Fellowship With Christ

Fellowship With Christ

(No. 2572)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 29, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1856.

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the body of Christ?" 1 Corinthians 10:16.

THERE is one great difference between Christ, as the Founder of the
Christian religion, and all mere men who have attempted to fashion a
system of belief. The difference is not merely that Christ's was a true
religion and theirs a false one, but there is another distinction. All
false prophets have sought to keep their disciples at a distance and to
impress upon them not merely a high estimation of their importance, but
also a superstitious reverence for their person. Yes, and sometimes
altogether putting aside the thought of allowing any of their disciples
to hold communion with them. Look at the false prophet, Mohamed, and
you will see how he kept himself aloof from his disciples. He taught
them to regard him as something superior to themselves. And the
caliphs, to this day, and all those who take to themselves the titles
of his successors, endeavor to invest themselves with solemn pomp and
state. They forbid all to approach them without certain salaams and
salutations–they never allow their followers to hold fellowship with
them.

It was also so with the old Pagan priests. They bade the worshippers
fall down before them, but they never permitted them to come near to
them and hold fellowship with them. They were for driving the people
away and, in fact, the whole system of their religion depended upon the
eminence of one who kept himself distinct from every other man. They
were to be looked up to as a god, being regarded as a personage above
all the rest, with whom they might, on no pretense whatever, hold any
communion at all! Look at the "Pope," that great antichrist and false
prophet! Does he encourage any to stand on friendly terms with him? Is
he at all times accessible? Ah, no! He surrounds himself with cardinals
and bishops and keeps himself distinct from others. It must not be
expected that a "Pope" is to be seen by everybody, nor can it be
supposed that he should herd with common men. It is very much the same
with the bishops of another church that we know. How they labor to put
men away from them with their pomp, their tinsel, their gewgaws, and
their parade!

Christ, as the great Founder of a new dispensation, revealed the idea
of communion with Himself on the part of everyone of His disciples and,
today, instead of endeavoring to keep His followers at a distance, He
is always striving to bring them near to Him. He blames them not for
familiarity, but because they are not familiar enough! He does not
praise them because they stand at a respectful distance, but He praises
Enoch because he walks with God. And He loves John because he lays his
head on the bosom of his Savior. Christ, our Master, loves to have all
His followers live near Him! He loves to have them in sympathy with
Him. He loves to make them feel that while He is their superior and
their King, He is also as their fellow, bone of their bone and flesh of
their flesh, in ties of blood, one with them! One objective of Christ's
religion is to bring all His disciples into union and communion with
its great Founder that they may have fellowship with the Father, and
with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Our present subject is the Doctrine of Fellowship with Christ. We think
there are four degrees of fellowship with Christ. The first is the
fellowship of communion. The second, the fellowship of sympathy. The
third, the fellowship of unity. And the fourth will be the fellowship
of Heaven.

I. The first grade of communion with Christ is that with which all
Believers commence, and without which they cannot attain to any other.
It is THE FELLOWSHIP OF COMMUNION.

Probably a large proportion of those here who love the Savior will not
be able to go much farther with me than with regard to the fellowship
of communion. Let me explain myself. I meet with one or two of you, I
talk with you, we discourse with one another. In Scripture phraseology
it might be said, we "commune with each other," "we hold communion with
one another." So, Beloved, there are times when Christ and His people
meet–when He talks to them and they talk to Him and so, "commune with
Him." That is the fellowship of communion. Let me show you how we enter
into it.

We enjoy this kind of communion when, by faith, we lay hold of Christ
and when Christ, in honoring faith, lays hold of us. And when, under
sorrows and troubles, we go and tell our Master what our sorrows and
troubles are. We are talking with Him while He cheers us, reminds us of
His promises, speaks to our heart with that sweet voice which lays our
fears in their graves and makes our tears to dry. It is then that we
hold with Him a fellowship of communion–the communion of faith. Mark
you, this is no mean attainment, to be able to take Christ's arm, to
command His ear, to possess His heart and to feel that when our lips
speak to Him, His lips reply to us. It is only by His Grace that when
we look at Him and are lightened, that lightening comes from the fact
that He looks at us–and that we are cheered by knowing that the reason
of our cheerfulness is because His right hand is under our head and His
left hand embraces us.

It is a privilege for which angels might barter their crowns, to be
allowed to talk with Christ as Faith does, for Faith asks of Christ and
Christ gives to Faith! Faith pleads promises and Christ fulfills
promises! Faith rests wholly upon Christ and Christ lays all His honor
upon the head of Faith and is content to let Faith wear His own diadem.
Yes, He uncrowns Himself to put His crown upon the head of Faith! You
young Believers know how sweet it is, by holy assurance, to come near
your Master. You put your hand into His side and you say, "My Lord, and
my God." You know what it is to throw your arms around Him and to
receive that gracious smile from Him, without which your spirits could
not rest. That is the communion of faith, the communion which we have
by faith in Jesus Christ.

