Bishop Ryle has very well likened faith to a root whose flower is
assurance. To have the latter, he says, it is necessary that there
must first be the hidden source of faith.
Faith is the simplest and most universal experience in the world. Call
it by whatever name you may, confidence, trust, or belief, it is
inseparable from the human race. The first sign of a dawning
intelligence in the mind is the exercise of the infant's faith toward
those it knows, and its fear toward those it does not know. We cannot
even remember when we first began to have faith.