FAITH AND CREDULITY 77 



The acceptance of most of its tenets is an act of 

 faith rather than of reason. That Jesus of Naza- 

 reth was born of a woman is a matter of reason ; 

 that he was born of a virgin and had no earthly fa- 

 ther is a matter of faith. That he was persecuted, 

 that he suffered and died upon the cross, we have 

 no difi&culty in believing ; but that he rose from the 

 dead, and ascended bodily up into heaven, is again 

 a truth that belongs solely to faith. And so with 

 the rest of the Apostles' Creed. 



There is a passage in Goethe's autobiography that 

 bears upon this subject, and a very suggestive one. 



" General, natural religion," he says, " properly 

 speaking, requires no faith ; for the persuasion that 

 a grfeat producing, regulating, and conducting Being 

 conceals himself, as it were, behind nature, to make 

 himself comprehensible to us — such a conviction 

 forces itself upon every one. Nay, if we for a mo- 

 ment let drop this thread which conducts us through 

 life, it may be immediately and everywhere resumed. 

 But it is different with a special religion which an- 

 nounces to us that this Great Being distinctly and 

 preeminently interests himself for one individual, 

 one family, one people, one country. This religion 

 is founded on faith, which must be immovable if it 

 would not be instantly destroyed. Every doubt of 

 such a religion is fatal to it. One may return to 

 conviction, but not to faith." 



St. Paul saw the difficulties in the way of an 

 appeal to reason, and said boldly that " no man can 

 say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." 



