special, and the 'Talents' list to extraordinary qualities; wisdom, knowledge, and faith, therefore, mean wisdom, knowledge, and faith far above the ordinary degree: they do not occur in the secondary lists, but are represented by powers of administration and by the humbler (though none too common) gift of teaching. Healing and Powers and Tongues are apparently more common, since they occur also in the Gifts of Office, and healing is reinforced in the next century, as teaching is also, by S. Justin. Prophecy is the commonest of all, being mentioned in all S. Paul's lists, while the discerning of spirits occurs only among the Talents.
That is the first characteristic of all the special gifts. They are above the capacity of the ordinary Christian, though in varying degree. The second is that they are of social utility, 'to profit withal', as is made quite clear by S. Paul.[1] A Simeon Stylites may owe his ability to live on the top of a pillar to some special gift of the spirit, and so may any other ascetic; but, like the asceticisms of India, such acts are individualistic they are not directly for the benefit of the Church; and therefore they are neither Gifts of Service, nor Gifts of Office, nor are they Talents of the Spirit in the meaning of S. Paul, who by thus moralizing these phenomena saves them from being merely 'miraculous' or wonder-provoking. He indeed only mentions them
- ↑ 1 Cor. 127, 142-33; Rom. 126-14.
