Meaning:
Faith is immensely powerful.
Background:
From the Bible. It is recorded in the 1582 Rheims Bible, in Matthew XXI 21, as:
"If you shal haue faith, and stagger not, ... and if you shal say to this
mountaine, Take vp and throw thy self into the sea, it shal be done."
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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It could be done but would take untold generations to move Taihang*, a wiseman
learned in the Orient. ``Is there a shortcut, an easier way?'' he questioned at
a birthday party in the Levant. Everyone, including his two wise chums, shook
their head, and he left the puzzle in a time capsule as a gift.
Years passed. On his bar mitzvah, the boy broke the bottle and read the message.
"Simple. You only need faith and the mountains will do your bidding," he said.
"but faith is no shortcut or any easier."
* Taihang Mountains hug the North China Plain from the west.
