The Four Gospels Harmonized and Translated, Vol. 1 of 3: With Facsimile of Count Tolstoy's Autograph Imprimatur (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Four Gospels Harmonized and Translated, Vol. 1 of 3: With Facsimile of Count Tolstoy's Autograph Imprimatur<br/><br/>Reason without faith had already brought me to despair j and to a denial of life, but when I once really examined into the life of humanity, I became convinced that despair cannot be the destiny of men, and that people have lived, and are now living, by faith. I saw around me people who, having this faith, derived from it an idea of life that gave them strength to live and strength to die in peace and in joy. I could not explain to myself by mere reason this idea. I tried to arrange my life after the lives of those who believe, tried to become one with them, to fulfil the same rules of life and laws of conduct, imagining that in this way the idea of life would be revealed to me also. The more closely I came into communion with the people, lived their life, and fulfilled all the outward religious ceremonies they are accus tamed to observe, the more strongly I felt two antagonistic forces struggling within me. On the one hand, a full and complete idea of life, which even death cannot destroy, grew upon me on the other hand, I discovered much that is false in this outward confession and worship of God. I perceived that the people, through their ignorance and want of leisure or inclination for reflection, may be unable to discover what is false but that it is impossible for me not.<br/><br/>About the Publisher<br/><br/>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br/><br/>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.