There is, too, a communion in prayer which is called the communion of
conversation, for, in prayer, what do I do? If

1 pray aright, I talk to God! And if I pray with faith, what does
Christ do, but talk with me? In prayer, the heart of man empties itself
before God and then Christ empties His heart out to supply the needs of
His poor believing child. In prayer, we confess to Christ our needs and
He reveals to us His fullness. We tell Him our sorrows, He tells us His
joys. We tell Him our sins, He shows to us His righteousness. We tell
Him the dangers that lie before us, He tells us of the shield of
Omnipotence with which He can and will guard us. Prayer talks with God,
yes, it walks with Him and he who is much in prayer will hold very much
fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Then, again, there is a fellowship of communion which we derive from
meditation. When we sit down and in thought see Christ in Gethsemane,
and witness the blood-red drops wetting the soil. When we look upon Him
shamed, spit upon, mocked and buffeted. When we view Him on Golgotha
and hear His death-shriek startling the darkness–then our heart goes
out after Him and we love Him. While He holds up His hands and says,
"These were pierced for you," we hold up our hearts and say, "Here are
our hearts, Lord, take and seal them; they are Yours because bought
with Your precious blood."

Have you never felt the sweet communion of meditation? Many Christians
know little about it. They have so much occupation, such a perpetual
whirl of business, that they have not half-an-hour to spend in
meditation upon God. Beloved, you will never hold much personal
communion with the Savior unless you have a place where you can sit
down and–

"View the flowing Of His soul-redeeming blood, With Divine assurance
knowing That He made your peace with God."

You cannot expect to talk much to Christ unless your mind is freed from
the cares of earth. Oh, 'tis then that Christ descends and talks with
His children–and gives us sweet communion with Him–and fellowship in
meditation on His sufferings! Children of God, you know this! All of
you who are His people have had some taste of this communion of
conversation with God. You know much more of it than I can tell. Alas!
Alas, that the great majority of the people of God are far enough from
understanding even this first and faintest form of communion with Jesus
Christ!

Let me make one or two remarks here, before we pass away from this
communion of conservation. I would not have you despise this fellowship
because you have not attained to the rest I am about to mention, but,
dear Friends, take care that you hold communion with Christ. There is a
ladder between the Believer's soul and Heaven–mind that you tread its
rungs very often. There is a road between Mansoul and the Celestial
City–let the track be hard-beaten with the hoofs of the steeds of
prayer! Let the chariots of praise whirl along the highway to Glory! Do
not let your Jesus live a day without a line from you–and do not be
happy if you live a day without a word from Him! I marvel at some
professors who can live weeks and months quite satisfied without
holding this fellowship with Christ. What? A wife happy if her husband
smiles not on her? And is not Christ my Husband and shall I be blessed,
shall I be easy, if He shuts His mouth and speaks not a word to me? Can
I be content if I have not one smile all day long? Is Christ my Brother
and shall I be willing to live without the assurance of my Brother's
love to me? Can I be content to pass a week without knowing that my
Brother's heart is still beating with affection towards me? Verily,
Christians, I marvel at you! And angels marvel, too, that you can be so
foolish, so stolid, so stone-like, as to live days beyond number
without holding even this most common of all communions with our Lord
Jesus Christ!

Stir yourselves up, Beloved! You have a ticket to admit you to the
King's Palace–why do you not enter? You have an invitation to the
wedding feast–why do you not go? You have constant access to the
banqueting house–why do you not go and feast on Divine Love? There are
the "apples of gold in baskets of silver"–why do you not go and take
them? There is Christ's open heart! There are His open hands! His open
eyes! His open ears! Will you not go to Him who stands ready and
waiting to bless you? And you, too, poor Sinner–I have often thought
that a true description of Christ on the Cross would be a fine sermon
to illustrate that hymn–

"Come and welcome, Sinner come!" Do you not see the Savior there? He
has His arms stretched out, as though He had them wide open to take a
big sinner in. There are His hands nailed fast, as if they intended to
wait there till you were brought to Him! His head is hanging down, as
if He had stooped to kiss you. And there are His feet pouring out
streams of blood, as if His very blood would run after you, if you
would not come after Him! Verily, if you saw Christ by faith, each
bleeding wound and quivering atom of His body would say to you–

"Come and welcome, Sinner, come!" Much more do they say to you, beloved
children of God, "Come to your Savior and hold this fellowship of
conversation with Jesus Christ your Lord."

II. Now we have done with the lowest grade of fellowship and we pass on
to another–THE FELLOWSHIP OF

SYMPATHY.

