“And why impossible?” asked Faizi, smiling. “Are you intimately acquainted with all the religious systems?”
“All I know of them,” said the Padre, “is what I have seen here and there; but I neither wish nor need a closer acquaintance with them; what purpose could it serve? And can there be more than one truth?”
“That speaks for itself,” said Akbar; “but the question is, what is truth, and where is it to be found? Is it only to be found in one religious system, or scattered through many? You naturally will answer that you alone are in possession of truth; but then, I ask, what are your grounds for saying so?”
“The truth,” replied Aquaviva, “has been declared to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
“So you say,” was the answer; “but my friend Abdul Kadir says that the truth was revealed to him through Muhammad the great Prophet; and if your Christ is really the Son of God, it would be well you should prove it, before calling upon him as such.”
“And,” added Faizi, “our Vishnuvites here say that truth was declared to them, not only by wise and holy men, but also through different incarnations of the Deity.”
“The authority of the one true Church rests on the Bible, the Word of God,” said Aquaviva.
“That again,” answered Akbar, “resembles the authority of the Koran, the Khalifas and Ulamahs, and the authority of the canonical books, and the teachings of the Vishnuvites, of whom Faizi spoke just now.”
“But surely the faith that stands firmly is of importance?”
“So are also all of like strength.”