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Chapter 12. The Gift of Counsel

Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, and t e win will draw it out. PROVERBS xx. 5.

The meaning of these words is plain, and needs no explanation. Counsel— that is, the advice of wisdom — is like the waters of a deep well lying in the heart of a man; and a wise man, who knows his need of counsel, will draw it out. He will ask for guidance; and the man of counsel will draw it from the depth of his own heart.

I have already touched very shortly on that which is the characteristic mark of these latter days; I mean the perversion of the intellect. The intellect of man is withdrawing itself from the light of faith, and therefore from conformity to God. And this intellectual perversion is the source of a systematic immorality in men, in households, and in states. The intellect in man is the image of God in us. It is the light of the soul; and if that light be darkened, how great is the darkness! If that light be clouded, how deep and deceitful is the twilight in which men walk! As I have already said, a flaw in a lens will distort all objects that are seen through it. The intellect, perverted in any way, distorts principles, judgments, and laws. And twenty errors in practice are as nothing compared with one error in principle. Twenty errors in practice may be corrected, and the twenty-first may never be committed; but one erroneous principle is like a damaged wheel in a machine. It can never work correctly afterwards. One speculative error will produce an infinite series of practical errors. The series is inexhaustible, until the machine itself is either amended or destroyed. We see at this day the revival of Gnosticism. In the first age of Christianity, the Oriental mind, inflated with a belief in its own knowledge, refused to learn of a Divine Teacher. It spun for itself visions, superstitions, genealogies without end, respecting the nature of God and the nature of man. We have it before us at this day in the illuminism of those who refuse any light or teacher but their own judgment; who proclaim that the reason in man is all-sufficing for his own guidance. The first consequence of this is, that they apply their reason as the test of everything they are to believe; next, as the measure of that which is credible; and, thirdly, they make their reason the source of all their faith. And what is that faith? The credulity oi unbelief; the rejection of the revelation of God. Such is Rationalism. There has sprung up in the midst oi all this rankness a school of men who tell us that the Absolute is unknowable, and that we can therefore know nothing about God. They say that they do not deny the existence of God, because they know nothing about Him. But if we know nothing about God, we can know nothing about His law. As I have said, il we reject the Law-giver, at the same time we reject th«* law. And if we know nothing about the law of God, what can we know about right and wrong? what can we know about morality? And, therefore, if we know nothing of God, we know nothing of morality. God and the moral law come and go together. Such is the condition of a large number of highly-cultivated men in most countries of Europe at this day. This strange state of privation, happily, is not so rankly produced amongst ourselves as in the older race, to which we bear a certain kindred; but even among us there are too many. Now what is the cause of this strange unbelief? The cause of it is simply the rejection of the principle of faith — that is, of submission to a Divine Teacher; and a rejection therefore of revelation, which comes from a Divine Teacher; the erecting of human reason in the place of that Divine Teacher. The intellect of man becomes thereby a god to itself. It is the primeval lie: rt Ye shall be as Gods."* The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially those of them that make perfect the intellect, form a subject very timely and very wholesome for us; for the sanctification of the intellect is the only direct and adequate cure for the intellectual and philosophical evils of our time. What, then, is the sanctification of the intellect? It is the illumination of the reason of man by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God; it is the submission of the intellect of man to the authority of a Divine Teacher; it is the conformity of the reason, and therefore of the conscience, of man to the truth and to the law of God We have already spoken of the gift of knowledge; we will now go on to the gift of counsel. *Gen,iii.5.