Let me tell you what I mean by this expression. I said before that if
we meet two or three friends and converse together, that is communion.
But there was one friend there who had a lofty project in hand and,
though I talked to him, I did not share his views and I did not wish to
see his project accomplished. Therefore I did not enjoy such deep
communion with him as I might otherwise have done. Another of my
friends was exceedingly sick, but I was not suffering, just then, so
that when he spoke of his illness, I could not commune with him as
fully as I could have wished to do. There was Another who was
upbraided, scorned and spit upon–but I was not assailed in the same
way and, therefore, I had only partial communion with Him and that not
of the deepest kind. I could not say that I had complete fellowship
with Him in His sufferings. But, Christians, some of you have climbed
another step on the heavenly ladder of communion–you have come to hold
communion with Christ in sympathy!

Here I must divide this head of my discourse into two or three points.
Some of us have known what it is to hold communion with Christ in
sympathy when we have suffered just like Christ Did you ever find a
friend fail you–a friend of whom you expected far better things, at
whose table you had often sat, who had walked to the House of God with
you–and with whom you had held sweet converse? Did you not find him,
all of a sudden, unaccountably lifting up his heel against you and
doing all he could to bring despite and injury to you? Did you not
press your hand to your burning brow and say, "Ah! Christ had His Judas
and now I can hold communion with Christ, because my friend has
deserted me, too. And I can sympathize with Christ in the desertion of
men"?

Did you ever have a false report spread about you? Possibly, somebody
said you were "a drunk and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners." Or, perhaps, someone said that on such-and-such a night you
committed such-and-such an act. Or, if they could not stain your
character by charging you with immorality, they said that you were
insane! And did not your spirit, at first, beat high with passion as
you thought that you would answer the calumny? But, in a moment, you
put your hand to your heart, as you said, "Ah! He was oppressed and He
was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was brought as a lamb to
the slaughter and, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened
not His mouth." And did you not sit down and say, "Now I can hold
fellowship with Christ in my reproaches. Now I can bear a part in the
brunt of the battle. Now I can feel as He did, when He, too, was
oppressed by wicked men"?

Some of you, also, have been exceedingly poor. Here and there, one
could say, "I have not a place where to lay my head," and looking down
on your ragged garments, you may have thought, "Ah, now I know how
Jesus felt when He said, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head.' And so," you
thought, "I am holding the fellowship of sympathy with Him in His
poverty."

There was a time, too, when you prayed and received no answer–your
agonized spirit went backward and forward many times while you cried to
God, but no reply came. In the intensity of your importunity, you could
almost have "sweat, as it were, great drops of blood," as Jesus did!
Yet God did not answer you. Rising from your knees, you only rose to
fall down upon them, again, and, at last, you clasped your hands in
agony and said, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
me! Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." And you started up,
for you thought you heard your Lord say those words in tones of deeper
woe and greater agony than you had ever dreamed of! And you said, "Ah!
I, in my humble measure, have held fellowship with Him whose bloody
sweat has made Him always memorable, and whose agony in Gethsemane
helped to make Him my Savior."

And, perhaps, too, you have known what it is, at times, to lose the
sight of the Countenance of God. You have said, "Oh, that I knew where
I might find Him! That I might come, even, to His seat!" Your heart
melted with agony because God seemed to frown on you. Your prayers were
rejected. You had no light of His Countenance. You had no peace, no
light, no love, no joy, no God–and you cried, "My God! My God! Why
have You forsaken me?" And then you remembered that Christ said those
words, too, and that you were holding communion of sympathy with Him,
for you were feeling just as He felt–you had entered into a part of
His agony, you had drunk some drops of the awful cup which He drained
to its dregs, you had dived a little into the sea without a bottom,
into which Christ plunged–you had the fellowship of sympathy, for you
suffered with Him.

That is the most wonderful fellowship in the world, the fellowship of
fellow-suffering. Those two holy martyrs who were burned at Oxford have
this link forever between them because they were burned in the same
fire. Oh, what sweet fellowship they had because they were to die
together! Nothing makes us love Christ like feeling the same whip on
our shoulder which Christ had on His, to be pierced with the same
nails, to be spit upon by the same mouths and to suffer, though in a
very humble degree, the same kind of sufferings which Christ Himself
endured! O wondrous Grace, that we should be allowed to share in our
body the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Some of us are not called to suffer so much as to serve. And we, too,
have our communion with Christ in labor See the Sunday school teacher
who takes the little children on his knee as he teaches them. Though
some laugh, he seems to say, as did his Lord, "Suffer the little
children to come unto me, and forbid them not." There is the same
spirit in the servant as there was in his Master–and he is holding
communion with Christ in labor! See the faithful evangelist. He is in
an open field and he is preaching to the people with hands uplifted and
with an earnestness that makes him eloquent. Look! He has concluded. He
feels a sweet stillness in his soul. He knows not the reason of it, but
it is because he has been having communion with Christ and has felt, in
a measure, as Christ did, when we have wept over your poor dying souls.
When, on our bended knees we have asked God for your salvation. When we
have groaned and cried to bring you near to God. When, with most
impassioned supplication we have wrestled for your souls–then,
Beloved, we think we have had some communion with Christ, for —

"Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervor of His
prayer." He, too, wept over Jerusalem and said, "If you had known, even
you, at least in this, your day, the things which belong unto your
peace but now they are hid from your eyes." Laboring Christians have
sympathy with Christ and when they work with might and main, with good
intentions, with earnest desires, with cries and tears, they can say,
"O Lord, we have entered into fellowship with You!"

