Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
 
Listen to the last stanza of a poem written by J. R. Miller regarding the faith of Christopher Columbus as he sailed toward the new world:
 
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck
And peered through darkness, Ah! That night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck -
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "Oh! Sail on!"