SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
Content
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. EDITED BY THE REV. HENRY NEWLAND,
1 Cor. xii. 1, 2. ", Conceiving spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant" WE learn from the Gospel of this Sunday that the Lard went into the Temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; and we find that those people whom He cast out were the dealers in the animals required for the sacrifices, so that their traffic was authorised by the Priests. It is a singular thing that a Man without any visible authority should have been able to do this, and that those who were buying and selling under the authority of the Priests, should have obeyed so readily One who seemed no more than a private individual. No doubt there must have been here some assumption or manifestation of Divine Power of which we are not told. There could be
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 171 no doubt of our Lord s ability to do it if He pleased, but the singular thing is, that He who was always very careful to uphold the authority of the Priests, who had Himself told the people to do all that the Scribes and Pharisees bade them do, for no other reason than because these Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses seat, should on this occasion have acted so contrary to His usual habit. And when we see that this miracle, for miracle it is, occurs twice during our Lord s ministry, once at the beginning, and once at the end of it, we begin to suspect that there must be some deep doctrinal meaning in it which requires to be sought for. Very possibly the interpretation put upon this transaction by St. Cyril of Alexandria is the true one, that " in casting out the buyers and sellers of sacrificial animals in His Temple, He would intimate that types and shadows were then passing away, especially when we find that, as soon as He had banished them, He himself began to teach there." Possibly, also, there may be truth in the interpretation
of Gregory, that it implied the necessity of ejecting the corrupt, and of maintaining strict ness of discipline, before it was possible for us to receive the gift of grace. Either interpre tation of this passage would be in accordance
172 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. with what St. Paul says to the Corinthians, in that portion of his Epistle which the Church has coupled with this Gospel on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity. " Ye know," he says, "that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. You were then not fit even to receive the teaching of Christ, but now }^ou are fit, the polluted temple has been cleansed. Now, therefore, the Ambassador of Christ may be heard in it, even as Christ Himself taught in the Temple after He had cast out that which had made His Father s House a den of thieves ; now then, that I can call you brethren, concerning spiritual gifts I would not have you ignorant, as he had said before to the Athenians, " the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commands He all men everywhere to repent." And so I say to you, it is because you have now more light from the Holy Ghost than men had of olden time, it is because you have cast away the works of darkness, it is because Christ, through His Ambassadors, teaches daily in the temple, but " concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." The teaching of this day s Gospel and Epistle is very much like that of last Sunday s, only a step in advance of it ; that treated of material gifts, this treats of spiritual.
SPIEITUAL GIFTS. 173 That of last Sunday related exclusively to temporal advantages and privileges, of riches, power, position in society, influence of rank or office. All of these are comprehended under the term " the mammon of unrighteousness," because all these are objects in themselves worldly, and such as can be appreciated and understood by the children of this world as well as by the children of the Light. These, we were told, may be, and ought to be, used in God s service; the mammon of unrigh teousness may itself be sanctified if so used ;
and when so sanctified it will procure us Friends, who will receive us into everlasting habitations. We now treat of gifts which come more immediately and directly from God. These the children of this world cannot appreciate, and do not value or care for ; this lesson, therefore, is not addressed to them, but to those from out of whose temple, the temple of their bodies, the Lord Christ has cast out the things of this world, and they are taught the same lesson with respect to spiritual things which all were taught last Sunday with respect to worldly things. The spiritual gifts are to be used in the service of God; " the manifestation of the Spirit, that which now begins to be manifest to your minds as being the Gift of
174 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. the Spirit, is given to every man to profit withal." Now this manifestation of the Spirit means very much more than what we call intellectual gifts, such as talent, and genius, and skill, and eloquence, and the power of teaching and con vincing and explaining ; it means these, but it comprehends also things much less appreci able by the world. Moral qualities, qualities which even the possessors of them hardly con sider as gifts, such as kindliness, benevolence, patience, perseverance, energy, resignation; these, too, are really God s gifts, and in propor tion as worldly thoughts have been cast out from us, we shall understand them to be God s gifts ; and if the mammon of unrighteousness may be used in God s service and so sanctified, much more may these, which are the direct inspiration of Heaven, and gifts which may be exercised there as well as on earth. Evidently we are now treating of a higher order of gifts. In the passage which follows last Sunday s Gospel, our Lord alludes to something still higher, of which He has yet to speak. If you have not been faithful, He says, in the unrighteous mammon, who shall com mit to your trust the true riches? If you have not been faithful in that which is another man s, inasmuch as wealth, and, still more, office and
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 175
