The Kingdom of God is within you by Leo Tolstoy

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All these phenomena might seem to be mere exceptions, except that
they can all be referred to one common cause. Just as one might
fancy the first leaves on the budding trees in April were
exceptional if we did not know that they all have a common cause,
the spring, and that if we see the branches on some trees shooting
and turning green, it is certain that it will soon be so with all.

So it is with the manifestation of the Christian standard of
opinion on force and all that is based on force. If this standard
already influences some, the most impressionable, and impels each
in his own sphere to abandon advantages based on the use of force,
then its influence will extend further and further till it
transforms the whole order of men's actions and puts it into
accord with the Christian ideal which is already a living force in
the vanguard of humanity.

And if there are now rulers, who do not decide on any step on
their own authority, who try to be as unlike monarchs, and as like
plain mortals as possible, who state their readiness to give up
their prerogatives and become simply the first citizens of a
republic; if there are already soldiers who realize all the sin
and harm of war, and are not willing to fire on men either of
their own or a foreign country; judges and prosecutors who do not
like to try and to condemn criminals; priests, who abjure
deception; tax-gatherers who try to perform as little as they can
of their duties, and rich men renouncing their wealth--then the
same thing will inevitably happen to other rulers, other soldiers,
other judges, priests, tax-gatherers, and rich men. And when
there are no longer men willing to fill these offices, these
offices themselves will disappear too.

But this is not the only way in which public opinion is leading
men to the abolition of the prevailing order and the substitution
of a new order. As the positions based on the rule of force
become less attractive and fewer men are found willing to fill
them, the more will their uselessness be apparent.

Everywhere throughout the Christian world the same rulers, and the
same governments, the same armies, the same law courts, the same
tax-gatherers, the same priests, the same rich men, landowners,
manufacturers, and capitalists, as ever, but the attitude of the
world to them, and their attitude to themselves is altogether
changed.

The same sovereigns have still the same audiences and interviews,
hunts and banquets, and balls and uniforms; there are the same
diplomats and the same deliberations on alliances and wars; there
are still the same parliaments, with the same debates on the
Eastern question and Africa, on treaties and violations of
treaties, and Home Rule and the eight-hour day; and one set of
ministers replacing another in the same way, and the same speeches
and the same incidents. But for men who observe how one newspaper
article has more effect on the position of affairs than dozens of
royal audiences or parliamentary sessions, it becomes more and
more evident that these audiences and interviews and debates in
parliaments do not direct the course of affairs, but something
independent of all that, which cannot be concentrated in one
place.

The same generals and officers and soldiers, and cannons and
fortresses, and reviews and maneuvers, but no war breaks out. One
year, ten, twenty years pass by. And it becomes less and less
possible to rely on the army for the pacification of riots, and
more and more evident, consequently, that generals, and officers,
and soldiers are only figures in solemn processions--objects of
amusement for governments--a sort of immense--and far too
expensive--CORPS DE BALLET.

The same lawyers and judges, and the same assizes, but it becomes
more and more evident that the civil courts decide cases on the
most diverse grounds, but regardless of justice, and that criminal
trials are quite senseless, because the punishments do not attain
the objects aimed at by the judges themselves. These institutions
therefore serve no other purpose than to provide a means of
livelihood for men who are not capable of doing anything more
useful.

The same priests and archbishops and churches and synods, but it
becomes more and more evident that they have long ago ceased to
believe in what they preach, and therefore they can convince no
one of the necessity of believing what they don't believe
themselves.

The same tax collectors, but they are less and less capable of
taking men's property from them by force, and it becomes more and
more evident that people can collect all that is necessary by
voluntary subscription without their aid.

The same rich men, but it becomes more and more evident that they
can only be of use by ceasing to administer their property in
person and giving up to society the whole or at least a part of
their wealth.

And when all this has become absolutely evident to everyone, it
will be natural for men to ask themselves: "But why should we keep
and maintain all these kings, emperors, presidents, and members of
all sorts of senates and ministries, since nothing comes of all
their debates and audiences? Wouldn't it be better, as some
humorist suggested, to make a queen of india-rubber?"

And what good to us are these armies with their generals and bands
and horses and drums? And what need is there of them when there
is no war, and no one wants to make war? and if there were a war,
other nations would not let us gain any advantage from it; while
the soldiers refuse to fire on their fellow-countrymen.

