His soul adorned with every possible virtue. This is the teaching of the Scriptures. " Behold," says Jeremias, prophesying the coming of the Messias, " Behold, the Lord hath created a new thing on earth, a woman shall encompass a man." The prodigy was that the Virgin Mary bore in her womb the body, indeed, of a babe, but the mind and soul of a fully developed man. Elsewhere the prophet speaks of the Word made flesh as the flower from the root of Jesse, upon which, as dew, should descend the spirit of the Lord — the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and fortitude; the spirit of knowledge and piety; and He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. "The Word was made flesh," says St. John, " and we saw Him full of grace and truth." " In Him," says St. Paul, " were hidden all the treasures of wisdom." With the exception of Origen and St. Ambrose, all the great Doctors of the Church — St. Augustine, St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome and St. Bernard — all unite in teaching that Christ, during His mortal life, acquired neither knowledge nor virtue, because there was none He had not already possessed from the beginning. How then, I ask, are we to explain St. Luke's words that " Jesus increased in wisdom and grace before God and men "? We must distinguish between infused knowledge and knowledge acquired — between revelation and science. Infused knowledge comes directly from God without any effort on our part to attain it; acquired knowledge is the result of our own industry. Now, all the knowledge and sanctity of Christ's