influence are after all not your own, but a stew ardship expressly for the benefit of others ; if you have not been faithful even in this, who shall commit to you that which is especially your own, endowments of your own minds, that which is part of yourself? " That which is least," says Cyril, "is the mammon of unrighte ousness, earthly riches, which seem nothing to the heavenly wise." " I think, then," he con tinues, " that a man is faithful in a little thing when he imparts aid to those who are bowed down with sorrow; and if we have been un faithful in this little thing, how shall we obtain from hence the true riches? These are the fruitful gifts of divine grace impressing the Image of God on the human soul." " Riches," says St. Ambrose, " are foreign to us, because they are something beyond our nature, they are not born with us, they do not pass away with us into our graves ; but Christ is our own, because He is the Life of man." These are the gifts of which the Apostle would not have us ignorant, and, therefore, in the Epistle of this day, he proceeds to explain them. The very first point of difference which strikes us is, that these, unlike the gifts of worldly precedence, are all essentially one. There may be diversities of gifts, but the same
176 SPIRITUAL GUTS. spirit ; this one and the same spirit is mani fested in a different manner in different men, since differently constituted minds not only need different apportionments of grace to fit them for working out their own salvation, but they require different applications of it in order to adapt them for the different services which God recognises of them in this world, and for the furtherance of His kingdom upon earth. Still the doctrine is, whatever these several manifestations may be, whether Wisdom, or Knowledge, or Faith, or Heal ing, or Miracles, or Prophecy, or Discerning of Spirits, or Tongues, or Interpretation of Tongues, or whatever there may be in our times corresponding with these, it is the self same Spirit working in all, but dividing to every man severally as He will. This is a matter which requires some little explanation before we can understand the
Epistle of the day, so as to adapt it to our own case and our own times. St. Chrysostom, confessing that the whole passage is very ob scure, says, that " this obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to, and by their cessation, they being such as used to occur, but such as now no longer take place." Of these facts we will give his own exo planation, condensing that which is too dif-
SPIEITUAL GIFTS. 177 fuse. " Whoever was baptised," he says, " straightway spake with tongues, and not with tongues only, but many prophesied, and some also performed many wonderful works." This is called a manifestation of the Spirit, because the Spirit was Himself invisible, but this made it manifest to them, even that were without, that it was the Spirit speaking in this very person. As the Apostles had re ceived this sign first, so the faithful continued to receive it, and the sign showed itself not only in the gift of tongues, but many other gifts ; some men used to raise the dead, some to cast out devils, some to perform other won ders. But of these gifts some had less and some more, and this became to them a cause of division, not from its own nature, but from the perverseness of them who had received it; in that, on the one hand, the possessors of the greater gifts were lifted up over them that had the lesser, and these again were grieved, and envied the owners of the greater." The very same scandal seems to have occurred in Rome also, and to have originated that passage in St. Paul s Epistle to that church, which, under the parable of the body, and the more or less honourable members, teaches the same lesson. To all these he says, and says it through the grace given unto him, " to every man that
178 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith." "Now," he says, "there are diversities of
gifts; there must be, because there are di versities of offices. But why are you envious one of another? why are you cast down be cause you cannot do so much so you think in God s service as another? The whole is a gift, not anything that you have earned, and even if you are made inferior in the measure of that which has been given thee, thou art equal in this, that thou hast received thy honour from the same Source." " Thou canst not say that God Himself bestowed the gift on another, but sent it to thee by an angel. If, therefore, there be a difference in the gift, there is no difference in the Giver. From the same Fountain ye are drawing, both thou and he." The rule which St. Chrysostom would lay down is this, that not only every gift is from God, but that every gift is a stewardship, as if God, having a certain purpose to effect, the happiness, namely, of His whole people, both in this world and in the world to come, and who might have endowed each one of them severally with that precise amount of gifts, temporal and spiritual, which was necessary
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 179 to effect this purpose, chose rather to take His whole people for His fellow-workers, and to endow us all with these gifts, only in different measures, so that each has something wanting to his perfect happiness, and something super abundant; something to receive, and some thing to impart. It is evident, therefore, that each has some part of another s happiness (or, in other words, some portion of God s work,) placed in his hands, and thus, in the imparting of these gifts which he has himself received, every man becomes a steward of God s grace. This he urges, first, as a ground for dismiss ing at once envy and jealousy. The equal dis tribution of the whole of these gifts is necessary for perfect happiness, so that, if any portion be left out, God s purpose is not yet effected, who, then, can say that his own stewardship is of less importance than that of another? or who can boast that he is of more importance than any other in God s general scheme, since all are necessary for its completion. All that is necessary for our own hopes of participating in the ultimate and perfect happiness which will be accomplished in heaven, is the as surance that we have still the Spirit of God. Now these gifts, whatever they be, are a mani festation of the Spirit, and " though there be
a difference of gifts, yet the evidence is one,
