Page:The Power of the Spirit.djvu/98



Rh manufacture—of small troubles and small anxieties: the good Christian does not worry, because he sees things in their right proportion, relating them to the greatness of God and not to his own self. Nor does the inner peace mean that we are to take no thought for the morrow, as the unfortunate translation of the Authorized Version suggests, but only that we are not to be anxious—not to be troubled—about the morrow; for the Fruits of the Spirit are not cheap substitutes for the Gifts: the man who does not worry must at the same time practise forethought, since underneath the grace of Peace lie the gifts of Counsel and Might. And all this because we have at once to trust in God, and to help him—to be fellow workers with him in whom our whole life is hidden and held. La sua volontade, say Dante's angels— and Gladstone thought the saying was the finest line in all literature—la sua volontade è nostra pace.

Peace, like love and joy, branches out inevitably in social directions, and so we come to the five Social Qualities—Good Temper, Kindliness, Generosity, Fidelity, Gentleness. Of these we need say little: every one understands them and loves them; and all that is needed is to replace the terms in the Authorized Version—none too exact, and worn down a little by cant usage—with the fresh rendering we have taken from Dr. Moffat.

First the passive quality of Good Temper, in the sense of forbearance, 'patient endurance under