If the subjev * be abstract or dry, the fault, no doubt will be chiefly mine; but it lies also in the nature oi the subject itself. But if you will patiently weigh the importance of these gifts, you will not mind the dryness of the subject. Everybody, I suppose, knows the difference between a prudent man and a wise man. The prudent man is a man who gives good and safe advice. We call such a practical man, but we do not therefore call him a wise man. Sometimes a wise man, in comparison with a prudent man, will be thought very rash, and perhaps very unreasonable. For example, why was it that our Lord, when He was speaking to the people of Capharnaum, and teaching them the great mystery of the Body and Blood which He would give for the life of the world — why was it that lie did not enter into a full explanation of the mystery? "Why did He not tell them exactly, and in particular, and point by point, anticipating their objections, and interpreting all their doubts? We know that He did not do so, and that it was the counsel of Divine Wisdom which restrained Him from doing so. Again, when He stood before King Herod, who for a loijg time had desired to see Him, and to see some miracle wrought by Him, why did He not then work a miracle? Once more, when He stood before Pilate, and was falsely accused, why did He not open Hia mouth? Surely we have here an example of Divine Wisdom acting in a manner which, in the eyes of the prudent men of the world, would be thought rash, imprudent, and unreasonable. Let me give another example, closer to these times. Suppose any man to do what Saint Charles Borromeo did — sell the whole of his patrimony, and distribute it all in one day to the poor. The world would certainly call him a fool. The pro-dent men of this world would have thought him mad The political economist would have said that he committed a double evil: that his profuse almsgiving only promoted indolence and beggary, and that stripping himself of all things was a signal improvidence. Well, then, let me ask you, What is the difference between prudence and wisdom? It is this: prudence is the light which guides us in the natural order and by the lights of nature. The heathen and the philosopher possessed it, and often in a high degree of perfection. But wisdom is something above this; and a wise man will often do and often say things which, in the opinion of the world, are extreme, extravagant, visionary, and impracticable; and why? Because he is acting by a higher light, and in a higher sphere, and for a higher end. Prudence, which belongs to the natural order of this world, aims at two things: it aims at conduct which shall be irreproachable in the eyes of men, and at a certain happiness which shall be so attained. But what does wisdom aim at? Wisdom aims at conformity to the perfections of God; at a state which is supernatural and eternal; at an end which is above this earth; at a bliss which the world can neither give nor uuderstand; " for eye hath not seen, and ear hath not beard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for three that love Him."1 Therefore this gift of counsel includes all natural prudence, as the greater includes the less. B& sure of this: that no man guided by the spirit of eoun sel will ever do an act or speak a word i. at is really imprudent. All natural prudence is included in the more perfect. All those lights of faith whereby we know God, and ourselves, and the world, and the law of God — all those lights of faith, each and all of them, are included in the gift of counsel. So also is charity, or the love of God and our neighbor, which, as we have seen, is included in the gift of knowledge or science, whereby we see God in everything, and everything in the light of God. This, as we saw, is the nature of science or knowledge, like as we see all things in the light of the sun, and the sun itself reflected in every visible thing. But science, too, is contained in the gift of counsel, and therefore all that is contained in science.

I. "What, then, is this gift? It is a certain q uality or perfection2 infused into the reason of man by the grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby the reason is made able to discern not only right and wrong, nor only the way of obedience, but also the way of perfection; that is, to know that which, between two things both good and right, is better, higher, and more pleasing in the sight of God. It gives also, together with that discernment, a certain promptness and facility; that is, a ready will to do and to carry out into practice that which we se« to be the higher and better part. You know well the difference between the life of commandments and the life of counsels. The life of commandments is that which binds all Christians in virtue of their Baptism; they are all bound to obey the law of God, the six precepts of the Church, and the like. But the life of counsels — that is, the life of poverty, the life of chastity, the life of obedience, which is the life of the priesthood and the life of those who enter into convents, is not an obligation upon everybody, but a free act of those who choose it, because they are called to it.

There is therefore a difference between the subject-matter of prudence and the subject-matter of counsel. The subject-matter of prudence is the necessary obedience to which we are all bound. Prudence commands us with an imperial voice to obey the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church. But the gift of counsel moves, invites, and draws the heart to go beyond that which it literally necessary, to do that which is called a work of supererogation; that is, we go ovei and beyond that to which we are bound. I will give an example. You are all bound to give alms; but Saint Charles Borromeo, as I have said, gave the whole of his patrimony. This was what we call an act of supererogation; it went beyond the literal duty of giving alms. So, I may say, all are bound to live a life which is spotless before God; but all are not bound to choose a life of separation from home and kindred, and from all things that are dear to them.

The subject-matter of the counsels therefore is, first of all, those actions which are free, which we are not bound to do by the law of commandments, but which we freely do out of the motive of glorifying God, of sanctifying ourselves, and of making our perseverance •ure. The subject-matter of counsel also is that more perfect way of serving God in things that are lawful, the doing the better of two things both of which are good; the choosing that which is the higher when we may lawfully choose that which is of a lower aim; and ulso the choosing things that are hard and difficult to be done: as when our Divine Lord called His Apostles to follow Him, or as when He said to the young man, " Go sell all thou hast, and give to the poor." These were counsels of perfection, of higher and harder things than were required from all men by common obligation. Such, then, is the nature of this gift of counsel. Now let us see its application.