180 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. since whether thou hast much or little thou art equally manifest, so that if thou desirest to show that thou hast the Spirit thou hast sufficient demonstration." " Wherefore," he sums up, " now that both the Giver is one, and the thing given a pure favour, and the manifestation takes place thereby, and this is more profitable for thee, grieve not as if despised or overlooked; for not to dishonour hath God done it, nor to de clare thee inferior to another, but to spare thee, and with a view to thy welfare. To re ceive more than one has ability to bear is rather unprofitable and injurious, and a fit cause for dejection." "For" here comes in the second point " the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal ;" it is not a dis tinction, it is a duty; it is not a precedence over others conferred upon us by God, it is a something to be done in God s service, which God, having tried us, and knowing our capa bilities, calls on us to do. To one He has given the word of wisdom, the power of making a wise choice, of seeing at once the bearing of any action in this world upon the happiness of the next. Is not this a stewardship just as much as the temporal gifts of which we spoke last Sunday? Is it not, I
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 181 mean, a gift, of which we, indeed, may profit ourselves, but which may be imparted and used for the benefit of others ? When Peter was strengthened, did he not strengthen his brethren ? When Paul s eyes were opened to the light of Christ, did he not immediately point out how he had himself been turned from his error, and " straightway preach Christ in the synagogues that he was the Son of God?" To another He gave the word of knowledge, the understanding of His mysteries, and is not this a stewardship? did not the Spirit, who had given this gift to Philip, move him that
he should run and join himself to him who was in spiritual difficulties, and to say unto him, " Understaudest thou what thou readest?" and when he said, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" to begin at the same Scriptures, and to preach to him Jesus? To another He gave the Spirit of Faith. This does not mean here the faith of doctrine, but the faith of miracles ; that faith of which Christ spoke, when He said, " If ye have it as a grain of mustard-seed ye shall say to this mountain, Remove, and it shall remove." It is the impression, the firm confidence, that an act, to man impossible, can be effected by our hands; such faith as that whereby Paul in-
182 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. flicted blindness on Elymas. and Peter death on Ananias. Or, again, that which is analogous to the last, the gift of healing; as when Peter, with John, fastening his eyes on the lame man, bade him, "In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" feeling, at the time, a confidence that the same power resided in them which they had seen exerted by their Master. These two gifts are evidently a stewardship, and, therefore, a duty; they are given to us to profit withal, to be used for the benefit of others, and, exclusively in Christ s service, for the purpose not only of doing them temporal good, but of inspiring in them the same confi dence in the power of God as that with which we are actuated ourselves. And let none of us think that because the power of blinding here tics, or slaying infidels, or healing the faithful of their natural and temporal diseases has ceased, therefore this gift has ceased also. Many are the works of Christ lying before us, even at our doors, which worldly men, who weigh possibilities by the powers of this world, would pronounce impracticable and visionary, but into which the faithful will cast themselves in full confidence of success, and will succeed in. These may not be more faithful than
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 183 others in matters of doctrine, but they have
the gift of faith, the gift of confidence in themselves and their own powers. This is a gift from God, and a very great gift it is. Men should pray for it, and whenever they feel it, they should use it as it was used by Peter, and James, and John, in the service of their Master. To another He has given prophecy ings. In no time was this gift universal, or even com mon it was given to a few, but to be used by them for the benefit of all. Shall we say that it has ceased now, and that this portion of the Epistle is no longer applicable to the Family of Christ? No portion of Scripture ever be comes obsolete; every part is applicable to every time, if we will only learn how to apply it. If we imagine that this gift has ceased, it is that we confine its meaning to foretelling, while the Apostles used it in a much wider sense. It is the power of preaching; it is the power of setting forth the mysteries of God s Word, and placing them before men, so that their future lives will be affected and overruled by what we say. This is a gift of God, a rare gift, but not more rare now than it was then. 60, also, is the power of discerning Spirits; the power of knowing who is spiritual and who is not ; who is a prophet and who a deceiver, as
184 SPIKITUAL GIFTS. when St. Peter says to the Thessalonians, " Despise not prophecyings, but, proving all things, hold fast by that which is good." Is not this a stewardship? is not this given to profit withal? is the power of discriminating, and persuading, and convincing, to be neg lected? or to be used upon ourselves only? To another He gives divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. These, perhaps, are gifts, which, if we take them in their literal sense, we might say have ceased with the occasion which called them forth. There is now no reason why unlearned men should go forth to teach all nations, because learning itself is open to all who need it. But taking it in its full sense, these gifts have not ceased, nor ever will cease. Has not God given to men the gift of learning? All have not to the same amount the power of acquiring it when placed before them, just as all had not, in those times, the gift of tongues ; but has not God given it to many? I do not mean only the power of
acquiring the languages now spoken, but the comprehension of those in which the Holy Scriptures were originally written ; and what is this but " tongues," and the " interpretation of tongues?" St. Paul calls it "doctrine." " Give attendance," he writes to Timothy, " to
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 185 reading, to exhortation, to doctrine; neglect not the gift that is in thee." He calls it a gift, and it is a gift; but whatever be the amount pf it, as it is a gift of God, so it is a stewardship, a gift entrusted to us for the benefit of others ; and, therefore, he who keeps it to himself alone, is neglecting his duty, and is guilty of the same amount of selfishness as he who keeps for his own exclusive use his stewardship in the " mammon of unrighteous
ness."
