But I must now come to the more precise point on which we differ—­the meaning of a single expression, which I think I have named in a former letter.  I allude to the word faith, which, as I was always taught to interpret it, appeared to my apprehension analogous to credulity, or a blind belief without question;—­an explanation which went against my conscience and conviction whenever it occurred to me from time to time.  As I grew older I felt it to be wrong, although I was not sufficiently informed to explain it differently.  What perplexed me was that St. Paul should advocate such a servile submission of the intellectual faculties which God has bestowed upon man; such an apparent degradation of the human mind to the level of the lower creation as to call upon us to lay aside our peculiar attributes of reason, common sense, and reflection, and to receive without inquiry any doctrine that may be offered to us.  On this principle, we should be as likely to believe in the impostor as in the true saint, and having yielded up our birthright of judgment, become incapable of distinguishing between them.  I have thought much on the subject with the assistance of better authorities and scholars than myself, and will now endeavour to explain what I consider St. Paul meant by faith, or rather by the Greek word Piotis, which has been so translated.  After you have read my explanation, and carefully examined your own mind, will it be too much to expect an admission that of the three great elements of Christianity, faith, hope, and charity, you have hitherto had more of hope than of the other two?  The Greek word used by St. Paul signifies something more than faith, or implicit belief, as many render it.  It means a self-reliant confidence arising from conviction after investigation and study—­the faith that Paley advocates when he says, “He that never doubted never half believed.”  It implies, in the first place, an unprejudiced mind, an openness to conviction, and a readiness to receive instruction; and then a desire to judge for ourselves.  This must be followed by a patient investigation of evidence pro and con, an impartial summing up, and a conclusion fairly and confidently deduced.  If we are thus convinced, then we have acquired faith—­a real, unshakeable faith, for we have carefully examined the title deeds and know that they are sound.  You will surely see that faith in this sense, and credulity, a belief without inquiry, are the very reverse of each other, and how much superior is the former to the latter.  Credulity is a mere feather, liable to be blown about with every veering wind of doctrine.  Faith, as St. Paul means it, is as firm as a castle on a rock, where the foundations have been carefully examined and tested, before the building was proceeded with.