become a little vague with the lapse of years, as seems to have been the case with the tradition of Pentecost itself. There is an inveterate human craving for inerrant guidance; but such guidance is not in God's plan for the world, since all is life and growth; and knowledge must grow like the rest. God helps us through our fellow men: he speaks by the prophets, but he does not speak into gramophones. Some men are inspired; and their inspiration includes wisdom and knowledge as well as faith and prophecy, but it does not include the power of never making a mistake.
As for the classification of the Talents, I do not suppose that S. Paul foresaw the ingenious activities of hermeneutics. Even apostolic vision could hardly have imagined what the exegete would accomplish through the centuries of his sermons and commentaries; and certainly no amount of apostolic inspiration could have guarded itself against that terrible ingenuity. S. Paul, happily for his peace of mind, did not know that he was destined to be infallible, and to provide proof-texts for the theology of nearly two thousand years. He wrote, like other men, though with a greater sense of responsibility and authority, for the people to whom he sent his letters; and he sometimes dashed passages off in a great fervour of passion. It would, therefore, be justifiable to classify the list of his gifts in an order different from that in which