The same amount of selfishness, the same amount of neglect, but a far greater sin, inas much as the gift entrusted has been greater, is incurred by him who wastes his spiritual gifts. In one sense, everything that we have is a gift of God, but more immediately are the gifts of the Spirit gifts of God, for they were given to us when we first became members of Christ, and were enlarged to us when w r e, with our own lips, before God and the congregation, ratified and confirmed the promises made for us when we first received them. Then, by the reception of these gifts, which themselves are attributes of Christ, we became participa tors in His nature, and consequently in His work on earth. We have not each of us all the attributes of Christ, or we should be as Christ, but as in 84
186 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. the Old Testament, Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon, were all true types of Christ, but none of them complete types ; as Abraham
represented the Sacrificer, Isaac the Sacrifice, Joseph the Mediator, Moses the Lawgiver, Joshua the Conqueror, David Christ Militant, Solomon Christ Triumphant, and all of them together the perfect Christ, so is it now; we who have received Christ s spiritual gifts are types of Christ, not perfect types, any more than His servants of old time were perfect types, but collectively we exhibit the several attributes which together represent the per fect Christ, for collectively we are the Holy Catholic Church, which is His Bride. But, as we find Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon exhibiting each his own type by doing each his own duty, without envying or coveting the type entrusted to the others, so ought we; as we find no comparison in the Scripture as to whether Abraham, or Moses, or David, was the greater, so there is no com parison among Christ s types now. He who exhibits his own type is a faithful servant ; he who does not exhibit it is cast aside as unfit for the purpose for which he was selected, and this is the whole distinction. In the Gospel
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 187 we find the father dividing to those who are represented as his sons, so, in this day s Epistle we find the Spirit "dividing to every man severally* as He will." It is not for us to choose how we will represent our Lord, suf ficient for us that we do represent Him. " Let us not, I pray you," says St. Chrysostom, " bewilder ourselves, neither let us grieve, saying, Why have I received this? and Why have I not received that? neither let us de mand an account of the Holy Spirit. For if thou knowest that He vouchsafed it from pro vidential care, consider that from the same care He hath given also the measure of it. Be content, and rejoice in what thou hast re ceived, but murmur not at what thou hast not received ; yea, rather confess God s favour that thou hast not received things beyond thy power." But if we do believe that we have become fellow-workers with Christ, let us work with Him, and that not from. fear, but from love; not because we remember the sentence passed on him who had buried his talent in the earth, though that sentence is repeated again in the Gospel of this day, and pictured to us in the
destruction of that city who had known her Lord s work, and had not done it, " who had received the law by the disposition of angels,
188 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. and had not kept it;" not because we dread the punishment, but because we consider the very fellowship as an honour and a happiness, wholly irrespective of any future reward. Let us do it because the more we do Christ s work, the more we feel ourselves one with Him. And when we do think of the reward, it is of a far higher nature than that held out in last Sunday s Gospel. The Friends which we make by a right use of the mammon of un righteousness will receive us into everlasting habitations ; but something greater than this is held out to those who use rightly their spi ritual gifts, as by typifying Christ, by setting forth Christ on earth, by letting our light, the reflected Light of Heaven, shine before men ; we have entered into the work of Christ here, so we shall enter into the Triumph of Christ hereafter. There is far more implied in the exulting welcome of the good and faithful servants than the mere reception of them into everlasting habitations ; it is more, even, than " Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ;" it is the very highest blessing that redeemed and sanctified human nature is capable of receiving ; it is " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ; be partaker of thy Lord s Triumph.
