not fall into gross vices, but still, if he is not bound in himself, then his heart, not released from everything by vow, will be torn by allurements, and he will inevitably come out of the adolescent years cooled, neither here nor there.

So salutary is it before the adolescent years not only to receive good disposition, but also to bind oneself with vow—to be a true Christian. Having decided, let him fear youth itself as fire, and therefore avoid all occasions in which youth easily breaks loose and becomes uncontrollable.

Youth itself is dangerous; but to this two inclinations proper to this age are added, through which the youthful awakenings burn more fiercely and acquire greater power and danger. These are: a) a thirst for impressions and b) an inclination to social intercourse. Therefore as a means to avoid the danger of the adolescent age, one can advise—to subject to rules these inclinations, so that instead of good they do not bring harm. Good dispositions, aroused before, will remain in full force if they are not extinguished or suppressed.

Thirst for impressions imparts a certain impulsiveness, continuity, and diversity to the actions of a youth. He wants to test all himself, see all, hear all, be everywhere. Look for him where there is brilliance for the eyes, harmony for the ear, space for movement. He wants to be under a continuous stream of impressions, always new and therefore diverse. He cannot sit at home, stand in one place, or attend to one subject. His element is distraction. But this is not enough for him; he is not content with actual, personal experience, but wants to assimilate and, as it were, transfer to himself the impressions of others, to learn what others felt, how they acted in like circumstances. Then he throws himself on books and begins to read; he flips through one book after another, often without discerning their content; his main thing is to find so-called effect, no matter what kind of things and what they touch. New, vivid, sharp—the best recommendation for a book in his view. Here is revealed and formed the inclination to light reading—the same thirst for impressions, only in another form. But even here it is not all. A youth often becomes bored with the real, with what is as if imposed on him from outside: this binds him and encloses him too narrowly, and he seeks a certain freedom. Then he often tears himself from reality, withdraws into his own created world and there begins to act grandly. Fantasy builds him whole stories, where most often the hero is his own person. A youth is only entering life. Before him is an attractive, tempting future. With time he must be there too: what will he be? Cannot one somehow lift this veil and look? Fantasy, very mobile in these years, does not delay to satisfy. Here is revealed and in this kind of action imagination is cultivated.

Dreams, light reading, distractions—all this is almost one in spirit—desires hunger for impressions, hunger for what is new and diverse. The harm from them is the same. Nothing can better kill the good seeds laid before in the heart of a youth than these. A young flower planted in a place where winds blow from all sides will suffer a little and wither; grass which is constantly walked on does not grow; a part of the body subjected to long friction becomes numb. The same happens to the heart and good dispositions in it, if one gives oneself over to dreams or empty reading or distractions. Whoever has long stood in the wind, especially a damp wind, when entering shelter feels that everything in him is somehow out of place; the same happens in a soul distracted in whatever way. Returning from dispersion into itself, a youth finds in his soul everything in perverted order; and most of all—all that is good is covered with a certain veil of oblivion, and on the front stage stand only the charms left by impression; consequently, no longer that which was and should always be: the dispositions have changed in their primacy. Why, after returning into itself following some distraction, does the soul begin to grieve? Because it finds itself robbed. The distracted one made his soul a great road through which, via imagination, tempting objects pass like shadows and lure the soul after themselves. But while it is in this way torn from itself, the devil quietly approaches, steals the good seed and sows evil. So the Savior teaches when He explains who steals what is sown by the wayside, and who sows the tares. Both the enemy of mankind does.

Therefore, youth! If it is desirable to you to preserve the purity and innocence of childhood or the vow of Christian life without reproach? With as much strength and prudence as you have, refrain from distractions, disorderly reading of tempting books, and dreams! How good it is to subject oneself in this case to strict and very strict discipline and to be all the time of youth under guidance. Those youths who are not allowed to manage their own conduct until maturity can be called happy. And every youth ought to rejoice if he is placed in such circumstances. The youth himself, it is evident, can hardly reach this; but he will show much wisdom if he believes the counsel to be more at home at work, not to dream and not to read empty things. Let him turn away distraction through diligence, musing through serious occupations under guidance, to which the reading in particular must be subject, both in the choice of books and in the manner of reading. However, however this is done, let it only be done. Passions, doubts, allurments are kindled precisely in this, so to speak, shaky ferment of the youth’s mind.

