again tells the story
in _Our Russian Ally_ which he told in his _Russia_--it will bear
constant repetition--as an instance of real spiritual insight in a
simple and untrained mind. "I remember once asking a common labourer,"
he says, "what he thought of the Mussulman Tartars among whom he
happened to be living; and his reply, given with evident sincerity,
was--'Not a bad sort of people.' 'And what about their religion?' I
inquired. 'Not at all a bad sort of faith--you see they received it like
the colour of their skins, from GOD.'" He assumed, of course, in his
simple piety, that whatever comes from GOD must be good. It necessitated
a very special spiritual experience and real vision before a Christian
Apostle could say the same thing, "Of a truth I perceive that GOD is no
respecter of persons"; but that common labourer in this little incident
had taken in the same wide outlook, in a perfectly normal way, from his
ordinary surroundings and the religious influences which make up such an
important portion of his life.

The lesson is learnt early. I was, one morning, in an elementary school
in Siberia, just before the work of the day began, to speak to the
children. They opened with prayer, but how different from prayers in our
own schools! The master and teachers did nothing except pray with the
rest. At a sign that all was ready a boy of twelve stepped out and took
his place before the _ikon_ in its corner, and then bowing with that
inimitable grace which belongs alone to the Russian when at prayer, and
making the sign of the Cross, he gravely led the simple prayers of the
whole school, all singing softly and reverently in unison. It was all
inexpressibly touching and appealing, and to be treasured up with those
other things of which one says, "I shall never forget."

The sign of the Cross is always made very slowly and solemnly, quite
differently from other Churches, and from right to left upon the breast,
and it is always accompanied by a slow and reverent bowing of the head,
and is repeated usually three times. It is the special sign during the
public services that a worshipper is just then feeling his or her own
part in it. People do not use this devotion at set times during service,
but just when they wish, and as the spirit moves them. I have been in
the S. Isaac's choir when all the men and boys were singing a hymn, and
suddenly a man near me would stop, bow, and cross himself devoutly, and
then resume his hymn.