This, the great bond of Christians, St. Paul tells us, is far above all distinctions as to the degree of spiritual gifts or inspiration. It is of far more importance to ascertain that a man is a Christian than to find out what sort of Christian he is. This he tells us in the 4th, 5th, and 6th verses. In other words, our Christianity is a fact far above our special and particular endowments. Not that in which we differ from other Christians, but that in which we differ from the world lying in wickedness; in that consists our distinction in the sight of God. In the 13th verse he appeals to the sacraments: does baptism teach of a difference between Christians ?-does it not rather teach that all the baptized are baptized into one body? There are varieties, differences—yes, says the Apostle, but they are all of "the selfsame Spirit."

And now brethren let us bring this home personally to ourselves; for the teaching of the pulpit loses its force if mere abstract truths are stated without applying them to ourselves, for human nature is the same throughout all ages. What was it that waked up the energies of these Corinthians most? Was it that which stimulated the sublime spirit of the Apostle at Athens when he saw the city wholly given over to idolatry?— or was it not rather the difference between sect and sect, party and party? My Christian brethren, what is it that wakes up, in all their force, the polemical energies of this day? Is it opposition to sensuality, to pride, to vice, to evil generally?— or is it opposition to some doctrine held by this or that section of the Christian world? Against whom are all the energies of Christian teachers directed? Is it against the oppressor, the tyrant, the seducer?—or is it against some poor erring Christian, who, it may be, is wrong in doctrine, but is trying with all his heart to live the Life of Christ?

Let me bring this more closely home to you, and earnestly entreat the members of this congregation to sever themselves from that bitter spirit of controversy which is tearing asunder

Christian society in this town. My Christian brethren, if Christ be your Master, what in this world is your foe? Not Tractarianism nor Dissent, neither Popery nor Evangelicalism? these may be more or less forms of error; but they who hold them are your brethren, battling against the same evil as you are. Your foe in this world is vice, the devil nature, in you and in me; it is in ourselves that our foe is; conquer that, spend half the energy in trampling that down which is spent in religious controversy with Christians, and the Kingdom of God will soon be established in this world: and if you will not, then the Word of God gives this solemn warning, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

We pass on secondly, to consider the place and value. assigned by St. Paul to these differences of spiritual gifts. He states the fact of that difference from the 8th to the 10th verses, and the principle of diversities in the 17th and 18th verses. He begins by stating these as the very conditions of Christian unity. God has given to one man eloquence, to another business-like habits, to some exquisitely fine feelings, to others a more blunted feeling; for even that is a gift, without which some duties could not be suitably performed. The anatomist tells us that precisely as we ascend in the scale of being, so do we find greater diversity in our complexity. Thus is it that we have the distinction between a society and an association; artificial association binds man to man on the principle of similarity, natural society binds men together in diversity.

The idea of the Church presented in the Bible is that of a family, which certainly is not a union of similarity, for the father differs from the mother, the child from the parent, brother from sister, servant from child, and yet together they form a most blessed type of unity. St. Paul carries on this beautiful principle, and draws out of it special personal duties; he says that gifts are granted to individuals for the sake of the

"No man

whole Church. As he expresses it in another part: liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." After this, he carries on the application further, and shows that the principle branches out into a twofold duty: first, the duty of those gifted with the inferior gifts; and after that, the duty of those gifted with the higher powers.

The duties of those possessed of inferior gifts he states to be two; not to envy, and not to despond. First, not to envy :— Observe here the difference between the Christian doctrine of unity and equality, and the world's doctrine of levelling all to one standard. The intention of God with respect to the body is not that the rude hand should have the delicacy of the eye, or the foot have the power of the brain. The intention of God is to proclaim the real equality of each in mutual sympathy and love. The second duty of those with inferior gifts is not to despond. There are few temptations more common to ardent spirits than that which leads them to repine at the lot in which they are cast, believing that in some other situation they could serve God better; and therefore to every such man St. Paul speaks, telling him that it is his duty to try to be himself: simply to try to do his own duty: for here in this world we are nothing apart from its strange and curious clockwork; and if each man had the spirit of Self-surrender, the spirit of the Cross, it would not matter to him whether he were doing the work of the mainspring or of one of the inferior parts.

Lastly, St. Paul applies this principle to the duty of those gifted with higher powers; this is also a twofold duty, that of humility and sympathy. They were not to despise those who were inferior. As with the natural body, the rudest parts are the most useful, and the delicate parts require most care, so is it with the body politic; the meanest trades are those with which we can least dispense; a nation may exist without an astronomer or philosopher, but the day-labourer is essential to the existence of man. The second duty of the more highly

gifted is taught in the 26th verse. The spirit and the law of the Life of Christ is to be that of every member of the Church, and the law of the Life of Christ is that of sympathy. Until we have learnt something of this spirit, we cannot have a Church at all. How little, during eighteen hundred years, have the hearts of men been got to beat together! Nor can we say that this is the fault of the capitalists and the masters only, it is the fault of the servants and dependants also.

THE

LECTURE XXIV.

I CORINTHIANS, xii. 31; xiii. 1-3.—April 18, 1852.

HE twelfth chapter of this Epistle discusses the gifts of the Spirit, the thirteenth contrasts them with the grace of Charity or Love, but the connection between the two is unintelligible unless the last verse of the former be joined to the first of the latter: it is the link between both chapters "Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." Now the more excellent way is Charity. We will consider then, the Christian estimate of gifts.

I. In themselves; and II. In reference to graces.

Let me first show that this rule applies to ourselves; for it might be doubted, since the Corinthian gifts were in part what we call miraculous, while ours are natural. But you will find that in all essential particulars the resemblance is complete. The gifts of the Church of Corinth were bestowed according to God's pleasure: they were "divided to every man severally as He willed." They were profitable to others: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." They were not the highest perfection of human nature, for a man might have them and yet perish. So is it with ours: we have gifts freely granted, capable of profiting others, and yet capable of being separated from personal or saving holiness. Therefore, to all such gifts essentially coinciding with the nature of the Corinthian gifts, the Apostle's rule must apply; and his rule is this-" Covet earnestly the best gifts."

First then, consider what a gift is. It is that in which our main strength lies. One man is remarkable for intellectual,