And what is the use of these lawyers and judges who don't decide
civil cases with justice and recognize themselves the uselessness
of punishments in criminal cases?

And what is the use of tax collectors who collect the taxes
unwillingly, when it is easy to raise all that is wanted without
them?

What is the use of the clergy, who don't believe in what they
preach?

And what is the use of capital in the hands of private persons,
when it can only be of use as the property of all?

And when once people have asked themselves these questions they
cannot help coming to some decision and ceasing to support all
these institutions which are no longer of use.

But even before those who support these institutions decide to
abolish them, the men who occupy these positions will be reduced
to the necessity of throwing them up.

Public opinion more and more condemns the use of force, and
therefore men are less and less willing to fill positions which
rest on the use of force, and if they do occupy them, are less and
less able to make use of force in them. And hence they must become
more and more superfluous.

I once took part in Moscow in a religious meeting which used to
take place generally in the week after Easter near the church in
the Ohotny Row. A little knot of some twenty men were collected
together on the pavement, engaged in serious religious discussion.
At the same time there was a kind of concert going on in the
buildings of the Court Club in the same street, and a police
officer noticing the little group collected near the church sent a
mounted policeman to disperse it. It was absolutely unnecessary
for the officer to disperse it. A group of twenty men was no
obstruction to anyone, but he had been standing there the whole
morning, and he wanted to do something. The policeman, a young
fellow, with a resolute flourish of his right arm and a clink of
his saber, came up to us and commanded us severely: "Move on!
what's this meeting about?" Everyone looked at the policeman, and
one of the speakers, a quiet man in a peasant's dress, answered
with a calm and gracious air, "We are speaking of serious matters,
and there is no need for us to move on; you would do better, young
man, to get off your horse and listen. It might do you good";
and turning round he continued his discourse. The policeman
turned his horse and went off without a word.

That is just what should be done in all cases of violence.

The officer was bored, he had nothing to do. He had been put,
poor fellow, in a position in which he had no choice but to give
orders. He was shut off from all human existence; he could do
nothing but superintend and give orders, and give orders and
superintend, though his superintendence and his orders served no
useful purpose whatever. And this is the position in which all
these unlucky rulers, ministers, members of parliament, governors,
generals, officers, archbishops, priests, and even rich men find
themselves to some extent already, and will find themselves
altogether as time goes on. They can do nothing but give orders,
and they give orders and send their messengers, as the officer
sent the policeman, to interfere with people. And because the
people they hinder turn to them and request them not to interfere,
they fancy they are very useful indeed.

But the time will come and is coming when it will be perfectly
evident to everyone that they are not of any use at all, and only
a hindrance, and those whom they interfere with will say gently
and quietly to them, like my friend in the street meeting, "Pray
don't interfere with us." And all the messengers and those who
send them too will be obliged to follow this good advice, that is
to say, will leave off galloping about, with their arms akimbo,
interfering with people, and getting off their horses and removing
their spurs, will listen to what is being said, and mixing with
others, will take their place with them in some real human work.

The time will come and is inevitably coming when all institutions
based on force will disappear through their uselessness,
stupidity, and even inconvenience becoming obvious to all.

The time must come when the men of our modern world who fill
offices based upon violence will find themselves in the position
of the emperor in Andersen's tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes,"
when the child seeing the emperor undressed, cried in all
simplicity, "Look, he is naked!" And then all the rest, who had
seen him and said nothing, could not help recognizing it too.

The story is that there was once an emperor, very fond of new
clothes. And to him came two tailors, who promised to make him
some extraordinary clothes. The emperor engages them and they
begin to sew at them, but they explain that the clothes have the
extraordinary property of remaining invisible to anyone who is
unfit for his position. The courtiers come to look at the
tailors' work and see nothing, for the men are plying their
needles in empty space. But remembering the extraordinary
property of the clothes, they all declare they see them and are
loud in their admiration. The emperor does the same himself. The
day of the procession comes in which the emperor is to go out in
his new clothes. The emperor undresses and puts on his new
clothes, that is to say, remains naked, and naked he walks through
the town. But remembering the magic property of the clothes, no
one ventures to say that he has nothing on till a little child
cries out: "Look, he is naked!"