The second, equally dangerous inclination in a youth is the inclination to social intercourse. It is revealed in the need for companionship, friendship, and love. All of them in their true order are good, but to place them in this order belongs not to the youth.

The adolescent age is a time of lively feelings. They come to his heart like the tide and ebb to the shores of the sea. Everything occupies him, everything amazes him. Nature and society have opened their treasures before him. But feelings do not like to be hidden within themselves, and the youth wants to share them. Then he has need of a person who could share his feelings, that is, in a companion and friend. A noble need, but it can also be dangerous! To whom you entrust your feelings, you give to him in a certain way power over you. How then must one be careful in choosing a close person! You will meet one who can lead you far, far from the straight path. It is self-evident that the good naturally strives toward the good and turns away from the bad. There is a certain taste for this in the heart. But, again, how often it happens that simplicity of heart is led astray by cunning! Then it is justly advised to every youth to be careful in choosing a friend. It is good not to form a friendship until you have tried a friend. Even better to have as a first friend a father or one who in many ways takes the place of a father, or one of the relatives, experienced and good. For one who has decided to live as a Christian, the first friend given by God is a spiritual father; with him converse, entrust to him your secrets, weigh and be taught by him. Under his guidance, with prayer, God will send, if needed, another friend too. But there is not so much danger in friendship as in companionship. We rarely see friends, but rather acquaintances and companions. And here how much harm is possible and happens! There are circles of companions with very questionable rules. Having inclined toward them, you will not notice how you unite with them in spirit, similar to how imperceptibly one is poisoned by the stench in a foul place. They themselves often lose awareness of the impropriety of their conduct and calmly grow crude in it. If in someone this awareness awakens, he does not have the strength to leave. Each fears to declare this, expecting that afterward everywhere he will be pursued with barbs, and he says: “So be it, perhaps it will pass.” “Bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). Save, O Lord, everyone from these depths of Satan. For one who has decided to work for the Lord, the only companionship is with those who are pious, who seek the Lord; from others one must withdraw and not genuinely associate with them, following the example of the holy ones of God.

The very height of dangers for a youth—from intercourse with the other sex. While in the first temptations the youth only goes astray from the right path, here he, in addition, loses himself. In its first awakening this matter is confused with the need for beauty, which from the time of its awakening makes the youth seek satisfaction for himself. Meanwhile, beauty gradually begins in his soul to take form, and usually human form, because we find nothing more beautiful than it… The created image hovers in the head of the youth. From that time he seeks, as it were, beauty, that is, the ideal, not of earth, meanwhile he meets the daughter of man and is wounded by her. This wounding must be avoided by the youth most of all, because this is a sickness so dangerous that the patient wishes to be ill to the point of madness.

How to turn away this wound? Do not go the way by which one comes to wounding.

This way is depicted thus in one psychology. It has three turns.

First there awakens in the youth a certain sorrowful feeling of something unknown and from what, resonating, however, especially in that he is, as it were, alone. This is the feeling of solitude. From this feeling at once is born another—a certain pity, tenderness and concern for oneself. Before he lived as if not noticing himself. Now he turns to himself, examines himself and always finds that he is not bad, not from the worst, he is a person of worth: he begins to feel his beauty, the pleasantness of the forms of his body, or—to like himself. This ends the first movement of temptation toward oneself. From then on the youth turns toward the outer world.

This entrance into the outer world is animated by conviction that he ought to please others. In this conviction he boldly and, as it were, victoriously enters the field of action and, perhaps for the first time, makes it a law for himself to be neat, clean, well-dressed to the point of dandyism; begins to wander, or to seek acquaintances, as if without definite aim, yet by secret draw of something seeking in the heart, and while doing this he strives to shine with wit, pleasantness in intercourse, attentive care, in general with everything by which he hopes to please. Along with this he gives all freedom to the chief organ of soul-communion—the eye.

