I'm told that they used to tell a story in Russia that Adam and Eve were Russians and they came at that from very logical deduction. They were improperly clothed, they had only one apple between them and everybody was always telling them that they lived in a paradise. Today you can't tell that joke in Russia. No one, not even the most ardent, die hard, hanging on, Communist dreamer. No one would even begin to hint at the possibility that the people in Russia and in the Union of Independent States are living in any thing that would hint at a paradise. A cloud of impending doom hangs over that vast landscape. And despair, despair is the dominant mood of the people.

As I mentioned a moment ago, I don't usually change my preaching. But I decided to do so this past Thursday. We were visiting i…