Page:The Power of the Spirit.djvu/91

86 Thus, in the next century, Hermas adds to S. Paul's list the kindred virtues of Simplicity and Guilelessness, which are of singular beauty when combined—as they rarely are—with wisdom and power. We get pictures of such a combination in some of Charles Dickens's finest characters, in Mr. Jarndyce for instance and in the Cheeryble brothers, the last drawn, as Dickens specifically tells us, from life: there is always some simplicity in real greatness, and a certain ἀκακία, a certain 'guilelessness' or 'innocence' was beautifully mingled with the remarkable political dexterity of statesmen who were good as well as great like Gladstone or Lincoln. These two qualities roughly correspond with S. Paul's middle group—patience, benevolence, and beneficence. The other addition of Hermas, 'Holiness', is vague, but inclusive of all in S. Paul's list; we may, indeed, define Holiness as the possession of the Nine Fruits of the Spirit.

Hermas, it will be noticed, adds some of the strong gifts—truth, understanding, power, as well as faith; and so, in this fundamental matter, all our primitive authors and sources are at one, including Justin Martyr, who also gives Understanding and Might. Hermas does not, however, include any of the Gifts of Office or of Service, or any of the