"Nay," answered Am-nem-hat; "for thou art clearly right in that. All men do by nature bewail their sinful state. Humanity standeth forever like the lepers in Israel, with uplifted hand, crying aloud to heaven and earth, 'Unclean! unclean!' It is a conviction upon which philosophy hath no power. It cometh some time into every human heart, resistless as the precession of the equinoxes, spontaneous as the flowing of the Nile--a natural thing, which a man can no more control than he can reach forth his puny hand and unloose the bands of Orion, or bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or guide Arcturus and his suns. All literature, all monuments, all ages, and all men, testify unto this terrible truth."
"Now the work of Jesus," said Ammonius, "was not to burden this sick and sorrowful nature with any arbitrary law of faith, but was to provide a way by which this universal conviction of sin might be atoned for--a perfect righteousness and sacrifice available by faith for our justification; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And faith is made the condition, because no other condition could be available for all men alike, whether great or small, rich or poor, learned or ignorant; and Jesus died for all! Thou must see that this faith, instead of being, as thou didst suppose, an arbitrary condition or command, is simply the enabling act, instituted by divine wisdom and compassion, by means whereof we may be able to attain unto reconciliation with God. And without this faith we could never be justified by holy life and works alone, because it is a law of our nature that, just as we become better and purer beings, our conception of the degree of fitness required of us necessarily becomes higher, so that it is impossible for us to get any nearer to it; so that without faith the best men are as much under conviction of sin as the worst; so that without faith it is impossible for us to be consciously justified, because our nature requires a perfect righteousness; and this perfect righteousness and sacrifice must be human, that we may be able to trust its love and willingness to aid us, and must be divine, that we may have faith in its power to save. Hast thou ever heard of any name given under heaven, or among men, which supplies these natural and necessary conditions for our conscious justification and reconciliation with God, and with our own hearts also, except the name of Jesus Christ? If thou hast, please utter it."
"Verily," answered Am-nem-hat, "there is none. No religion of which I have heard professeth to know any."
The old man seemed lost in profoundest meditation, and there was silence in the room, until Theckla said: "Father Am-nem-hat, do thou bid Arius repeat what things he said to me of this matter of faith when he was teaching the alphabets to me this morning. I think it was much plainer than thy learned discoursing with Ammonius."
"Yea," said Am-nem-hat, "I beg that Arius will do so, for I much desire to hear thereof."
The boy blushed vividly at being so called upon in the presence of his elders, but, at a sign from his father, he stood up before them, saying: "I did not suppose the talk of persons so young could interest those who are so much older and wiser, but, as ye desire to hear it, I can almost repeat it. As Theckla and I were running over the alphabets, in order to get the sound of the letters and the form of the characters, she came upon the letter 'A' a second time, and she cried out: 'Oh, I know that one; it is Latin A, Greek Alpha, Hebrew Aleph.' And I said unto her, 'Theckla, how knowest thou that the characters stand for these sounds?' and she answered, 'Thou didst tell me so, and I did believe thee, boy, and that is how I know it.' Then said I: 'Theckla, thou learnest the alphabet by faith only. If thou wert naturally constituted so that thou couldst not believe, thou couldst never learn anything not tangible to thy senses. If thou wert by nature even indifferent between faith and non-faith, thy progress in the acquisition of knowledge would be slow and painful. Thou shouldst therefore learn, from the learning of these alphabets, that faith is the first, most inevitable act of intelligence. Thou shouldst learn that belief precedes knowledge always, that Faith is the elder sister and leadeth Knowledge by the hand, and that without antecedent faith it is impossible to learn and to know anything except what is palpable to the senses; just as it would be impossible for thee to learn these alphabets without faith.' And thereupon Theckla did pinch mine ear, and laugh at me, saying, 'That all seemeth to be true and plain enough, thou odd boy, but why art thou preaching at me now?' And I did answer: 'Because, thou dear sister, some time thy faith may be demanded for another alphabet than this, even the alphabet of spiritual life; and, when that day shall come, I would have thee remember that just as all human knowledge is builded upon the basis of faith only, so it should not seem a hard thing unto thee that God hath fashioned thy nature so that thou must be incapable of learning even the alphabet of everlasting life except upon the very same condition of faith only. Faith precedeth all knowledge; believe and obey, and finally thou shalt know.' I think this was about what was spoken between us concerning faith."
"And it is most wise, beautiful, and instructive talk," said Am-nem-hat, "and serveth to complete the powerful utterances of thy father upon the same lofty and interesting subject. I do thank thee for repeating it."
Then spake Hatasa, saying to Ammonius, "Suppose that one hath died without having known the truth concerning Jesus, and without having exercised this faith, is there no hope for such a one?"
The trembling voice in which she spoke, and the look of timid, doubtful entreaty which accompanied these words, touched every heart, and made them all feel that by "such a one" the poor lady meant her young and gallant husband Amosis, whose memory seemed ever in her heart.
Ammonius answered: "I do not know whether I could make thee understand fully the views which we Christians entertain about such a case as thou hast suggested, but we believe that there is hope for such a man. The great apostle Paul was Saul of Tarsus, and for a long time he did persecute the Christians because they were Christians, yet he declareth himself that he acted in all good conscience before God, believing that it was his duty to do so, and he afterward became the great apostle and a glorious martyr. I doubt not that there are among those who now persecute the Christians some good and just men, that would follow Jesus unto death if they could know him as he is. The conviction of sin, we know, hath no reference to any specific transgression, nor hath the forgiveness of sin. Whether an act be a sin or not dependeth largely upon the intent with which it is done. Now, when the heathen, who know not Jesus nor his divine truth, do yet live just and righteous lives according to the best light and knowledge they possess, and die without the consolation of the faith, the benefit of the atonement accrueth to them in some way, we know not precisely how far, nor to what effect; to all such, indeed, and especially to such as have some living Christian relative or friend that taketh upon himself the rite of baptism for the dead; for, if they have not the law, they are not judged by the law, but by their works and righteousness under the law which they have."