Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/125

 “The Orthodox Church begins all its doctrine about God in the Symbol of Faith with the words, ‘I believe,’ and the first dogma which it wishes to impart consists in the following: God is incomprehensible to the human intellect; men can know him only in part, as much as he has been pleased to reveal himself for their faith and piety. An irrefutable truth.” (p. 66.)

To those who are not used to this kind of an exposition I must explain (for I myself did not comprehend it for a long time) that by irrefutable truth is to be understood, not that God is incomprehensible, but that he is comprehensible, but comprehensible only in part. In that does the truth lie. This truth, it goes on to say:

“Is clearly expounded in Holy Scripture and is disclosed in detail in the writings of the holy fathers and teachers of the church, on the basis even of common The Holy Books preach on the one hand that (a) God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see (3 Tim. vi. 16); that (b) not only for men, but also for all his creatures his being is unknown, his judgments unsearchable, and his ways past finding out (Rom. xi. 33—34; John i. 18; 1 John iv. 12; Sirach xvii. 3—4), and that (c) God alone knows God: for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 11), and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son (Matt. xi. 27).” (p. 67.)

On the other hand the Holy Books announce to us that the Invisible and Incomprehensible One was pleased to appear to men, and that God is inaccessible to reason, but that his existence is comprehensible. Here are the truths:

“(a) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God-