UNITY AMID DIVERSITY.

THE CHURCH AND ITS MEMBERS,

AS THE BODY WITH ITS ORGANS AND LIMBS: EACH ESSENTIAL IN ITS PLACE; AND THE GIFTS AND GRACES OF EACH, THE WEALTH AND ADORNMENT OF ALL.

CHAP. XII. 1-30.

Now concerning spiritual things, brethren, I would 2 not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto dumb idols, even as ye were 3 led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and no one can say, "Jesus is the Lord," but in the 4 holy spirit. Now there are diversities of gifts, but 5 the same spirit. And there are diversities of offices, 6 but the same Lord. And there are diversities of inward workings, but it is the same God who worketh 7 them all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit 8 is given to each, according to what is expedient. To

one through the spirit is given the word of wisdom: to another, the word of knowledge, according to the 9 same spirit to another, faith, in the same spirit: to 10 another, gifts of healing, in the same spirit: to another, the working of mighty powers: to another, prophecy to another, discerning of spirits: to another, kinds of tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues. 11 But all these worketh the one and same Spirit, distributing severally to each as he will.

12

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are 13 one body, so also is Christ. For we were all baptized in one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and have all been made to 14 drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, 15 but many. If the foot should say, Because I am not the

hand I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the 16 body? And if the ear should say, Because I am not

the eye I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the 17 body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where 18 would the smelling be? But now God hath placed the members, each one of them in the body, according as 19 it hath pleased Him. And if all were one member, 20 where would the body be? Now are there many mem21 bers, yet but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to 22 the feet, I have no need of you. But rather, those parts

of the body that seem to be the weaker are necessary; 23 and upon those parts of the body which we think less

honorable, we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; but 24 our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to the

25 part that needeth, that there should be no schism in the body, but that members should have the same care, one 26 for another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it: and if one member is honored, all 27 the members rejoice with it. Now ye are Christ's body, 28 and its members severally. And God hath placed in the Church, first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then, mighty energies; then, gifts of heal29 ing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all 30 mighty energies? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret ?

HUMAN Society, and human History, when religiously regarded, assume organized forms, of which classes of men, individual men, and individual eras are but articulated members. The present moment cannot be separated from the past and the future Providence of God. It is but a point of transition, not in itself a perfect and consistent whole. It is unintelligible without reference to the Ages that are gone: it is mutilated and incomplete without reference to the Ages that are come. History is a vast Whole not yet finished, of which the Eras are connected Parts; and Society is an organic Body, of which each individual man is but a subordinate Member. Happy for him, if he has found aright his own position in the vast system, and is contented with his functions! It must be admitted, indeed, that this view of the organic connections of Time, and Human Growth, rests upon Faith as

much as upon Knowledge, -that it implies a Trust in the Providence of God, and that it can be clear only to His Omniscience. For we border on the Infinite, when we contemplate the operations by which the Spirit that rules through all things worketh out the destinies of Humanity. Faith may receive it, and even have some insight into it; but no Intellect can reduce it to system, or find in it a Unity of Design. Who is competent to discern, and to unfold, the gradual working out of God's great Plan, as it is taken up and carried on by the successive generations of men! Who, through all action of the human Drama, -its Scene, the wide Earth,its Characters, all the pilgrims of Mortality who have lived their hour upon the Stage, its Time, from Creation to the present hour, who is able to trace out an onward development of the Plot of Providence! Who will undertake to pass in review before us the distinct Epochs of Humanity, and declare to us how the great features that characterize each are but the several portions of a connected Scheme, and how, amidst diversities of operations, the same guiding Spirit is continuously conducting the Education of our Race! And yet, the discovery of such a Plan must be possible, and to God's mind manifest, else is there no Providence in Heaven. The History of the whole World, if we could see it in one view, should present the same sort of connected growth and of attainment, the same consistent flow of character, as would the history of one mind, if we supposed it to exist from Creation until now. It is the noblest use of History

to afford materials for discovering this Plan of God in the Education of our Race, and in that magnified Image of man which the large mirror of Time presents, to trace the order of succession in which the human mind passes to an advanced stage, and becomes a new reflection of the mind of the Eternal. When this is seen in History, then shall History be a new Bible, exhibiting God continually working out, over the wide Earth and for Man Universal, those results of Character which He has indexed in Revelation, and prefigured in Christ. Then only shall we have a Philosophy of History, when God is seen in it. Then shall Providence display its distinct outline and its just proportions on that ample sheet, and each individual Man, perceiving that the Moral World has a plan, that all things progress together, and that nothing hangs loose, will discern also that himself is an instrument in God's hands, that faithfulness of Life in him, in every one, is necessary to the full accomplishment of God's purposes, and so will stir his spirit to fulfil his own mission, and to do his own work.

And, to be in harmony with this view of Providence, that God produces his noblest results by that organized Union of Members which Christianity calls a Church, each man must forego all personal pretensions, all claims to indiyidual independence and completeness, and regard it as his highest distinction that, in the vast subdivision of human service, he has a functional place, where he may do needful work under the eye of the Supreme Lord, and with an humble and loving devotion to