Russia is the scene to-day of a "religious" occurrence which
will recall to Anglo-Indians an incident in the life of General Nicholson. The reverence felt for "Father John," a priest of Kronsta.dt who apparently preaches philanthropy, has become so intense that he is hailed in his own church as a reincarna- tion of Christ, that his portrait takes the place in some villages of the sacred ikons and receives similar adoration, and that sects are forming which have for their central idea his worship. The good man himself, like General Nicholson, feels only anger at these manifestations, and threatens his devotees with punishment for blasphemy, of course without the slightest effect. There is something in the Slav nature which makes of ecstatic belief unconnected with reason a kind of delirious pleasure, and it is quite possible that some day we may see a "religious" outburst having important political consequences. Punishment has absolutely no effect upon the Skoptsi (self- mutilators), or the Mennonites (Russian Quakers), or many another obscure sect of which Europe never hears. We doubt if any Czar would dare to adopt the New 'Style, and so throw back the dates of all movable feasts.
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