In this disposition he is like powder placed under sparks and soon meets his sickness. Struck or shot through by the glance of the eye or a particularly pleasant voice like an arrow, he stands at first in a certain rapture and consternation, from which, coming to himself and regaining his senses, he finds that his attention and heart are turned to one object and drawn to it with irresistible force. From then on the heart begins to be gnawed by anguish; the youth is dejected, absorbed in himself, occupied by something important, seeks, as if he has lost something, and whatever he does, does it for one person and, as if in his presence. He is truly lost; sleep and food do not come to mind, ordinary tasks are forgotten and fall into disorder; nothing is dear to him. He is sick with a fierce sickness that squeezes the heart, constricts breathing, dries up the very sources of life. Behold the gradual course of wounding! And it is self-evident what the youth must fear so as not to fall into this calamity. Do not go this way! Drive away the forerunners—the undefined sadness and feeling of solitude. Do the opposite: it has become sad—do not dream, but begin to do something serious with attention and it will pass. Self-pity has begun to be born or the feeling of one’s own attractiveness—hasten to sober yourself and drive away this fancy with some severity and cruelty to yourself, especially by clarifying the sound understanding of the worthlessness of what creeps into the head. Chance or intentional humiliation in this case was like water on fire… One must take special care to suppress and drive away this feeling because here is the beginning of movement. Stop here—you will not go further: there will arise neither the desire to please, nor the seeking of adornments and dandyism, nor the desire for visits. Let these break through—and fight them. What a reliable fence in this case—strict discipline in all things, bodily and even more mental labor! Intensify your studies, stay at home, do not be distracted. If you need to go out—guard your senses, flee the other sex, and most of all—pray.

Besides these dangers flowing from the properties of the adolescent age, there are two more: first—the disposition by which rational knowledge, or personal comprehension, is exalted to the heavens. A youth considers it an advantage—to cast the shadow of doubt on everything, and puts aside everything that does not coincide with the measure of his understanding. By this alone he cuts from his heart all disposition of faith and the Church, consequently falls away from it and remains alone. Seeking a replacement for what was abandoned, he throws himself on theories built without regard to revealed truth, ensnares himself in them and expels from his mind all truths of faith. Even greater harm if the reason is given by the teaching of sciences in schools and if such a spirit becomes predominant there. They think they possess truth, but gather nebulous ideas, empty, fanciful, for the most part even contrary to sound sense, which, however, attract the inexperienced and become an idol for the inquisitive youth. Second—worldliness. Let it present something useful, but its predominance in a youth is harmful. It is marked by life according to the impressions of the senses, such a state in which a person is little in himself but almost all outside, either by deed or by dream. With such a disposition they hate inner life and those who speak of it and live it. True Christians are for them mystics confused in concepts, or hypocrites and so forth. The spirit of the world hinders them from understanding truth, reigning in the circle of worldly life, to which they are allowed to touch freely and are even advised to touch, and youths are permitted. By this touching, the world, with all its corrupt concepts and customs, is stuffed into the receptive soul of the youth, not forewarned, not disposed contrary to it, but only beginning to take disposition, and is imprinted on it as on wax—and he involuntarily becomes a child of it. But this childhood is contrary to childhood of God in Christ Jesus.

Behold the dangers to youths from youth! And how hard it is to endure! But to one who is well brought up and who has decided to devote himself to God before the adolescent years, it is not so dangerous; endure a little while, and then the purest and most blessed peace will come. Keep only the vow of Christian pure life in this time; and afterward you will live with a certain holy unshakability. Whoever has passed safely through the adolescent years, it is as if he has swum through a turbulent river and, looking back, blesses God. But another, with tears in his eyes, in repentance, turns back and mourns himself. What you lose in youth you can never recover. Whoever has fallen—will he ever reach what one who has not fallen possesses?

From what has been said thus far it is easy to understand the reason why those who preserve the grace of baptism are so rare. Upbringing is the cause of all, both good and evil.

For this reason the grace of baptism is not preserved, because the order, rules, and laws of education adapted to it are not observed. The chief causes are:

Separation from the Church and its grace-filled means. This starves the seedling of Christian life, severing it from its sources, and it withers, as a flower withers when placed in a dark place.

Neglect of the body’s functions. People think the body can develop in every way without harm to the soul; meanwhile, in its functions lie the seats of passions, which develop together with the body’s development, take root, and gain dominion over the soul. Penetrating the bodily functions, the passions establish in them a dwelling place, or construct from them something like an impregnable fortress and thereby secure their power over everything that follows.

Undiscerning, goalless development of the soul’s powers. Without seeing the aim ahead—one doesn’t see the path to it. Hence, despite all attention to the most modern education, they do nothing but inflame curiosity, willfulness, and thirst for pleasures.

Complete forgetfulness of the spirit. Prayer, fear of God, conscience are rarely heeded. Let there be visible correctness, and those inmost spiritual states are always presupposed and therefore always left as they are.

During education—overshadowing the principal work with secondary concerns, obscuring the one with a multitude of others.

