Germanus Asks How Discernment Is Gained

To this Germanus said: It has been fully and completely shown, both by recent examples and by the decisions of the ancients, that discernment is in a sense the fountainhead and the root of all virtues. We want, then, to learn how it ought to be gained, and how we can tell whether it is genuine and from God, or false and from the devil. So, to use the figure of that gospel parable which you discussed on a former occasion, in which we are told to become good money-changers, we may be able to see the figure of the true king stamped on the coin and to detect what is not stamped on coin that is current. And, as you said in yesterday’s talk, using an ordinary expression, we may reject it as counterfeit, under the teaching of that skill which you treated with enough fullness and detail, and which you showed ought to belong to the man who is, in a spiritual way, a good money-changer of the gospel. For what good will it do to have recognized the value of that virtue and grace, if we do not know how to seek it and gain it? [a]