II. The first effect of it on the heart, I will say of a man of the world, is to turn him to God. How many times have you heard a voice in your heart saying to you, " If I live on as I am living now, shall I make a good end? I desire to die the death of the just; but have I begun to live the life of the just"? Our Lord has said, "Behold, I stand at the gate and knock."* Have I yet opened to Him? There has been a hand knocking at the door of your heart all your life long. He has been calling you to turn from sin. He has been saying continually in a clearei voice, "The wages of sin is death,"f and " The soul that sinneth it shall die."J These two voices have come upon your heart many and many a time in youth and manhood, by day and by night. And they are the voice of the Holy Ghost, the voice of the Counsellor. They have been the gift of counsel itself striving with you, calling you to turn away from the sin of which you are conscious. Again, a voice has come to you and has said, * Apoc. iii. 20. f Rom. vi. 23 J Ezechiel xvHi. 1

" The friendship of this world is enmity with God."3 " Love not the world, nor the things of the world. f If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." But if the love of the Father is not in him, hew shall he dwell in the kingdom of the Father for all eternity? The voice of counsel has been pleading with you to give up the world. Again, there has come a voice saying, " I am the way, the truth, and the lif e."{ Therefore, if 1 do not know the truth, how am I in the way? and if I am not in the way, how shall I enter into life? For the Son of God has said, " No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."§ And if I am not in the way, I shall not enter through the gate. He has said, " I am the door; if any man by Me shall enter in he shall be saved;" | meaning, "and no other shall be." Have I, then, the truth? Do I know the revelation of God? And do I believe, and can I say to myself, I know the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and as it was revealed on the day of Pentecost — every doctrine, every commandment, and every counsel? How can any man say this, unless ke can also say, " I know the whole truth of Jesus Christ, because I have it from the same Divine Yoice which revealed it on that day"? The voice of counsel in this land of England is speaking in a multitude of hearts conscious of their uncertainty, conscious of their twilight, conscious of their doubts, and is saying, " Turn to Me while there is time." Every truth that God has revealed has an authority and a jurisdiction over the soul of man as soon as it is seen. Every truth, as it becomes known to us, lays an obliga

|Ib. x. 9.

tion upon our conscience. The man that comes tc the knowledge of any truth, and fails to obey it, is resisting the Holy Ghost. " Resistance of the known truth " is one of the six sins against the Holy Ghost. Every truth, then, as it becomes known to us, every light as it ascends up above the horizon of our knowledge, until the whole vision, like the firmament at night, is filled with stars, binds our conscience. When our intellect sees the illumination of the doctrines of faith, every several doctrine, one by one, lays its jurisdiction over us. We are bound from that moment to believe it, bound under pain of eternal death. Such is the voice of counsel. If you were about to pass a river, and you saw before you a bridge the soundness of which was doubtful, even if you were not sure that it would bear you, would you venture to tread it? Unless you were perfectly certain that the bridge would carry youi weight, would you set your foot upon it? It would be a rash act; contrary to wise counsel. So the hope that you have of salvation. Unless you build it on a divine certainty, founded upon the authority of a Divine Teacher, how can you be sure what to believe? Human teachers who may err and perish, contradictory teachers who efface one another, teachers who change from year to year, will not bear up the weight of your soul in the hour of death. Nothing but the authority of a Divine Teacher Who never changes, the Spirit of Truth, will sufiLe in that day. Unless you are, then, assured that you. are resting for your salvation upon an authority which cannot deceive, you are not listening to the voice of counsel which speaks in your heart. This, then, is the first work of this gift.