This will be exactly the situation of all who continue through
inertia to fill offices which have long become useless directly
someone who has no interest in concealing their uselessness
exclaims in all simplicity: "But these people have been of no use
to anyone for a long time past!"

The condition of Christian humanity with its fortresses, cannons,
dynamite, guns, torpedoes, prisons, gallows, churches, factories,
customs offices, and palaces is really terrible. But still
cannons and guns will not fire themselves, prisons will not shut
men up of themselves, gallows will not hang them, churches will
not delude them, nor customs offices hinder them, and palaces and
factories are not built nor kept up of themselves. All those
things are the work of men. If men come to understand that they
ought not to do these things, then they will cease to be. And
already they are beginning to understand it. Though all do not
understand it yet, the advanced guard understand and the rest will
follow them. And the advanced guard cannot cease to understand
what they have once understood; and what they understand the rest
not only can but must inevitably understand hereafter.

So that the prophecy that the time will come when men will be
taught of God, will learn war no more, will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into reaping-hooks, which means,
translating it into our language, the fortresses, prisons,
barracks, palaces, and churches will remain empty, and all the
gibbets and guns and cannons will be left unused, is no longer a
dream, but the definite new form of life to which mankind is
approaching with ever-increasing rapidity.

But when will it be?

Eighteen hundred years ago to this question Christ answered
that the end of the world (that is, of the pagan organization of
life) shall come when the tribulation of men is greater than it
has ever been, and when the Gospel of the kingdom of God, that is,
the possibility of a new organization of life, shall be preached
in the world unto all nations. (Matt. xxiv. 3-28.) But of that
day and hour knoweth no man but the Father only (Matt. xxiv. 3-6),
said Christ. For it may come any time, in such an hour as
ye think not.

To the question when this hour cometh Christ answers that we
cannot know, but just because we cannot know when that hour is
coming we ought to be always ready to meet it, just as the master
ought to watch who guards his house from thieves, as the virgins
ought to watch with lamps alight for the bridegroom; and further,
we ought to work with all the powers given us to bring that hour
to pass, as the servants ought to work with the talents intrusted
to them. (Matt. xxiv. 43, and xxvi. 13, 14-30.) And there could
be no answer but this one. Men cannot know when the day and the
hour of the kingdom of God will come, because its coming depends
on themselves alone.

The answer is like that of the wise man who, when asked whether it
was far to the town, answered, "Walk!"

How can we tell whether it is far to the goal which humanity is
approaching, when we do not know how men are going toward it,
while it depends on them whether they go or do not go, stand
still, slacken their pace or hasten it? All we can know is what
we who make up mankind ought to do, and not to do, to bring about
the coming of the kingdom of God. And that we all know. And we
need only each begin to do what we ought to do, we need only each
live with all the light that is in us, to bring about at once the
promised kingdom of God to which every man's heart is yearning.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION--REPENT YE, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND.

1. Chance Meeting with a Train Carrying Soldiers to Restore Order
Among the Famishing Peasants--Reason of the Expedition--How the
Decisions of the Higher Authorities are Enforced in Cases of
Insubordination on Part of the Peasants--What Happened at Orel, as
an Example of How the Rights of the Propertied Classes are
Maintained by Murder and Torture--All the Privileges of the
Wealthy are Based on Similar Acts of Violence.

2. The Elements that Made up the Force Sent to Toula, and the
Conduct of the Men Composing it--How these Men Could Carry Out
such Acts--The Explanation is Not to be Found in Ignorance,
Conviction, Cruelty, Heartlessness, or Want of Moral Sense--They
do these Things Because they are Necessary to Support the Existing
Order, which they Consider it Every Man's Duty to Support--The
Basis of this Conviction that the Existing Order is Necessary and
Inevitable--In the Upper Classes this Conviction is Based on the
Advantages of the Existing Order for Themselves--But what Forces
Men of the Lower Classes to Believe in the Immutability of the
Existing Order, from which they Derive no Advantage, and which
they Aid in Maintaining, Facts Contrary to their Conscience?--This
is the Result of the Lower Classes being Deluded by the Upper,
Both as to the Inevitability of the Existing Order and the
Lawfulness of the Acts of Violence Needed to Maintain it--
Deception in General--Special Form of Deception in Regard to
Military Service--Conscription.

