'We have many members in one body, but all members have not the same
office.' Life has different functions in different organs. It is
light in the eye, force in the arm, music on the tongue, swiftness in
the foot; so also is Christ. The higher a creature rises in the scale
of life, the more are the parts differentiated. The lowest is a mere
sac, which performs all the functions that the creature requires; the
highest is a man with a multitude of organs, each of which is
definitely limited to one office. In like manner the division of
labour in society measures its advance; and in like manner in the
Church there is to be the widest diversity. What the Apostle
designates as 'gifts' are natural characteristics heightened by the
Spirit of Christ; the effect of the common life in each ought to be
the intensifying and manifestation of individuality of character. In
the Christian ideal of humanity there is place for every variety of
gifts. The flora of the Mountain of God yields an endless
multiplicity of growths on its ascending slopes which pass through
every climate. There ought to be a richer diversity in the Church
than anywhere besides; that tree should 'bear twelve manner of
fruits, yielding its fruit every month for the healing of the
nations.' 'All flesh is not the same flesh.' 'Star differeth from
star in glory.'
The average Christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things: in
being true to itself, and in tolerance of diversities. We are all so
afraid of being ticketed as 'eccentric,' 'odd,' that we oftentimes
stifle the genuine impulses of the Spirit of Christ leading us to the
development of unfamiliar types of goodness, and the undertaking of
unrecognised forms of service. If we trusted in Christ in ourselves
more, and took our laws from His whispers, we should often reach
heights of goodness which tower above us now, and discover in
ourselves capacities which slumber undiscerned. There is a dreary
monotony and uniformity amongst us which impoverishes us, and weakens
the testimony that we bear to the quickening influence of the Spirit
that is in Christ Jesus; and we all tend to look very suspiciously at
any man who 'puts all the others out' by being himself, and letting
the life that he draws from the Lord dictate its own manner of
expression. It would breathe a new life into all our Christian
communities if we allowed full scope to the diversities of operation,
and realised that in them all there was the one Spirit. The world
condemns originality: the Church should have learned to prize it.
'One after this fashion, and one after that,' is the only wholesome
law of the development of the manifold graces of the Christian life.