accurately, the two poles met and embraced
in that church, the heart of the heart of Holy Russia. The early
Patriarchs and Metropolitans are buried in this cathedral in superb
silver-gilt coffins. Of these, the tomb and shrine of Metropolitan Jona
seems to be the goal of the most numerous pilgrimages. I stood near it,
in the rear corner of the church, one Sunday morning, while mass was in
progress. An unbroken stream of people, probably all of them pilgrims to
the Holy City, her saints and shrines, passed me, crossed themselves,
knelt in a "ground reverence," kissed the saint's coffin, then the hand
of the priest, who stood by to preserve order and bless each person as
he or she turned away. To my surprise, I heard many of them inquire the
name of the shrine's occupant _after_ they had finished their prayers.
After the service and a little chat with this priest, who seemed a very
sensible man, we went forward to take another look at the Vladimir
Virgin, the most famous and historical in all Russia, in her golden
case. A gray-haired old army colonel, who wore the Vladimir cross,
perceiving from our speech that we were foreigners, politely began to
explain to us the noteworthy points about the church and the Virgin. It
soon appeared, however, that we were far more familiar with them all
than he was, and we fell into conversation.

"I am stationed in Poland," he said, "and I have never been in Moscow
before. I am come on a pilgrimage to the Holy City, but everything is so
dear here that I must deny myself the pleasure of visiting many of the
shrines in the neighborhood. It is a great happiness to me to be present
thus at the mass in my own _pravoslavny_ church, and in Moscow."

"But there are Orthodox churches in Poland, surely," I said.

"Yes," he replied, "there are a few; and I go whenever I get a chance."

"What do you do when you have not the chance?"

"I go to whatever church there is,--the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran,
the Synagogue."

"Is that allowed?" I asked. I knew very well that Russians attend Roman
Catholic and Protestant churches when abroad, as a matter of course,
though I had not before heard of the Synagogue in the list, and I wished
to hear what the earnest old colonel would say.

"Why not? why should n't I?" he replied. "We all go to church to worship
God and to pray to Him. Does it matter about the form or the language? A
man has as much as he can do to be a Christian and an honest man,--
which