[Previous] Faith. Observe how those souls who drank the living waters of redemption at the gracious hands of Jesus, the Spirit of God, and came into the sheltering shade of the Gospel, attained to such a high plane of moral conduct that Galen, the celebrated physician, although not himself a Christian, in his summary of Plato's Republic extolled their actions. A literal translation of his words is as follows:

"The generality of mankind are unable to grasp a sequence of logical arguments. For this reason they stand in need of symbols and parables telling of rewards and punishments in the next world. A confirmatory evidence of this is that today we observe a people called Christians, who believe devoutly in rewards and punishments in a future state. This group show forth excellent actions, similar to the actions of an individual who is a true philosopher. For example, we all see with our own eyes that they have no fear of death, and their passion for justice and fair-dealing is so great that they should be considered true philosophers." (50)

The station of a philosopher, in that age and in the mind of Galen, was superior to any other station in the world. Consider then how the enlightening and spiritualizing power of divine religions impels the believers to such heights of perfection that a philosopher like [Next]


on Press, referred 50. Cf. `Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, ch. LXXXIV, and Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 385. See also Galen Jews and Christians by Richard Walzer, Oxford University 1949, p. 15. The author states that Galen's summary here to is lost, being preserved only in Arabic quotations.
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