[From St. Theophan the Recluse]
So will I save you, and you shall be a blessing promises the Lord through the Prophet Zachariah (Zach 8:13). But under what condition? Under the condition that every man will speak the truth to his neighbor, that men will righteously sort out their affairs amongst themselves, that men will not remember wrongs in their hearts against their neighbor, that they will love no false oath, and will love truth and peace. If these conditions are met, says the Lord, they shall be to Me a people, and I will be to them a God, in truth and in righteousness (Zach 8:8), and His blessing shall spread among them. Then all strangers shall hear and say, 'Let us go speedily to them to pray before the Lord, for we have heard that the Lord is with them (cf Zach 8:21-23). And many peoples and many nations shall come to seek earnestly the face of the Lord Almighty (Zach 8:22).
Thus did the high moral purity of the first Christians attract people to the nations of the Lord. Those who live always according to the spirit of Christ are, without the use of words, the best preachers of Christ and the most convincing apostles of Christianity.
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