What Men Live By

"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death." --1 "Epistle
St. John" iii. 14.

"Whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need,
and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God
abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither
with the tongue; but in deed and truth." --iii. 17-18.

"Love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
-iv. 7-8.

"No man hath beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God
abideth in us." --iv. 12.

"God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God
abideth in him." --iv. 16.

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen?" --iv. 20.

A shoemaker named Simon, who had neither house nor land of his own,
lived with his wife and children in a peasant's hut, and earned his
living by his work. Work was cheap, but bread was dear, and what he
earned he spent for food. The man and his wife had but one
sheepskin coat between them for winter wear, and even that was torn
to tatters, and this was the second year he had been wanting to buy
sheep-skins for a new coat. Before winter Simon saved up a little
money: a three-rouble note lay hidden in his wife's box, and five
roubles and twenty kopeks were owed him by customers in the village.

So one morning he prepared to go to the village to buy the sheep-
skins. He put on over his shirt his wife's wadded nankeen jacket,
and over that he put his own cloth coat. He took the three-rouble
note in his pocket, cut himself a stick to serve as a staff, and
started off after breakfast. "I'll collect the five roubles that
are due to me," thought he, "add the three I have got, and that will
be enough to buy sheep-skins for the winter coat."

He came to the village and called at a peasant's hut, but the man
was not at home. The peasant's wife promised that the money should
be paid next week, but she would not pay it herself. Then Simon
called on another peasant, but this one swore he had no money, and
would only pay twenty kopeks which he owed for a pair of boots Simon
had mended. Simon then tried to buy the sheep-skins on credit, but
the dealer would not trust him.

"Bring your money," said he, "then you may have your pick of the
skins. We know what debt-collecting is like." So all the business
the shoemaker did was to get the twenty kopeks for boots he had