Also Jeremiah, speaking of Israel’s disobedience to the word of God, exclaims: “The faith, ‏האמונה‎ is perished, and it is cut off from their mouth” (Jer. vii. 28). The prophet Habakkuk, praying to God for an explanation why evil-doers succeed and prosper, receives the divine answer: “The righteous shall live by his faith” ‏וצדיק באמונתו יחיה‎ (Hab. ii. 4); and when Hosea predicts the future redemption of Israel, he tells them in the name of God, “And I will betroth thee unto me by faith” ‏וארשתיך לי באמונה‎ (Hos. ii. 22). Our teachers, the sages and rabbis, who succeeded the prophets, have been equally emphatic in commending religious faith. The following are a few of their sayings concerning faith:— “Great is the merit of faith. Through their faith in the Creator of the universe the Israelites were inspired by the holy spirit, and were enabled to sing praises to the Lord.” “Faith in the Lord was the source of all the temporal and eternal blessings which were bestowed upon Abraham; it gave him the enjoyment of this world and the world to come.” “When the Psalmist says: ‘This gate leads to the Lord; righteous people (‏צדיקים‎) shall come in through it,’ he denoted by the term ‘righteous’ those who possess faith in God” (Yalkut on Ex. xiv. 31). In spite of the fact that the Torah and the prophets most emphatically declare faith ‏אמונה‎ to be a very essential element in Judaism, it does not seem to have the same importance in the writings of Jewish theologians and philosophers, some of whom have endeavoured to substitute reasoning and logical arguments for simple faith, and to rebuild upon scientific research the religious edifice erected on the foundation of faith. The following are the utterances of the principal Jewish theologians since the close of the Talmud on the relation between faith and reason:— The Gaon Saadiah of Fayyum wrote a book on creeds and religious beliefs (‏אמאנאת ואעתקאד־אמונות ודעות‎). In the Introduction to this work the philosopher describes the causes of human error and doubt, and assumes four classes of believers. There are, first, those who recognise the truth found by them, cling to it, and are happy in it. There are, secondly, those who have the true principle before them, but do not recognise it, doubt its correctness, and abandon it again. The third class includes those who adopt an opinion without having recognised it as true; they mistake falsehood for truth. The last division consists of those who form no definite opinion, but remain continually in an unsettled state of mind. Saadiah is anxious to see at least his co-religionists in the first class, and his work was intended to help them towards this end.