The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 399

correlated parts. "For the body is not one member, but many" (ver. 14). Each con- stitutent or "member" must be recognized as something in itself, as havin"' an autonomy, as created for a distinct function nnd ordained to do its own sp~cial work. Not else could the body be worthy of its place as the head of the physical world and represent the mind of man. In this wu11drous or~anism, which may be lik~ned to a community, every cell is an independent activity, a citizen with rights of its own and entitled to protection against all hostile influence. The fable of Menenius is introduced, and the classic reader of our day is reminded of Coriolanus as the representative of the haughty patricians and yet more of the haughtier statesman, and of the fierce contempt felt for the people. St. Paul has given due prominence to this idea of each organ as performing its functions and as essential to the whole. If the unity is brought about from within, then it follows that every member must share the animating principle. Food must be provided for blood, blood must nourish the organs, the organs must be tributary in specific ways to the organism, or the organism must perish. So in the Church, different men are different organs. Such are the numerous offices of the Holy Ghost as the Executive of Father and Son; such are his relations as Remembrnnccr, Testifier, Convincer; that there must needs be much diversity of gift; and hence there are gifts of healing, helping, governing, extraordinary faith, and "divers kinds of tongues." Light is distributed in colours, and colours in tints and hues, and tints and hues multiply themselves in minute differences. Sound breaks up in notes. Form assumes multitudinous shapes and attitudes. The ocean rolls in restless lines and the earth curves to a. curving sky. "Not one member, but many," and the manifoldness in the magnificence of the universe is reprated, as far as may be, in the complexity of the human organism, and, in turn, this exists for the Church. But : 3. Reciprocity of action must be fully maintained. The organs of the body a.re distinct but not separate, since they combine in one organism and are subordinate to a. unitary result. They a.re supplied with blood by the same heart and they are all dependent on nerves running from nervous centres. Spinal con!, medulla, cerebellum, cerebrum, are local in position, but not local in function. Not an organ, though independent in structure and functional operation, can insulate itself and be independent of the whole. Our pleasures and pains alike testify to this domi- nant mutuality. A beautiful landscape is not limited to the retina; a musical sound enters the rhythm of heart and luugs, and the car is only a fragment of the joy; so that localized sensibility, however intense, becomes generalized feeling. The special senses exist for a sensorium. St. Paul regards the body, therefore, as an assemblage or confederation of organs, anci enlarges ( vers. 15-2li) on the idea in its several aspects. The section has been fitly spoken of as a. "colloquy in a highly dramatic style." The body itself is thoroughly dramatic. It represents and interprets mind. It acts the soul. Downward it may go and imitate the beast, even descend below the beast. Upward it may go, and go so high that the faces of Moses and St. Stephen glow with a light never on shore or sea. Now, this colloquy presents one member of the body arrayed against another and vainly asserting its independence. If a discontented foot envy the hand, or the ear envy tho oye, "is it therefore not of the body," participating in its right~, enjoying its privileges, ennobled by the organism? They are for the sake of each other, so that " the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the he11d to the feet, 1 l,ave no need of you." Furthermore, in the case of feeble organs, does the body turn vindictively against them ?-in the caso of those less hono11rablc, arc they despised? in the case of the uncomely parts, arc they treated with contempt? Nay, in the well-ordered commonwealth of the body, where the instincts, en,lowed by the Almighty with a measure of bis sovereignty, retain their sway, parts that nre feeble, less honourable, less comely, appeal to pity and sympathy and taste to bo cheered and comforted. The whole glandular system, though assigned to the func- tions of secretion and excretion, is yet a wonderful provision for emotion, no_t only for emotion as respects others, but as self-regarding and self-relieving. A wl11s1:ered need of assistance fro:n the very humblest organ is heard in ever)'. recess_ ol t_he corporeal structure. Temple it is eveu in ruins,"and its ministers, mhab1tmg dnu vaults and mysterious crypts, hear the prayer for compassion and aid, and hasten te  WG THE FIRST EPISTLE TO 'l'HE CORINTHIANS. [cu. xn. 1-31.