There is another, When you have listened to that voice, arid have found the truth, and have submitted yourself to the Divine Teacher, the work is not done; there is more to do. Every soul has two conversions; the first, to the truth and to penance; and the second, to a higher life and to perfection; that is, it is not enough for you simply to know the truth, and to obey it in the things that are necessary — you must go further. The Apostle says, " All tilings to me are lawful, but all things are not expedient.''* How often have we read these words, and how little have we realized their searching force. My Christian liberty allows me to do a multitude of things; but I know well that, through my fault, many of those things are not safe or good for me. Therefore they are not expedient, arid therefore I will give them up. Let us get out of our minds, once for all, the notion that it is enough for us just to keep out of mortal sin. There are many who seem to think that if they can just escape committing grievous sin they have done enough. There are some who defend this doctrine as Christian liberty. When the Apostle said, " All things to me are lawful, but all things edify not,"f he raised a higher standard. He was not content with just keeping out of mortal sin. He would have all men go onward to perfection. To be p< >rfect may be the attainment of few, but it is the calling of all Christians. I have therefore told you to apply this principle to your pleasures, and to your amusements, and to your expenditure, and to the use of your time, and to all the habits of your life, which, though they may be in themselves lawful, are certainly « 1 Cor. vi. 12. f H>- • 23 not all expedient, and certainly do not edify. The Apostle says more than this: he says, " If my meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no more meat for ever;" that is, if anything in my life or in my example — innocent though it may be, and lawful though it may be for me to do — shall encourage or embolden any other incautiously to do the same things, and thereby to run into the occasions of sin, and from the occasions of sin into temptation, and through temptation into the commission of sin, I will deny myself, and I will never again as long as I live use the liberty which, though safe to me, is to others dangerous. Let me give to parents one example. If you have sons or daughters who, in the amusements of life, run into excitement and excess, set them in yourselves the example of self-restraint, and deny yourselves in lawful things. Your example will either open their eyes, or will blind them to their dangers.

The severest and most rigorous counsel that was ever spoken came not from the pen of an Apostle, but from the lips of the pitiful Son of God. He says to us, <; If thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire. If thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire."f That is to say, nothing, however precious, however intimately identified with ourselves, if it be in any way an occasion of offending God, is to be retained. We ought of cur own will to reject it. These are counsels; they are * 1 COT. viii. 13. f 8. Mark is. 46, 42.

not commandments; they are left to the free will of those who desire to be perfect in God's service.

III. Lastly, there is a law of liberty. Saint James writes: " So speak ye and so do as being to be judged by the law of liberty."* "What is this law of liberty I If it be liberty, how are we bound? if it be a law, how are we free? It is precisely the law of counsels. If we love God and our Divine Redeemer; if we hunger and thirst after justice; if we would make sure of eternal life; if we know the will of God, and " This is the will of God,''f your sanctification; if we desire to be sanctified, if we desire to be conformed to the likeness of our Divine Lord and his Immaculate Mother, then the gift of counsel and the prompting of generous love will make us press onward and rise higher in the spiritual life. Read the Sermon on the Mount: " If any man smite thee on the right cheek, turn the left also; and if any man take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him."$ Were these words spoken only to a chosen few? were they spoken to recluses, or to men living in the desert, or to religious in cloisters, or to priests at the altar? They were spoken to the people on the mountain, and in them to us. The Sermon on the Mount is the law of perfection given to the Christian people of the world: it is given to you. Our Divine Master calls us to use our liberty as Christians, to rise above the low level of that which is absolutely necessary by the law of commandments, and to ascend up by the law of liberty towards Him, upon the Mountain where He, our Light and our Life, dwells eternally. What was it that created the Christian world? Was it the Decalogue * S. James ii 12. f 1 Thess. iv. 3. J S. Matt v. 39.

that was given from Sinai? What was it that covered the whole world with the fruitfulness of Christian perfection? It was the Sermon on the Mount. It was the law of perfection revealed to us in the Face of Jesus Christ, and left to our liberty to be fulfilled out of love and generosity for the sake of our Divine Master. And therefore Saint James writes: u Of His own will He hath begotten us again by the word of truth, that we may be the first-fruits of His creatures.''* Christians are the first-fruits of the Holy Ghost. Look at the heathen nations, out of which we were taken. Compare the Christian people with the nations of the ancient world. I may say, compare the one Holy Catholic Church with the nations which, once of its unity, have now fallen away from it. Tell me where is to be found the Sermon on the Mount; where is to be found voluntary poverty; where is to be found obedience even unto death, where the spirit of martyrs, where the self-denial of confessors, where the meekness of the forgiving, and the mercy of those who die for their brethren. These things are to be found wheresoever the law of liberty and the gift of counsel are the light and the guidance of men. This, then, belongs to all, but there are some among us to whom this is an especial obligation of charity. It is necessary, indeed, that we should have this spirit in us, if we are to be the pastors of the flock. Woe to the shepherd who does not go out before his flock, who is not ahead of his sheep in all perfection, who does not bear the light of a life bright with the reflection of his Divine Master. The pastor of the flock must lead the way, He must preach more by what he * S. Jaineu i 18.

is than by what he says: not only in the ways of obedience, but in all the ways of grace, of piety, of charity, and of humility. He must be to them a guide who is always before them. He must preach these things even when his lips are closed. Woe to us, dear brethren, if we do not go before our flock. We shall all be judged at the last day; but our judgment will be tenfold more searching than yours.