3. How can Men Allow that Murder is Permissible while they Preach
Principles of Morality, and How can they Allow of the Existence in
their Midst of a Military Organization of Physical Force which is
a Constant Menace to Public Security?--It is only Allowed by the
Upper Classes, who Profit by this Organization, Because their
Privileges are Maintained by it--The Upper Classes Allow it, and
the Lower Classes Carry it into Effect in Spite of their
Consciousness of the Immorality of the Deeds of Violence, the More
Readily Because Through the Arrangements of the Government the
Moral Responsibility for such Deeds is Divided among a Great
Number of Participants in it, and Everyone Throws the
Responsibility on Someone Else--Moreover, the Sense of Moral
Responsibility is Lost through the Delusion of Inequality, and the
Consequent Intoxication of Power on the Part of Superiors, and
Servility on the Part of Inferiors--The Condition of these Men,
Acting against the Dictates of their Conscience, is Like that of
Hypnotized Subjects Acting by Suggestion--The Difference between
this Obedience to Government Suggestion, and Obedience to Public
Opinion, and to the Guidance of Men of a Higher Moral Sense--The
Existing Order of Society, which is the Result of an Extinct
Public Opinion and is Inconsistent with the Already Existing
Public Opinion of the Future, is only Maintained by the
Stupefaction of the Conscience, Produced Spontaneously by Self-
interest in the Upper Classes and Through Hypnotizing in the Lower
Classes--The Conscience or the Common Sense of such Men may
Awaken, and there are Examples of its Sudden Awakening, so that
one can Never be Sure of the Deeds of Violence they are Prepared
for--It Depends Entirely on the Point which the Sense of the
Unlawfulness of Acts of Violence has Reached, and this Sense may
Spontaneously Awaken in Men, or may be Reawakened by the Influence
of Men of more Conscience.

4. Everything Depends on the Strength of the Consciousness of
Christian Truths in Each Individual Man--The Leading Men of Modern
Times, however, do not Think it Necessary to Preach or Practice
the Truths of Christianity, but Regard the Modification of the
External Conditions of Existence within the Limit Imposed by
Governments as Sufficient to Reform the Life of Humanity--On this
Scientific Theory of Hypocrisy, which has Replaced the Hypocrisy
of Religion, Men of the Wealthy Classes Base their Justification
of their Position--Through this Hypocrisy they can Enjoy the
Exclusive Privileges of their Position by Force and Fraud, and
Still Pretend to be Christians to One Another and be Easy in their
Minds--This Hypocrisy Allows Men who Preach Christianity to Take
Part in Institutions Based on Violence--No External Reformation of
Life will Render it Less Miserable--Its Misery the Result of
Disunion Caused by Following Lies, not the Truth--Union only
Possible in Truth--Hypocrisy Hinders this Union, since Hypocrites
Conceal from themselves and Others the Truth they Know--Hypocrisy
Turns all Reforms of Life to Evil--Hypocrisy Distorts the Idea of
Good and Evil, and so Stands in the Way of the Progress of Men
toward Perfection--Undisguised Criminals and Malefactors do Less
Harm than those who Live by Legalized Violence, Disguised by
Hypocrisy--All Men Feel the Iniquity of our Life, and would Long
Ago have Transformed it if it had not been Dissimulated by
Hypocrisy--But Seem to have Reached the Extreme Limits of
Hypocrisy, and we Need only Make an Effort of Conscience to Awaken
as from a Nightmare to a Different Reality.

