r is the head of the church, so is man the head of the
woman."

For many days Moscow was surrendered to festivity and rejoicings. The
emperor devoted his attention to the rich, the empress to the poor.
Anastasia, since the death of her father, had lived remote from the
capital, in the most profound rural seclusion. Suddenly, and as by
magic, she found herself transported to the scenes of the highest
earthly grandeur, but still she maintained the same beautiful
simplicity of character which she had developed in the saddened home
of her widowed mother. Ivan IV. was a man of ungovernable passions,
and accustomed only to idleness, he devoted himself to the most gross
and ignoble pleasures. Mercilessly he confiscated the estates of those
who displeased him, and with caprice equal to his mercilessness, he
conferred their possessions upon his favorites. He seemed to regard
this arbitrary conduct as indicative of his independence and grandeur.

The situation of Russia was perhaps never more deplorable than at the
commencement of the reign of Ivan IV. The Glinskys were in high favor,
and easily persuaded the young emperor to gratify all their desires.
Laden with honors and riches, they turned a deaf ear to all the
murmurs which despotism, the most atrocious, extorted from every
portion of the empire. The inhabitants of Pskof, oppressed beyond
endurance by an infamous governor, sent seventy of their most
influential citizens to Moscow to present their grievances to the
emperor. Ivan IV. raved like a madman at what he called the insolence
of his subjects, in complaining of their governor. Almost choking with
rage, he ordered the seventy deputies to be put to death by the most
cruel tortures.

Anastasia wept in anguish over these scenes, and her prayers were
incessantly ascending, that God would change the heart of her husband.
Her prayers were heard and answered. The same power which changed
Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle, seemed to renew the soul of Ivan
IV. History is full of these marvelous transformations--a mental
phenomenon only to be explained by the scriptural doctrine of
regeneration. In Ivan's case, as in that of thousands of others,
afflictions were instruments made available by the Holy Spirit for the
heart's renewal.

Moscow was at this time a capital of vast extent and of great
magnificence. As timber was abundant and easily worked, most of the
buildings, even the churches and the palaces, were constructed