But here Misha appeared and drove us out. From that day Grisha came to me often, and I told him my thoughts, which horrified him, and he counseled humility:
"But why do people suffer so?" I asked.
"For their sins," he answered.
To him everything came from the hands of God—famine, fire, violent death and floods—everything.
"Can it be that God is the sower of misfortune on earth?" I asked.
"Remember Job, insane one," he whispered to me.
"Job has nothing to do with me," I answered. "I in his place would have said to God, 'Do not frighten me, but answer me clearly: Where is the way that leads to Thee? Am I not Thy son, made in Thy image? Don't lower Thyself to repulse Thy child.'"
Often Grisha wept at the foolishness of my audacity, and embracing me, he said:
"My dear brother, I am frightened for you—terribly frightened. Your words and your reasonings are from the devil."
"I do not believe in the devil, for God is all-powerful."