Notwithstanding their lacerated backs and their manacled feet, they prayed and sang praises to God at midnight, and suddenly an earthquake shook the prison, and all the doors were opened. It was not alone the natural fear produced by feeling the earth rock beneath him, nor yet the dread of Roman justice if the prisoners in his charge should escape, that caused the jailer to tremble. This agrees exactly with the words which we quoted from Paul to the Romans. Just the thing that we want to know. The seeming paradox is cleared up.
Faith comprehends everything, and without faith there is nothing.
The trouble is that people in general have a faulty conception of faith. They imagine that it is mere assent, and that it is only a passive thing, to which active works must be added. But faith is active, and it is not only the most substantial thing, but the only real foundation. It is as fixed as the throne of God. No matter what men say of the law, nor how much they trample upon it and despise it, it remains the same.