Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1and to-morrow it will be seen how much he is crushed.
And is not the counsel for the defence too modest in ask-
ing only for the acquittal of the prisoner? Why not found a
charity in the honour of the parricide to commemorate his
exploit among future generations? Religion and the Gospel
are corrected — that’s all mysticism, we are told, and ours
is the only true Christianity which has been subjected to
the analysis of reason and common sense. And so they set
up before us a false semblance of Christ! ‘What measure ye
mete so it shall be meted unto you again,’ cried the counsel
for the defence, and instantly deduces that Christ teaches us
to measure as it is measured to us and this from the tribune
of truth and sound sense! We peep into the Gospel only on
the eve of making speeches, in order to dazzle the audience
by our acquaintance with what is, anyway, a rather original
composition, which may be of use to produce a certain ef-
fect — all to serve the purpose! But what Christ commands
us is something very different: He bids us beware of doing
this, because the wicked world does this, but we ought to
forgive and to turn the other cheek, and not to measure to
our persecutors as they measure to us. This is what our God
has taught us and not that to forbid children to murder their
fathers is a prejudice. And we will not from the tribune of
truth and good sense correct the Gospel of our Lord, Whom
the counsel for the defence deigns to call only ‘the cruci-
fied lover of humanity,’ in opposition to all orthodox Russia,
which calls to Him, ‘For Thou art our God!’’
At this the President intervened and checked the over-
zealous speaker, begging him not to exaggerate, not to