life. * We have been made to drink (i. e. of the Spirit) so as to become one spirit.' Another interpretation of the common text supposes that the preposition (cis) into belongs to the construction of the verb — to drink into being equivalent to drink of. The sense is then the same as in the reading with- out the CIS, ' We have all drank of one Spirit.' The doctrine taught is clear, viz., that by receiving the Spirit we are all made members of the body of Christ, and that it is in virtue of the indwelling of the Spirit that the church is one.
14. Tor the body is not one member, but many.
This is a proof that diversity of gifts and members is neces- sary to the unity of the church. The church no more consists of persons all having the same gifts, than the body is all eye or all ear. As the body is not one member, but many, so the church is not one member, but many. The word member means a constituent part having a function of its own. It is not merely a multiplicity of parts that is necessary to the body ; nor a multiplicity of persons that is necessary to the church ; but in both cases what is required is a multiplicity of members in the sense just stated. To a certain extent what Paul says of the diversity of gifts in individual members of the church, may, in the existing state of things, be applied to different denominations of Christians. No one is perfect or complete in itself; and no one can say to the others, I have no need of you. Each represents something that is not so well represented in the others. Each has its own function to exercise and work to perform, "SYhich could not so well be accomplished without it. As, therefore, harmony and cooperation, sympathy and mutual affection, are required between individual Christians as constituent members of Christ's body, so also should they prevail between different denominations. It is only when the hand undertakes to turn the foot out of the body, that the foot is bound in self-defence and for the good of the whole, to defend its rights.
15. 16. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body ; is it therefore not of the body ? And if the ear shall say, Because 1 am not the eye, I am not of the body ; is it therefore not of the body ?