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1 Cor. xii. 1, 2. ", Conceiving spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant" WE learn from the Gospel of this Sunday that the Lard went into the Temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; and we find that those people whom He cast out were the dealers in the animals required for the sacrifices, so that their traffic was authorised by the Priests. It is a singular thing that a Man without any visible authority should have been able to do this, and that those who were buying and selling under the authority of the Priests, should have obeyed so readily One who seemed no more than a private individual. No doubt there must have been here some assumption or manifestation of Divine Power of which we are not told. There could be
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 171 no doubt of our Lord s ability to do it if He pleased, but the singular thing is, that He who was always very careful to uphold the authority of the Priests, who had Himself told the people to do all that the Scribes and Pharisees bade them do, for no other reason than because these Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses seat, should on this occasion have acted so contrary to His usual habit. And when we see that this miracle, for miracle it is, occurs twice during our Lord s ministry, once at the beginning, and once at the end of it, we begin to suspect that there must be some deep doctrinal meaning in it which requires to be sought for. Very possibly the interpretation put upon this transaction by St. Cyril of Alexandria is the true one, that " in casting out the buyers and sellers of sacrificial animals in His Temple, He would intimate that types and shadows were then passing away, especially when we find that, as soon as He had banished them, He himself began to teach there." Possibly, also, there may be truth in the interpretation
of Gregory, that it implied the necessity of ejecting the corrupt, and of maintaining strict ness of discipline, before it was possible for us to receive the gift of grace. Either interpre tation of this passage would be in accordance
172 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. with what St. Paul says to the Corinthians, in that portion of his Epistle which the Church has coupled with this Gospel on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity. " Ye know," he says, "that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. You were then not fit even to receive the teaching of Christ, but now }^ou are fit, the polluted temple has been cleansed. Now, therefore, the Ambassador of Christ may be heard in it, even as Christ Himself taught in the Temple after He had cast out that which had made His Father s House a den of thieves ; now then, that I can call you brethren, concerning spiritual gifts I would not have you ignorant, as he had said before to the Athenians, " the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commands He all men everywhere to repent." And so I say to you, it is because you have now more light from the Holy Ghost than men had of olden time, it is because you have cast away the works of darkness, it is because Christ, through His Ambassadors, teaches daily in the temple, but " concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." The teaching of this day s Gospel and Epistle is very much like that of last Sunday s, only a step in advance of it ; that treated of material gifts, this treats of spiritual.
SPIEITUAL GIFTS. 173 That of last Sunday related exclusively to temporal advantages and privileges, of riches, power, position in society, influence of rank or office. All of these are comprehended under the term " the mammon of unrighteousness," because all these are objects in themselves worldly, and such as can be appreciated and understood by the children of this world as well as by the children of the Light. These, we were told, may be, and ought to be, used in God s service; the mammon of unrigh teousness may itself be sanctified if so used ;
and when so sanctified it will procure us Friends, who will receive us into everlasting habitations. We now treat of gifts which come more immediately and directly from God. These the children of this world cannot appreciate, and do not value or care for ; this lesson, therefore, is not addressed to them, but to those from out of whose temple, the temple of their bodies, the Lord Christ has cast out the things of this world, and they are taught the same lesson with respect to spiritual things which all were taught last Sunday with respect to worldly things. The spiritual gifts are to be used in the service of God; " the manifestation of the Spirit, that which now begins to be manifest to your minds as being the Gift of
174 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. the Spirit, is given to every man to profit withal." Now this manifestation of the Spirit means very much more than what we call intellectual gifts, such as talent, and genius, and skill, and eloquence, and the power of teaching and con vincing and explaining ; it means these, but it comprehends also things much less appreci able by the world. Moral qualities, qualities which even the possessors of them hardly con sider as gifts, such as kindliness, benevolence, patience, perseverance, energy, resignation; these, too, are really God s gifts, and in propor tion as worldly thoughts have been cast out from us, we shall understand them to be God s gifts ; and if the mammon of unrighteousness may be used in God s service and so sanctified, much more may these, which are the direct inspiration of Heaven, and gifts which may be exercised there as well as on earth. Evidently we are now treating of a higher order of gifts. In the passage which follows last Sunday s Gospel, our Lord alludes to something still higher, of which He has yet to speak. If you have not been faithful, He says, in the unrighteous mammon, who shall com mit to your trust the true riches? If you have not been faithful in that which is another man s, inasmuch as wealth, and, still more, office and
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 175
