Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/126

 head (Rom. i. 20; Psalm xix. 1—4; Wis. of Sol. xiii. 1—5), and still more (b), in the supernatural revelation, when he at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Heb. i. 1-2; Wis. of Sol. ix. 16—19), and when this only-begotten Son of God, appearing on earth in the flesh (1. Tim. iii. 16), gave us light and understanding that we might know the true God (1 John v. 20), and then preached his teaching through the apostles, having sent down upon them the spirit of truth, which searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (John xiv. 16—18, 1 Cor. ii. 10). Finally the Holy Books assert that although thus the Son of God, being in the bosom of the Father, hath declared to us God, no man hath seen him (John i. 18).” (p. 68.)

I beg the reader to observe the inexactness of the text. The actual text (John i. 18) runs like this: No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, but nowhere does it say, “being in the bosom of the Father hath declared to us God.”

“For now we see the Invisible One as with a glass in divining, and now we know the Incomprehensible One only in part (1 Cor. xiii. 12).”

I beg the reader to observe the incorrectness of this text, too. In the text cited it does not say: “Now we know the Incomprehensible One only in part.” It does not say “in part,” nor is there a word said about the “Incomprehensible One,” and even nothing is said about knowing God, but about love and human knowledge in general. Look at the whole chapter! All this chapter speaks only of human knowledge, which is imperfect, and, evidently, there is no purpose even there of speaking about the knowledge of God.

“Now we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. v. 7).” (p. 68.)