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In
his provocative little essay entitled
How
Much Land Does a Man Need”,
Leo
Tolstoy introduces us to a Russian peasant named Pakhom, who was
satisfied with his modest way of life until the Devil moved in to
tempt him. The temptation stemmed from a conversation that he
overheard between his wife and her older sister who was visiting
from the city. The older woman was a merchant’s wife who
boasted of her gala life in the city. Not only did she dine well,
she told her peasant sister, but took drives in the park, attended
the theatre, and dressed her family elegantly. This really did not
bother the younger sister, for she was persuaded that she had enough
to live happily. But Pakhom, who was listening from behind the
stove, was convinced that the life of a peasant was the life of
folly. “Our one trouble is so little land,” he said. If
I only had as much land as I wanted, I shouldn’t be afraid of
anyone, even of the Devil.”
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Tolstoy
has the Devil listening to Pakhom just as Pakhom was listening to
the women. Says the Devil to himself, as if to Pakhom: “I will
give you a lot of land. I’ll get you through the land.”
The Devil was especially eager for a victory since Pakhom had
boasted that if he had enough land he would not even fear the Devil.
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The
story goes on to show how Pakhom through hard work and careful
planning began to accumulate small pieces of property next to his
own, and then larger pieces. He always wanted just the land next to
his own! He could not get enough, even when he had far more than he
dreamed of possessing. The story reaches its climax when he hears of
a place in a remote part of Russia that made unusual deals for large
holdings of property. Pakhom had to go.
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The
deal that the Bashkirs made him was that for 1,000 florins he could
have all the land he could encircle in a day. They sold land by the
day,
they explained. not by the acre! The only stipulation was that he
had to be back to the starting point before the sun goes down.
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The
former peasant who was now a rich man and on the verge of being even
richer was delighted. He could hardly sleep that night. anticipating
all the land that would be transferred into his name
the
next
day. He was at the starting point at the break of day, along with
the Bashkirs who supplied him with a hoe with which to mark the
corners of the property as he made his turns.
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The
land was more attractive than Pakhom had imagined. He just had to
include the next hill in his circle of new property. On and on he
went before marking his first turn. He cautioned himself not to be
greedy and to make sure that he had plenty of time to get back
before sunset. But the sun seemed to race across the sky, and he was
feint of heart to realize he may have gone too far. Tolstoy’s
description of Pakhom working his way back, struggling and panting
and sweating and discarding most of his clothing in the mad
scramble, would depict many a modern business man in his frantic
race for the dollar.
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Pakhom
was sure he had blown it when he saw that the sun still shone up the
hill where the Bashkirs were waiting. He gave it his last spurt of
energy and reached the goal just as the sun sank. The leading
Bashkir offered his congratulations on what a fine piece of property
he had gained when he noticed blood trickling from Pakhom’s
mouth. He fell over dead. The Bashkirs expressed their regret and
walked away, while Pakhom’s servant took the hoe and measured
off seven feet by two and dug his grave.
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That’s
how much land a man
really
needs,
Tolstoy is telling us.
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That
story always does something to my philosophy students, and it should
also do something to those of us who lead God’s community on
earth and who presume to publish journals that profess to serve His
cause. What are our
real
needs,
after all? How much wealth does the church need in order to fulfill
its mission? Might it already have too many dollars and not enough
commitment? Do we yield to Satan’s temptation, like Pakhom
did, and measure values quantitatively rather than qualitatively? To
be like Jesus is the
quality
of
the Christian faith. What we are otherwise and what we have is
relatively unimportant. But Christlikeness is not always seen as
the
summum
bonum
by
either churches or papers.
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This
is the eighth bound volume that we have presented to the public, and
they cover eleven years of
Restoration
Review.
Whatever
value this journal may have is best preserved in book form. There is
no question but what future generations will be reading all of us
who dare to preserve what we have written. It may be too much to
hope that what we say now will be of particular help to them then,
and yet each generation seems to be passing the torch to the next
generation. At least we should say such things now that it will be
evident to future generations that we spoke to the problems and
dealt with the possibilities of our time.
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The
scriptures say that David served his own generation according to the
will of God and then fell asleep. That is an especially fitting
guideline for editors, not the falling asleep as much as the rest of
it, for the falling asleep has a way of taking care of itself. If we
can but serve our own generation
according
to the will of God,
that
should be enough. Pakhom’s tragedy was not in dying
prematurely, but in missing the point of life. He served himself
rather than those who needed him. He lost his perspective. Land
became his god. It can happen to any of us when we confuse the means
with the end.
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It
is a double tragedy when we abuse not only ourselves and our loved
ones, but the scriptures themselves. And it is most inexcusable when
this is done for the sake of sectarian loyalty. Our theme in this
volume is
The
Word Abused,
and
it is our hope that our modest contribution to the solution of this
problem will cause at least a few of us to handle the scriptures
with even greater care than the surgeon does the scalpel.