IV
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
Strength, wisdom, firmness of action, toned by reverence and heightened here and there with the rare colours of enthusiasm—such are the gifts of God's Spirit, as they are recorded in the Church; and they leave us still with a feeling of dissatisfaction. We seem to see the fathers of the stern republic, wrapped in their togas, striding across the forum to the senate house, their brows knitted in some grim decision—to see glimpses also of ecstatic prophets speaking wildly in their temples and caverns, or riotous bacchanals in social frenzy. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might—are they not all pagan, and the enthusiastic energies pagan too, or worse, savouring of the dim halls of eastern mysteries? Where are the distinctive Christian virtues? Where, for instance, are 'mercy, pity, peace, and love'?
They are here too, of course. Without them the inspired saint would be stern indeed, a man to be respected rather than beloved. Such a man, it must be admitted, is suggested in Isaiah's first picture of the inspired Deliverer, though the picture is just a little softened later on, when he is described