To those who have the guidance of souls, the gift of counsel gives the light to discern between leprosy and leprosy. When they sit as judges in the confessional, this light of discernment enables them to know the innocent from th'e guilty. When they sit there as spiritual physicians, it teaches them how to apply the remedies. Therefore, I say again, woe to us pastors if we are not guided by the gift of counsel. To you also, fathers and mothers, to you masters and mistresses, to you who have subjects or dependents, whether they be children or servants — to you also this gift of counsel is necessary: first, that you may know how to guide yourselves; and next, that you may know how to govern those tit %t look up to you for guidance. Such, then, i? the nat-ire of this gift.

  1. Why is it, then, that there are so few who mani fest this gift of counsel? Why are there so few wise among us, why are people so worldly, why are they so imprudent, why are they so rash, why do they live at randon, why will they not even listen to advice? What is the 1 3ason of all this? I will teil you. This gift of counsel lies dormant in them; it is oppressed, kept down 1 y their own mental and moral faults. They have DT ide their ear dull of hearing and their eye dark, so that they cannot discern. The first great intagonist of this spirit of counsel is the wisdom of the world. And the wisdom of the world is the fashion and opinion of men possessed with the spirit which is of the world and not of God. The maxims, the traditions, the habits of thought, and the habits of lif 3 which spring from flesh and blood — " the prudence of the flesh,"* as the Holy Ghost calls it — these things stifle the voice of counsel. Our Divine Lord reproached the Pharisees in Jerusalem because they made the "commandments of God of no effect by their traditions"!— that is, by their rigorous, fantastic, and artificial habits of mind; by their precepts and definitions, which perverted the literal meaning of the law of God, and inverted its spiritual intention: teaching men to pay tithes of mint, anise, and cummin — things of no moment — and to neglect the greater commandments of the law — humility, charity, and justice. Now this is true, in some degree, of us all. This is the reason why so few men are wise, so few Christians are spiritually and supernaturally led by the gift of counsel.

There are subtle kinds of pride which make IDPD foolish. The love of pre-eminence; the inordinate desire of their own proper excellence; a self-conscious straining to be spiritual guides of other men, to correct their faults, to criticise their actions and their state before God, and to go about setting others right — these are some of the least perceived and subtlest workings of pride. The men of culture, as they call themselves, an<! as they delight that others should call them, are Pharisees. With mutual admiration they Rom. viii. 6. f S. Mark vii. 13.

turn each other's heads. The greatest intellects arc sometimes found in the smallest moral characters. The want of counsel makes them to be strange mixtures of greatness and littleness.

There is also a spirit of presumption which is in every one of us. We trust ourselves; we give counsel to every one, and we will not take it from any man. At most, we will listen if they counsel us according to our own likings, and speak pleasant things; but if they say anything which touches our self-love, we turn from them as shallow heads, helpless advisers, useless talkers, in whom there is no light. We set ourselves upon a pinnacle of the temple; or we believe ourselves to have 'jdngs, and to be soaring into heights of the spiritual life, while as yet we have not trod the first steps in the path of humility. This presumption, the root of which is in all of us, will, if indulged, destroy and utterly extinguish the gift of counsel.

  1. Finally, there is an impetuosity in the nature of every one. There are some men so precipitate that Ihey will not listen for a moment to the advice of anybody. Flesh and blood impels them; they start with vehemence in the way in which they will to go, without listening to advice. Their natural precipitation they mistake for zeal: but it mars everything. They are led by their own spirit; but those only that are " led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."* And to be led by the Spirit of God means this: that before we move from our place we ask God to guide us. We ask the Holy Spirit of counsel to give us light to know what is right, what is well-pleasing, what is more * Bom. viii. 14.