influence are after all not your own, but a stew ardship expressly for the benefit of others ; if you have not been faithful even in this, who shall commit to you that which is especially your own, endowments of your own minds, that which is part of yourself? " That which is least," says Cyril, "is the mammon of unrighte ousness, earthly riches, which seem nothing to the heavenly wise." " I think, then," he con tinues, " that a man is faithful in a little thing when he imparts aid to those who are bowed down with sorrow; and if we have been un faithful in this little thing, how shall we obtain from hence the true riches? These are the fruitful gifts of divine grace impressing the Image of God on the human soul." " Riches," says St. Ambrose, " are foreign to us, because they are something beyond our nature, they are not born with us, they do not pass away with us into our graves ; but Christ is our own, because He is the Life of man." These are the gifts of which the Apostle would not have us ignorant, and, therefore, in the Epistle of this day, he proceeds to explain them. The very first point of difference which strikes us is, that these, unlike the gifts of worldly precedence, are all essentially one. There may be diversities of gifts, but the same
176 SPIRITUAL GUTS. spirit ; this one and the same spirit is mani fested in a different manner in different men, since differently constituted minds not only need different apportionments of grace to fit them for working out their own salvation, but they require different applications of it in order to adapt them for the different services which God recognises of them in this world, and for the furtherance of His kingdom upon earth. Still the doctrine is, whatever these several manifestations may be, whether Wisdom, or Knowledge, or Faith, or Heal ing, or Miracles, or Prophecy, or Discerning of Spirits, or Tongues, or Interpretation of Tongues, or whatever there may be in our times corresponding with these, it is the self same Spirit working in all, but dividing to every man severally as He will. This is a matter which requires some little explanation before we can understand the
Epistle of the day, so as to adapt it to our own case and our own times. St. Chrysostom, confessing that the whole passage is very ob scure, says, that " this obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to, and by their cessation, they being such as used to occur, but such as now no longer take place." Of these facts we will give his own exo planation, condensing that which is too dif-
SPIEITUAL GIFTS. 177 fuse. " Whoever was baptised," he says, " straightway spake with tongues, and not with tongues only, but many prophesied, and some also performed many wonderful works." This is called a manifestation of the Spirit, because the Spirit was Himself invisible, but this made it manifest to them, even that were without, that it was the Spirit speaking in this very person. As the Apostles had re ceived this sign first, so the faithful continued to receive it, and the sign showed itself not only in the gift of tongues, but many other gifts ; some men used to raise the dead, some to cast out devils, some to perform other won ders. But of these gifts some had less and some more, and this became to them a cause of division, not from its own nature, but from the perverseness of them who had received it; in that, on the one hand, the possessors of the greater gifts were lifted up over them that had the lesser, and these again were grieved, and envied the owners of the greater." The very same scandal seems to have occurred in Rome also, and to have originated that passage in St. Paul s Epistle to that church, which, under the parable of the body, and the more or less honourable members, teaches the same lesson. To all these he says, and says it through the grace given unto him, " to every man that
178 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith." "Now," he says, "there are diversities of
gifts; there must be, because there are di versities of offices. But why are you envious one of another? why are you cast down be cause you cannot do so much so you think in God s service as another? The whole is a gift, not anything that you have earned, and even if you are made inferior in the measure of that which has been given thee, thou art equal in this, that thou hast received thy honour from the same Source." " Thou canst not say that God Himself bestowed the gift on another, but sent it to thee by an angel. If, therefore, there be a difference in the gift, there is no difference in the Giver. From the same Fountain ye are drawing, both thou and he." The rule which St. Chrysostom would lay down is this, that not only every gift is from God, but that every gift is a stewardship, as if God, having a certain purpose to effect, the happiness, namely, of His whole people, both in this world and in the world to come, and who might have endowed each one of them severally with that precise amount of gifts, temporal and spiritual, which was necessary
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 179 to effect this purpose, chose rather to take His whole people for His fellow-workers, and to endow us all with these gifts, only in different measures, so that each has something wanting to his perfect happiness, and something super abundant; something to receive, and some thing to impart. It is evident, therefore, that each has some part of another s happiness (or, in other words, some portion of God s work,) placed in his hands, and thus, in the imparting of these gifts which he has himself received, every man becomes a steward of God s grace. This he urges, first, as a ground for dismiss ing at once envy and jealousy. The equal dis tribution of the whole of these gifts is necessary for perfect happiness, so that, if any portion be left out, God s purpose is not yet effected, who, then, can say that his own stewardship is of less importance than that of another? or who can boast that he is of more importance than any other in God s general scheme, since all are necessary for its completion. All that is necessary for our own hopes of participating in the ultimate and perfect happiness which will be accomplished in heaven, is the as surance that we have still the Spirit of God. Now these gifts, whatever they be, are a mani festation of the Spirit, and " though there be
a difference of gifts, yet the evidence is one,
