"
Such the frank and militant commercialism, bellowed out between
glasses of strong liquor. Now comes Mayakin, speaking softly and
without satire:
"Eh, my boy, what is a beggar? A beggar is a man who is forced, by
fate, to remind us of Christ; he is Christ's brother; he is the bell
of the Lord, and rings in life for the purpose of awakening our
conscience, of stirring up the satiety of man's flesh. He stands
under the window and sings, 'For Christ's sa-ake!' and by that chant
he reminds us of Christ, of His holy command to help our neighbour.
But men have so ordered their lives that it is utterly impossible for
them to act in accordance with Christ's teaching, and Jesus Christ
has become entirely superfluous to us. Not once, but, in all
probability, a thousand times, we have given Him over to be
crucified, but still we cannot banish Him from our lives so long as
His poor brethren sing His name in the streets and remind us of Him.
And so now we have hit upon the idea of shutting up the beggars in
such special buildings, so that they may not roam about the streets
and stir up our consciences.
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