'We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of
another.' That expression is remarkable, for we might have expected
to read rather members _of the body_, than _of each other_;
but the bringing in of such an idea suggests most emphatically that
thought of the mutual relation of each part of the great whole, and
that each has offices to discharge for the benefit of each. In the
Christian community, as in an organised body, the active co-operation
of all the parts is the condition of health. All the rays into which
the spectrum breaks up the pure white light must be gathered together
again in order to produce it; just as every instrument in the great
orchestra contributes to the volume of sound. The Lancashire
hand-bell ringers may illustrate this point for us. Each man picks up
his own bell from the table and sounds his own note at the moment
prescribed by the score, and so the whole of the composer's idea is
reproduced. To suppress diversities results in monotony; to combine
them is the only sure way to secure harmony. Nor must we forget that
the indwelling life of the Church can only be manifested by the full
exhibition and freest possible play of all the forms which that life
assumes in individual character. It needs all, and more than all, the
types of mental characteristics that can be found in humanity to
mirror the infinite beauty of the indwelling Lord. 'There are
diversities of operations,' and all those diversities but partially
represent that same Lord 'who worketh all in all,' and Himself is
more than all, and, after all manifestation through human characters,
remains hinted at rather than declared, suggested but not revealed.
Still further, only by the exercise of possible diversities is the
one body nourished, for each member, drawing life directly and
without the intervention of any other from Christ the Source, draws
also from his fellow-Christian some form of the common life that to
himself is unfamiliar, and needs human intervention in order to its
reception. Such dependence upon one's brethren is not inconsistent
with a primal dependence on Christ alone, and is a safeguard against
the cultivating of one's own idiosyncrasies till they become diseased
and disproportionate. The most slenderly endowed Christian soul has
the double charge of giving to, and receiving from, its brethren. We
have all something which we can contribute to the general stock. We
have all need to supplement our own peculiar gifts by brotherly
ministration. The prime condition of Christian vitality has been set
forth for ever by the gracious invitation, which is also an
imperative command, 'Abide in Me and I in you'; but they who by such
abiding are recipients of a communicated life are not thereby
isolated, but united to all who like them have received 'the
manifestation of the Spirit to do good with.'