5. Can Man Make this Effort?--According to the Hypocritical Theory
of the Day, Man is not Free to Transform his Life--Man is not Free
in his Actions, but he is Free to Admit or to Deny the Truth he
Knows--When Truth is Once Admitted, it Becomes the Basis of
Action--Man's Threefold Relation to Truth--The Reason of the
Apparent Insolubility of the Problem of Free Will--Man's Freedom
Consists in the Recognition of the Truth Revealed to him. There
is no Other Freedom--Recognition of Truth Gives Freedom, and Shows
the Path Along which, Willingly or Unwillingly by Mankind, Man
Must Advance--The Recognition of Truth and Real Freedom Enables
Man to Share in the Work of God, not as the Slave, but as the
Creator of Life--Men Need only Make the Effort to Renounce all
Thought of Bettering the External Conditions of Life and Bend all
their Efforts to Recognizing and Preaching the Truth they Know, to
put an End to the Existing Miserable State of Things, and to Enter
upon the Kingdom of God so far as it is yet Accessible to Man--All
that is Needed is to Make an End of Lying and Hypocrisy--But then
what Awaits us in the Future?--What will Happen to Humanity if Men
Follow the Dictates of their Conscience, and how can Life go on
with the Conditions of Civilized Life to which we are Accustomed?
--All Uneasiness on these Points may be Removed by the Reflection
that Nothing True and Good can be Destroyed by the Realization of
Truth, but will only be Freed from the Alloy of Falsehood.

6. Our Life has Reached the Extreme Limit of Misery and Cannot be
Improved by any Systems of Organization--All our Life and all our
Institutions are Quite Meaningless--Are we Doing what God Wills of
us by Preserving our Privileges and Duties to Government?--We are
put in this Position not Because the World is so Made and it is
Inevitable, but Because we Wish it to be so, Because it is to the
Advantage of Some of us--Our Conscience is in Opposition to our
Position and all our Conduct, and the Way Out of the Contradiction
is to be Found in the Recognition of the Christian Truth: Do Not
unto Others what you Would Not they should Do unto You--As our
Duties to Self Must be Subordinated to our Duties to Others, so
Must our Duties to Others be Subordinated to our Duties to God--
The Only Way Out of our Position Lies, if not in Renouncing our
Position and our Privileges, at Least in Recognizing our Sin and
not Justifying it nor Disguising it--The Only Object of Life is to
Learn the Truth and to Act on it--Acceptance of the Position and
of State Action Deprives Life of all Object--It is God's Will that
we should Serve Him in our Life, that is, that we should Bring
About the Greatest Unity of all that has Life, a Unity only
Possible in Truth.

I was finishing this book, which I had been working at for two
years, when I happened on the 9th of September to be traveling by
rail through the governments of Toula and Riazan, where the
peasants were starving last year and where the famine is even more
severe now. At one of the railway stations my train passed an
extra train which was taking a troop of soldiers under the conduct
of the governor of the province, together with muskets,
cartridges, and rods, to flog and murder these same famishing
peasants.

The punishment of flogging by way of carrying the decrees of the
authorities into effect has been more and more frequently adopted
of late in Russia, in spite of the fact that corporal punishment
was abolished by law thirty years ago.

I had heard of this, I had even read in the newspapers of the
fearful floggings which had been inflicted in Tchernigov, Tambov,
Saratov, Astrakhan, and Orel, and of those of which the governor
of Nijni-Novgorod, General Baranov, had boasted. But I had never
before happened to see men in the process of carrying out these
punishments.

And here I saw the spectacle of good Russians full of the
Christian spirit traveling with guns and rods to torture and kill
their starving brethren. The reason for their expedition was as
follows:

On one of the estates of a rich landowner the peasants had common
rights on the forest, and having always enjoyed these rights,
regarded the forest as their own, or at least as theirs in common
with the owner. The landowner wished to keep the forest entirely
to himself and began to fell the trees. The peasants lodged a
complaint. The judges in the first instance gave an unjust
decision (I say unjust on the authority of the lawyer and
governor, who ought to understand the matter), and decided the
case in favor of the landowner. All the later decisions, even
that of the senate, though they could see that the matter had been
unjustly decided, confirmed the judgment and adjudged the forest
to the landowner. He began to cut down the trees, but the
peasants, unable to believe that such obvious injustice could be
done them by the higher authorities, did not submit to the
decision and drove away the men sent to cut down the trees,
declaring that the forest belonged to them and they would go to
the Tzar before they would let them cut it down.

The matter was referred to Petersburg, and the order was
transmitted to the governor to carry the decision of the court
into effect. The governor asked for a troop of soldiers. And
here were the soldiers with bayonets and cartridges, and moreover,
a supply of rods, expressly prepared for the purpose and heaped up
in one of the trucks, going to carry the decision of the higher
authorities into effect.

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