perfect, what in us and for us is best to do, or to l>e done. But impetuous men are led by the flesh, not by the Spirit. They invert the divine order; and having set out in the way of their own choosing, they come to crosses and sorrows. Then they begin to ask for counsel, and perhaps they ask it of God; but they ask it too late. They are already so committed that they cannot go back. At last they so persuade themselves, that they will not follow good advice even if it were given. We have an example of this in Holy Scripture. The prophet Balaam was invited to curse the people of God. He knew from the beginning that to do so was a sin; nevertheless, he did not refuse. Three times he offered sacrifice as if to ask counsel from God; three times the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he was constrained to bless the people. He had it in his heart to curse them; that is, he had set his heart upon the reward which was offered to him, and to gain it he was willing to go on. Before he took counsel, he had chosen his own path; and the end was this: he wearied the patience of God, and the angel of the Lord left the road open and let him go his own way. The reward of Balaam was, that when the enemies of God were overthrown, he too was slain by the sword. So men try to force their will upon God, and to make His will give way, that they may do their own. Saint Augustine says: " Thou, O Lord, givest counsel to all that ask. If they ask of Thee divers things, Thou always answerest the same; Thou answerest clearly enough, but they will not hear Thee, lor they ask the things they desire, and they wish to make Thy will bend tc the-irs. Thou answereth that which is Thy will, and they bear what they will not; and therefore they do it not He is the best servant who does not desire that God should say the things that he wills, but who desires himself to will the things that God says." And therefore, dear brethren, we must try and mortify this impetuous and precipitate self-will which is in us. There is a twofold leprosy of the soul of every man — that is, self-will and self -counsel; and both are aberrations: duplex lepra, propria voluntas et proprium consilium — the pride of his own will, and the pride of his own judgment.

  1. To sum up in few words what I have said; let ua, to the utmost of our power, submit our will to the will of God before we ask to know what it is His will we should do. Let us say: " Lord, my heart is ready, my heart is ready; " " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." When you kneel at the Holy Mass, put your heart upon the paten and let it be offered up. God will counsel you. If you do His will, oven though it cross your own, then you have the surest sign that you are not following your own choice.

Let the intentions of your heart be pure. " Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."* Even in this world, in everything which relates to their earthly life, there is a certain radiance which comes from the presence of God to assure them that they are walking in His sight. Then let your intentions be single aa the light. Do not try to serve Him and at the same time try to serve the world. If you try to please men, you are not the servants of Jesus Christ. If you live to please yourselves, your are seeking "the things * 8. Matt v. 8.

which are jour own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ's."4 Desire, then, to please God above all things, and all things shall be added unto you. If you cannot do all you desire, at least desire great things for His sake. Our Divine Lord said, "I confess to Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto little ones."f These divine words mean precisely this: God will guide the humble in the way of truth, and of salvation, and of perfection, and of perseverance. He will be their Counsellor and their spiritual Guide. And our Divine Lord said again: " Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls; for My yoke is sweet and My burden light.":): Freely choose His service; for it ii your freedom; and its own exceeding great reward.

THE GIFT OF UOT)EKST AOT? ING.

Therefore from the day that we heard it we have ceased not to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. CoLOS. i.9.

have examined the nature of the two gifts of the Holy Ghost which perfect the practical intellect — that is to say, the intellect as it is in contact with the will and with its moral perfections. These two are the gift of science, or knowledge, and the gift of counsel.

The gift of knowledge we have seen to be a certain special light given to the intellect whereby to understand the will and the presence of God in all things. From our earliest spiritual consciousness in childhood we are assisted by this gift of knowledge. It is closely related to the gift of piety: by which the character of a child is formed, and through which a perpetual light enters into the soul. Such is the meaning of the words, u I have understood more than all my teachers, because Thy testimonies are my meditation."5 This gift oi knowledge pervades the whole Christian life from its earliest consciousness.

The gift of counsel, as we saw, signifies a certain

Footnotes

  1. 1 Cor. ii. 9. 11* ↩

  2. (!onsiliumest habitus supernaturalis a Spiritu Sancto infuaus, quo in operationibus humanis movemur secundum consilium Spiritua Sancti id est secundum directionem ejus qua nostra consilia dirigit rei certe vicissim praeveniendo inspirat." Dionys. Carthusian. Opp min. torn. i. tract, iii. art. 4 p. 121. ↩

  3. S. James iv. 4 f 1 S. John ii. 15. $ S. John xiv. «. ↩

  4. Ph-1 ii. 21. f & Matt. xi. 26. t Ib. xi. 29, 80. ↩

  5. Pa. cxviii. 99. 12 ↩

Chapter 13 of 18