Finally, entering youth without having first laid down good principles and the resolve to live as a Christian, and then failing to restrain the impulses of youth’s life in proper order, abandoning oneself to every craving for impressions through distraction, light reading, kindling the imagination with fantasies, indiscriminate association with those like oneself and especially with the opposite sex, exclusive devotion to learning and adherence to the spirit of the world, current opinions, rules and customs, which are never favorable to the life of grace but are always hostilely arrayed against it and strive to suppress it.

Any one of these causes alone is sufficient to extinguish the life of grace in a person. But it usually happens that they act together, and one inevitably draws another; altogether they so smother the spiritual life that sometimes even the slightest traces of it are not visible, as if the person had no spirit, was not created for communion with God, does not have the powers ordained for this, and did not receive the grace that animates them.

Why is not a purposeful order in education maintained? The reason is either ignorance of such an order or neglect of it. Education left to itself without attention necessarily takes on distorted, false, and harmful directions, first in home life and then during schooling. But even where education appears to be carried out not without attention and is subject to certain rules, it proves often fruitless and deflecting from the goal, because of the false ideas and principles on which its order is built. That which should be aimed at is not that which is kept in view, not that which is made the chief concern; namely, not pleasing God, not the salvation of the soul, but something quite different: either the perfecting of natural powers only, or adaptation to duties, or fitness for life in society, and so forth. But when the principle is impure and false, by necessity that which is built upon it cannot lead to good.

As the chief deviations one can point to:

The exclusion of grace-filled means. It is the natural consequence of forgetting that the one being educated is a Christian and possesses not only natural but also grace-filled powers. Without these means, a Christian is an ungardened garden, which prowling demons trample, which the storm of sin and the world breaks, which no one can manage or drive away.

The predominant preparation for happiness in temporal life, with the suppression of memory of the eternal. This is what is spoken of at home, this is what is expounded in the classroom, this is what is put forward as chief in simple conversations.

The predominance of the external in all things, not excluding even sacred service.

Not prepared at home, having gone through such education, is inevitably befuddled in his head, looks at everything not with the eyes he should; represents everything in a distorted form, as if through broken or false spectacles. Therefore, he does not want to listen either about his last true goal or about the means to it. All this is foreign business to him, as if a joke.

After this it is not difficult to determine what exactly is needed to correct such a poor state of affairs. It is necessary:

To understand well and assimilate the principles of true Christian education and act according to them, first of all at home. Domestic education is the root and foundation of all that follows. One who is well educated and established at home will not easily be led astray from the right path by defective school education.

Then to rebuild school education according to new, true principles, to introduce Christian elements into it, to correct the defective; the chief thing—to keep throughout the time of education the one being educated under the abundant influence of the Holy Church, which through all its arrangement acts salutarily on the building of the spirit. This would prevent sinful impulses from igniting, would blow away the spirit of the world and drive the spirit out from the abyss. Together with this one must direct everything from the temporal to the eternal, from the external to the internal, educate the children of the Church, members of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Most necessary of all: to educate educators under the guidance of such persons as know true education not from theory but from experience. Forming themselves under the oversight of the most experienced educators, they will again transmit their skill to others, to those who come after, and so on. An educator must go through all the degrees of Christian perfection so that later in his work he may know how to conduct himself, be capable of noticing the directions of those being educated, and then act upon them with patience, successfully, powerfully, fruitfully. This ought to be an order of persons most pure, chosen by God, and holy. Education among all holy works is the holiest.

The fruit of good education is the preservation of the grace of holy baptism. The latter compensates with abundance for all the labor in the former. For certain high privileges belong to the one who has preserved the grace of baptism and from the first years dedicated himself to God.

The first privilege, as it were the foundation of all other privileges, is the wholeness of the natural grace-filled composition. Man is appointed to be a vessel of extraordinarily high powers, ready to pour forth upon him from the source of all good, only let him not disrupt himself. And a penitent can be healed completely; but it seems to him that he is not granted to know and feel what one knows and feels who has not fallen, or he cannot delight in that wholeness and possess that boldness which is its consequence.

From this flow of themselves liveliness, ease, and lack of constraint in doing good. He walks in goodness as in the only natural world to him. A penitent must for a long time strain and accustom himself to this goodness to perform it easily, but even having achieved this, must constantly keep himself in tension and fear. On the contrary, this one lives in simplicity of heart, in a certain confidence of salvation that blesses him, a confidence that is infallible.

