of the age from which our modern civilization is sprung, and in nothing is it illustrated more convincingly than in the unwitting testimony of art.
This conviction was not only grounded on the words of Isaiah: it was accepted because Christ had said the Spirit would guide men into all truth;[1] because at Pentecost the Spirit had brought strangely enhanced knowledge and power of expression;[2] because the seven deacons were chosen for their being 'full of the Spirit and of wisdom';[3] because S. Stephen overcame his adversaries through 'the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake';[4] because S. Paul also had identified wisdom and knowledge as gifts of the Spirit,[5] and had said that the Spirit searches the deep things of God;[6] because S. Peter had said that God spoke by the mouth of the prophets,[7] and that the Spirit would make people see visions and prophesy;[8] and was it not in the Creed at Mass that the Holy Ghost spake by the prophets?—and for many
- ↑ John 16 13.
- ↑ Acts 2 4, 8.
- ↑ Acts 6 3.
- ↑ Acts 6 10.
- ↑ 1 Cor. 12 8.
- ↑ 1 Cor. 2 10.
- ↑ Acts 3 18.
- ↑ Acts 2 17-18.
trans. 1851, p. 432) where the dove hovers over David, who is supported by two figures labelled sophia and prophetia, and underneath is written in Greek 'O God, give wisdom to the king, and justice to the son of the king' (Ps. 74 1). S. Ephraim of Syria declared that he had seen a shining dove alight upon the shoulder of S. Basil. The ancient pictures of S. Jerome and S. Gregory the Great, with the dove whispering to them, are well known.