180 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. since whether thou hast much or little thou art equally manifest, so that if thou desirest to show that thou hast the Spirit thou hast sufficient demonstration." " Wherefore," he sums up, " now that both the Giver is one, and the thing given a pure favour, and the manifestation takes place thereby, and this is more profitable for thee, grieve not as if despised or overlooked; for not to dishonour hath God done it, nor to de clare thee inferior to another, but to spare thee, and with a view to thy welfare. To re ceive more than one has ability to bear is rather unprofitable and injurious, and a fit cause for dejection." "For" here comes in the second point " the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal ;" it is not a dis tinction, it is a duty; it is not a precedence over others conferred upon us by God, it is a something to be done in God s service, which God, having tried us, and knowing our capa bilities, calls on us to do. To one He has given the word of wisdom, the power of making a wise choice, of seeing at once the bearing of any action in this world upon the happiness of the next. Is not this a stewardship just as much as the temporal gifts of which we spoke last Sunday? Is it not, I
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 181 mean, a gift, of which we, indeed, may profit ourselves, but which may be imparted and used for the benefit of others ? When Peter was strengthened, did he not strengthen his brethren ? When Paul s eyes were opened to the light of Christ, did he not immediately point out how he had himself been turned from his error, and " straightway preach Christ in the synagogues that he was the Son of God?" To another He gave the word of knowledge, the understanding of His mysteries, and is not this a stewardship? did not the Spirit, who had given this gift to Philip, move him that
he should run and join himself to him who was in spiritual difficulties, and to say unto him, " Understaudest thou what thou readest?" and when he said, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" to begin at the same Scriptures, and to preach to him Jesus? To another He gave the Spirit of Faith. This does not mean here the faith of doctrine, but the faith of miracles ; that faith of which Christ spoke, when He said, " If ye have it as a grain of mustard-seed ye shall say to this mountain, Remove, and it shall remove." It is the impression, the firm confidence, that an act, to man impossible, can be effected by our hands; such faith as that whereby Paul in-
182 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. flicted blindness on Elymas. and Peter death on Ananias. Or, again, that which is analogous to the last, the gift of healing; as when Peter, with John, fastening his eyes on the lame man, bade him, "In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" feeling, at the time, a confidence that the same power resided in them which they had seen exerted by their Master. These two gifts are evidently a stewardship, and, therefore, a duty; they are given to us to profit withal, to be used for the benefit of others, and, exclusively in Christ s service, for the purpose not only of doing them temporal good, but of inspiring in them the same confi dence in the power of God as that with which we are actuated ourselves. And let none of us think that because the power of blinding here tics, or slaying infidels, or healing the faithful of their natural and temporal diseases has ceased, therefore this gift has ceased also. Many are the works of Christ lying before us, even at our doors, which worldly men, who weigh possibilities by the powers of this world, would pronounce impracticable and visionary, but into which the faithful will cast themselves in full confidence of success, and will succeed in. These may not be more faithful than
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 183 others in matters of doctrine, but they have
the gift of faith, the gift of confidence in themselves and their own powers. This is a gift from God, and a very great gift it is. Men should pray for it, and whenever they feel it, they should use it as it was used by Peter, and James, and John, in the service of their Master. To another He has given prophecy ings. In no time was this gift universal, or even com mon it was given to a few, but to be used by them for the benefit of all. Shall we say that it has ceased now, and that this portion of the Epistle is no longer applicable to the Family of Christ? No portion of Scripture ever be comes obsolete; every part is applicable to every time, if we will only learn how to apply it. If we imagine that this gift has ceased, it is that we confine its meaning to foretelling, while the Apostles used it in a much wider sense. It is the power of preaching; it is the power of setting forth the mysteries of God s Word, and placing them before men, so that their future lives will be affected and overruled by what we say. This is a gift of God, a rare gift, but not more rare now than it was then. 60, also, is the power of discerning Spirits; the power of knowing who is spiritual and who is not ; who is a prophet and who a deceiver, as
184 SPIKITUAL GIFTS. when St. Peter says to the Thessalonians, " Despise not prophecyings, but, proving all things, hold fast by that which is good." Is not this a stewardship? is not this given to profit withal? is the power of discriminating, and persuading, and convincing, to be neg lected? or to be used upon ourselves only? To another He gives divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. These, perhaps, are gifts, which, if we take them in their literal sense, we might say have ceased with the occasion which called them forth. There is now no reason why unlearned men should go forth to teach all nations, because learning itself is open to all who need it. But taking it in its full sense, these gifts have not ceased, nor ever will cease. Has not God given to men the gift of learning? All have not to the same amount the power of acquiring it when placed before them, just as all had not, in those times, the gift of tongues ; but has not God given it to many? I do not mean only the power of
acquiring the languages now spoken, but the comprehension of those in which the Holy Scriptures were originally written ; and what is this but " tongues," and the " interpretation of tongues?" St. Paul calls it "doctrine." " Give attendance," he writes to Timothy, " to
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 185 reading, to exhortation, to doctrine; neglect not the gift that is in thee." He calls it a gift, and it is a gift; but whatever be the amount pf it, as it is a gift of God, so it is a stewardship, a gift entrusted to us for the benefit of others ; and, therefore, he who keeps it to himself alone, is neglecting his duty, and is guilty of the same amount of selfishness as he who keeps for his own exclusive use his stewardship in the " mammon of unrighteous
ness."
