For Christ’s Sake

Shura agreed with her brother’s intention to return to the old home to call their relatives and acquaintances to Christ, and she desired also to accompany him on the trip and help him in the work with unsaved souls. Her husband Alexey heartily agreed with the plan and promised to care for their son, while Shura was to take their daughter along. He also provided the necessary money for the journey.

Three days later the brother and sister were on their way toward European Russia. With Solovyov, they passed through Samara, Saratov, Penza, Voronezh, Kursk, and then Kiev. There Solovyov parted from them to go to his home village, with the hope of rejoining them after having seen his mother. Pasha and Shura continued their journey to the Government of Mogilev to reach finally their childhood home of Sosnovka.

Upon arriving there and inquiring about the family of Tikhomirov, they found two brothers of their father, two aunts, and some distant relatives still living. All were astonished at the appearance of Pasha and Shura, who had been reported as having perished after the death of their parents before reaching their destination. Everybody invited them as welcome guests.

Soon they learned that their young relatives were evangelists who refused to celebrate the joy of meeting again by drinking, because it was not becoming to Christians. “But why not?” asked the inhabitants of the village. “Are we not also Christians? Yet we drink liquor at every opportunity.” Such questions usually started a discussion which later turned to the reading of God’s Word. Pasha’s telling of how he came to the new life made a great impression upon all. Almost every evening the inhabitants of Sosnovka gathered at Tikhomirovs’ to hear the Word of God. Very gradually the truth of the gospel broke down the barriers of the old prejudices of their purely outward form of religion. Many found Christ as their personal Savior and decided to devote their lives to Him wholly.

Then came a new testing time. The priests were stirred up and aroused the police of the whole district, insisting that the convict had come and ruined the foundation of the orthodox faith of the people, and that if the authorities did not capture him even the foundations of the state would be endangered by the new teaching. At night a policeman appeared in the dwelling of the Tikhomirovs and led Paul to the chief of the country police, where the next morning the examining magistrate and the priest appeared. After the investigation, a bill charging religious seduction was filed. While awaiting the court trial, Tikhomirov was taken to the country prison under police guard.

Shura sorrowed very much for her brother. She had to return to Siberia without being able to see him again, because visiting the arrested ones was forbidden before the trial.

After a few days, Pasha wrote her a letter:

My dear sister Shura,

I beg you not to be sorrowful about me. I am very glad to be in the prison no longer as a thief and robber, but as a Christian, to take part in the sufferings of my Savior. I rejoice therein indescribably, because in the prison many lost souls thirst after salvation, to whom I am permitted to bring Christ. Be not dismayed, but pray for me. I greet you and your husband and children with a kiss.

A whole year passed before the court trial; by that time Paul had been in three prisons. Everywhere, he preached Christ, and everywhere lost sinners decided to follow the way of salvation. The prison chaplains, however, asked the authorities to deliver them from this heretic with whom they could not live peaceably. The court condemned Tikhomirov to banishment for two years in the Government of Yeniseysk on the charge of religious seduction of the orthodox believers to “Stundism” (gospel belief). Investigation brought to light that in Sosnovka alone about a hundred ceased to go to the priest and to worship holy images.

Soon after his sentencing Paul was sent again, by the way of the transport prisons, to the country so well known to him—Siberia. He succeeded in notifying Shura and her husband of the train in which he would pass the nearest railroad station, and they went there to see him once more. They were permitted only to greet him through the bars of the prison wagons. Shura cried because she felt sorry for her brother, but he looked at her, smiling, and let her know thereby that he was glad to be permitted to suffer for Christ’s sake.

Two more years passed. The life of Tikhomirov during this banishment reflected everywhere that pure and holy life of Christ, which was the cause of his successful testimony. During those two years he was in continual communication by letter with Shura and also with Solovyov. The latter wrote that he had remained in his native village, where a small group of gospel Christians had given him a brotherly welcome, and that he was permitted to work among them with a great blessing. His mother was still alive and very happy because God had answered her prayers and saved her son. She was concluding the last days of her life with him, who was now an honest and chaste Christian.

After finishing the time of his exile, Pasha returned to his sister, fully determined to devote his whole life to the salvation of lost sinners. He would not be bound in marriage because he wanted nothing to hinder him in the proclamation of that gospel that had so completely changed him and many others. He labored also in other towns and congregations in Siberia, but his permanent dwelling was with his sister and brother-in-law, to their great joy. Shura often accompanied her brother on his travels as his co-worker in the vineyard of the Lord. Thus the spiritual life of the congregation increased by the hand of God.

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Paul Tikhomirov wrote the following words on the first page of the New Testament that he had taken from the brother whom he slew:

Forgive me for Christ’s sake, beloved brother. I put you to death while I myself was dead in my sins. The Lord hath forgiven me and raised me to a new life. Thy untimely bodily death was the means of leading not only me, but also many other sinners and murderers to eternal life. Thy New Testament softened my hard heart as a living stream, stilled my thirst, and continues to flow further, quickening and giving life to other souls also. For this I praise thy and my God. Amen!