Then in his life there is established a certain evenness and unbrokenness. In him there are neither violent impulses nor weakening; and as our breathing is accomplished for the most part evenly, so also his walking in goodness. The same happens in a penitent, but it is not acquired soon and does not appear in such perfection. A repaired wheel often gives notice of its defect; and repaired clocks are no longer as accurate as unrepaired and new ones.

The one who has not fallen is always young. In the features of his moral character are reflected the feelings of a child, while it had not yet become guilty before its father. Here first is the feeling of innocence, childhood in Christ, as it were ignorance of evil. How much it cuts off for him in thoughts and agonizing disturbances of heart! Then comes extraordinary warmth of heart, sincere goodness, gentleness of disposition. In him in all their force are displayed the fruits of the Spirit pointed out by the Apostle: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). He is as if clothed “in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience” (Col 3:12). Then he preserves genuine cheerfulness, or spiritual joy; for in him is the Kingdom of God, which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Then he is possessed of a certain foresight and wisdom, seeing all within himself and around himself and knowing how to manage himself and his affairs. His heart takes on such a disposition that it straightway tells him what and how must be done. Finally, one can say he is possessed of freedom from fear of falling, a feeling of safety in God. “Who will separate us from the love of God?” (Rom 8:35). All this together makes him both worthy of respect and worthy of love. He involuntarily draws others to himself. The existence in the world of such persons is a great grace of God. They take the place of apostolic nets. As many iron filings gather around a strong magnet or as a strong character draws the weak, so the power of the Spirit dwelling in them draws all to itself, especially those who have the beginnings of the spirit.

The chief moral perfection belonging to the one who has kept himself whole through the years of youth is a certain unshakeableness of virtue throughout all life. Samuel remains steadfast through all the temptations of seduction in the house of Eli and amid the upheavals of the people in society. Joseph among unfaithful brothers, in the house of Potiphar, in prison and in glory alike preserved his soul spotless. Truly, “it is good for a man when he has borne the yoke in his youth” (Lam 3:27). “My child, from your youth choose discipline, and” then “you will find wisdom even in old age. You will labor a little in her work, and soon you will eat her fruits” (Sir 6:18, 20). Right disposition becomes as it were second nature, and if it is sometimes somewhat disturbed, it quickly returns to its former order. Therefore in the Menologion we find the saints are for the most part those who preserved moral purity and the grace of baptism in their youth.

Moreover, whoever preserves purity and dedicates himself to God from early years does what is most pleasing to God, brings Him the sacrifice most acceptable—because to God generally, by the law of his judgments, most pleasing of all is the first: the first fruits of the harvest, the firstborn of people, of animals, and consequently the first years of youth; because the sacrifice offered is pure—an spotless youth, which was chiefly required of every sacrifice; because they do this by overcoming no small obstacles both within themselves and without, by renouncing the pleasures to which they feel a special inclination at this time; they accomplish the wisest work. One must dedicate oneself to God, for in this alone is salvation. Unless someone has fallen into despair. But there is nothing better and more sure for this time than the first moment in which we became conscious of ourselves—for who knows what will be tomorrow? But even if someone hoped to live longer, not dedicating any of his time to God, he would only be making things difficult for himself, growing accustomed to an opposite life, and God knows whether he would overcome himself afterward. Even if he did overcome: what kind of sacrifice to God is that—sickly, exhausted, damaged in its members, not whole? However, although all this does happen, how rarely! How rarely does one who has lost innocence manage to recover it! How difficult it is to turn around, not having known good life from childhood, vividly depicted, from his own experience, the blessed Augustine in his confession.

“The years of childhood,” he says, “I spent in pranks and mischief, even forbidden things, in disobedience and heedlessness toward my parents. With entry into youth, licentiousness began, and in three years I became so depraved that for the following 12 years I continually made the intention to reform myself and—found not the strength to fulfill it. Even after I made the turn to a decisive breaking of my will, I still delayed for two years, putting off my conversion from day to day. So weakened was my will by the first passions! But after decisive conversion and receiving grace in holy baptism, what I had to endure, struggling with my passions, which strongly pulled me back to my former path!”

Is it any wonder that so few are saved from those who misspent their youth?! This example shows most clearly what great danger a person is in who has not received good principles in youth and has not dedicated himself to God beforehand. What a blessing therefore to receive true Christian education, to enter with it into the years of youth, and then in the same spirit to enter into the years of adulthood.