The same amount of selfishness, the same amount of neglect, but a far greater sin, inas much as the gift entrusted has been greater, is incurred by him who wastes his spiritual gifts. In one sense, everything that we have is a gift of God, but more immediately are the gifts of the Spirit gifts of God, for they were given to us when we first became members of Christ, and were enlarged to us when w r e, with our own lips, before God and the congregation, ratified and confirmed the promises made for us when we first received them. Then, by the reception of these gifts, which themselves are attributes of Christ, we became participa tors in His nature, and consequently in His work on earth. We have not each of us all the attributes of Christ, or we should be as Christ, but as in 84
186 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. the Old Testament, Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon, were all true types of Christ, but none of them complete types ; as Abraham
represented the Sacrificer, Isaac the Sacrifice, Joseph the Mediator, Moses the Lawgiver, Joshua the Conqueror, David Christ Militant, Solomon Christ Triumphant, and all of them together the perfect Christ, so is it now; we who have received Christ s spiritual gifts are types of Christ, not perfect types, any more than His servants of old time were perfect types, but collectively we exhibit the several attributes which together represent the per fect Christ, for collectively we are the Holy Catholic Church, which is His Bride. But, as we find Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon exhibiting each his own type by doing each his own duty, without envying or coveting the type entrusted to the others, so ought we; as we find no comparison in the Scripture as to whether Abraham, or Moses, or David, was the greater, so there is no com parison among Christ s types now. He who exhibits his own type is a faithful servant ; he who does not exhibit it is cast aside as unfit for the purpose for which he was selected, and this is the whole distinction. In the Gospel
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 187 we find the father dividing to those who are represented as his sons, so, in this day s Epistle we find the Spirit "dividing to every man severally* as He will." It is not for us to choose how we will represent our Lord, suf ficient for us that we do represent Him. " Let us not, I pray you," says St. Chrysostom, " bewilder ourselves, neither let us grieve, saying, Why have I received this? and Why have I not received that? neither let us de mand an account of the Holy Spirit. For if thou knowest that He vouchsafed it from pro vidential care, consider that from the same care He hath given also the measure of it. Be content, and rejoice in what thou hast re ceived, but murmur not at what thou hast not received ; yea, rather confess God s favour that thou hast not received things beyond thy power." But if we do believe that we have become fellow-workers with Christ, let us work with Him, and that not from. fear, but from love; not because we remember the sentence passed on him who had buried his talent in the earth, though that sentence is repeated again in the Gospel of this day, and pictured to us in the
destruction of that city who had known her Lord s work, and had not done it, " who had received the law by the disposition of angels,
188 SPIRITUAL GIFTS. and had not kept it;" not because we dread the punishment, but because we consider the very fellowship as an honour and a happiness, wholly irrespective of any future reward. Let us do it because the more we do Christ s work, the more we feel ourselves one with Him. And when we do think of the reward, it is of a far higher nature than that held out in last Sunday s Gospel. The Friends which we make by a right use of the mammon of un righteousness will receive us into everlasting habitations ; but something greater than this is held out to those who use rightly their spi ritual gifts, as by typifying Christ, by setting forth Christ on earth, by letting our light, the reflected Light of Heaven, shine before men ; we have entered into the work of Christ here, so we shall enter into the Triumph of Christ hereafter. There is far more implied in the exulting welcome of the good and faithful servants than the mere reception of them into everlasting habitations ; it is more, even, than " Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ;" it is the very highest blessing that redeemed and sanctified human nature is capable of receiving ; it is " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ; be partaker of thy Lord s Triumph.
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