which is more than half destroyed, and which curiously enough rules in the name of one who warned us that 'the so-called rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men overbear them: not so with you'.[1]
In these words, our Lord himself put the new interpretation on the words of Isaiah. The ruling virtues are not to be used for subjection, but the great are to be servants, in order that the servants may be great.
Thus was the first change made, a change of application, with illimitable results. In the mediaeval form of the Confirmation prayer, a curious little change was made—a change of order only, but an interesting one, since it emphasizes the intellectual character of the Gifts. In Isaiah, knowledge and the fear of God are coupled together, and so closely that many commentators understand them as the knowledge and the fear of God, which is almost a doublet, since to know God is to revere him. But in the Confirmation prayer the order is changed: 'Send into them the sevenfold holy spirit, the Paraclete from the heavens. The spirit of wisdom and understanding. The spirit of knowledge and reverence. The spirit of counsel and might. And fill them with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.'[2]
