those to which persons of inferior station or gifts are most exposed. These evil feelings, so offensive to God, would be subdued if men would properly lay to heart that peculiar advantages are bestowed according to the divine pleasure ; that they are designed to advance the glory of God, and good of his church, and not the honour or emolument of those that receive them ; and that very frequently those which are least attractive in the sight of men, are the most important in the sight of God. It is here as in the human frame ; not the most comely parts are the most valuable but those which are the least so. The vital parts of our system never attract the praise of men, and are never the source of vanity or pride, V. 3.
5. As Christians are one body in Christ, they should feel their mutual dependence and their common -interest in their head, from whom life, intelligence, enjoyment, and every good comes. They should sympa- thize in each other's joys and sorrows ; the hand should not envy the eye, nor the eye despise the foot. How can they, who are destitute of this common feeling with their fellow Christians, be partakers of that Spirit by which true believers are constituted really and not merely nominally one ? vs. 4, 5.
6. Real honour consists in doing well what God calls us to do, and not in the possession of high offices or great talents, vs. 6 — 8.
7. No man's usefulness is increased by going out of his sphere. It is a great mistake to suppose because one profession or employment may, in itself considered, afford better opportunity of doing good than another, that, therefore, any or every man would be more useful in the one than in the other. The highest improvement of the individual, and the great- est good of the whole, are best secured by each being and doing what God sees fit to determine. If all were the same member, where were the body 1 ' God is not the author of confusion, but of order, in all the churches of the saints,' vs. 6 — 8.
8. No amount of learning, no superiority of talent, nor even the pre- tension to inspiration, can justify a departure from the analogy of faith, i. e. from the truths taught by men to whose inspiration God has borne witness. All teachers must be brought to this standard ; and even if an angel from heaven should preach in contradiction to the Scriptures, he should be regarded as anathema. Gal. 1:8. It is a matter of constant gratitude that we have such a standard whereby to try the spirits whether they be of God. Ministers of Christ should see to it, that they do not incur the curse which Paul denounces on those who preach another gos- pel, V. 6.
9. Private Christians, but especially ^ecclesiastical officers, are required to discharge their respective duties with singleness of heart, and in the exercise of those virtues which the peculiar nature of their vocation may demand, vs. 6 — 8.