at churches, priests, religious ceremonies, angels and devils,
were mere inventions which must be rejected if one wished to live in
conformity with the truth.

As to Paradise, when all the principles of love and compassion were
realised upon earth, earth itself would be Paradise. Private ownership
being the cause of all misery, as well as of crimes and lies, it must
be abolished, together with armies and war. Further, Soutaieff
preached non-resistance to evil, and the avoidance of all violence.
One of his sons, when enrolled as a conscript, refused to carry a
rifle. Arguments and punishments had no effect. He proved that heaven
itself was opposed to the bearing of arms by quoting the Gospel to all
who tried to compel him; and in the end he was imprisoned.

Neither did Soutaieff allow that a man should be judged by his
neighbour. "Judge not, that ye be not judged," was his motto, and his
life filled his followers with enthusiasm, and many besides with
astonishment. This uncultured peasant, who had the courage to throw on
the fire the money he had earned as a mason in St. Petersburg, who
carried the idea of compassion to such lengths that he followed thieves
in order to give them good flour in place of the bad that they had
stolen from him by mistake--this simple-minded being, whose only desire
was to suffer for the "truth," possessed without doubt the soul of a
saint and a visionary.

CHAPTER VI

THE SONS OF GOD

The "sons of God" held that men were really gods, and that as divinity
is manifested in our fellows and in ourselves, it is sufficient to
offer prayers unto--our neighbours! Every man being a god, there are
as many Christs as there are men, as many Holy Virgins as there are
women.

The "sons of God" held assemblies at which they danced wildly, first
together and then separately, until the moment when the women, in
supreme ecstasy, turned from the left, and the men from the right,
towards the rising sun. The dance continued until all reached a state
of hysterical excitement. Then a voice was heard--"Behold the Holy
Spirit!"--and the whole company, emitting cries and groans, would
pursue the dizzy performance with redoubled vigour until they fell to
the ground exhausted.

Their sect originated in the neighbourhood of a great hill, where dwelt
a man named Philipoff with his disciples. He had retired there to work
against the influence of anti-Christ, and it was there that God
appeared to h