What is the true meaning of faith?

Faith?—what is faith? 

I know about it.

I know that its object is the Son of God. 

The very devils know as much as that. 

I know that He is the Saviour. 

But how He saves, and how a lost soul can come to have a part in Him, woe is me, I cannot tell.

I feel about faith, as I do about repentance. 

I think if I could repent but for one short moment—repent truly—salvation would be mine. 

But vain is trying, I cannot—cannot repent. 

At times, I feel as if I were very near that blessed experience—as if my being would dissolve in tears—ah, vainest deception! 

Oh, for a tear—a single tear! 

I keep sighing, Father of mercy, but what boots the prayer of anguish if barren of faith?—Father of mercy, oh, grant me a tear!

Letters from Hell