So too, we have fellowship with Christ, a heavenly fellowship of
desire, when we neither suffer nor work with Him, but yet sympathize
with Him. Perhaps you are not often sick, but you often feel a
fellowship of compassionate pity and love. You are not persecuted–you
almost wish you were. Perhaps you have very little talent and you
cannot labor for

Christ, but you have sometimes said, as you have trodden the way to
this Chapel, "What would I not give to see sinners saved? Oh, I think I
would be willing to die if I might but have my son and my daughter
converted to God." Do you know that, just at that moment, you were
holding communion with Christ, for you felt just as Christ did, who
loved us with a love so pure and so perfect, that He gave up His body
to death that He might redeem us from Hell? You have, perhaps, also
said to Jesus, sometimes, "I have but little that I can give to You
but–

''Had I ten thousand hearts, dear Lord,

I'd give them all to Thee!

Had I ten thousand tongues, they all

Should join the harmony.'"

Ah, you had fellowship with Christ, then, for you desired to do all
that you could for the extension of His Kingdom!

I will show how we hold fellowship with Christ in our designs. You see
two men in a court ofjustice. One man stands there to be tried–there
is every probability that he will be condemned. There is a person in
court who is about to plead–he is a barrister, but, besides that, he
is a friend of the prisoner. The man is being tried for his life. Do
you see the awful agony on his face? But up rises his advocate and you
notice that as he pleads, he turns his eyes towards the prisoner at the
bar. And when he sees the tears start from the poor man's eyes, out
comes an eloquent period! There is a sigh just heaved by the
culprit–look how the counselor waxes hot. The prisoner begins to weep
excessively and hides his face. Do you notice how the advocate gets
more fiery and more zealous as he proceeds, and how much more pathetic
his speech becomes, and how earnestly he pleads as his tongue is set at
liberty? Why is that? Because he is in fellowship with the poor man! He
feels for him! He is not talking to him–that would only be the
fellowship of conversation–he is feeling with him and their hearts are
near akin. Even supposing they have not seen each other before, if they
feel for one another, they are nearer akin than blood-relationship
could make them!

Beloved, when you see a minister pleading with souls as if he were
pleading for himself. When you hear him contending for Jesus Christ's
Divinity as much as if he were contending for his own honor, that
minister is holding communion with Christ! And when you see a saint
speaking to a poor sinner of the Redeemer's death and pointing to his
wounds, why, every drop of Calvary's blood seems to make the man speak
more eloquently and every groan he thinks he hears makes him urge his
plea in more desperate earnestness with men! This, Beloved, is sympathy
with Christ, fellowship with Him–and that I call a higher grade of
communion than the fellowship of conversation. I hope some of you have
arrived at it. If you have, you will be more useful than those who only
understand the fellowship of conversation. God grant to us all the
fellowship of fellow-feeling, the fellowship of sympathy with Christ

III. The third point is THE FELLOWSHIP OF UNITY.

Do you see this hand? Do you see this brow? This hand and this brow are
more nearly allied together than my brother's heart and mine, although
he loves me with all his heart and would plead for me even to the
death. But this hand and this brow have not only a communion of
fellow-feeling, they have the same feeling. The members of the body
have positively the same feeling–so Christ's mystical members feel the
same emotion as He does.

You ask, "Do Christians ever arrive at this stage of fellowship?" Yes,
certainly they do–the Supper of the Lord was intended to set forth
that highest grade of communion which Christians ever hold with their
Master here below. It is not a communion with Him in His sufferings, it
is not a communion with Him in His service, but it is a communion with
Himself. You Believers are invited spiritually to eat the flesh of
Christ, and spiritually to drink His blood–and that is a nearer,
clearer fellowship than any of which we have spoken of before because
it brings you into positive unity with Him. It makes you feel that you
are not only pleading for Him as your Friend, but that you are a part
of Him, a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Many
hearers of the Gospel do not understand this great mystery. Some even
think it is profanity to talk of this oneness with Christ. It wouldbe
the very height of profanity for a man to say, "I am one with Christ,"
if the Scripture did not warrant him in saying so! To call oneself, "a
friend of God," would be blasphemous presumption–but Scripture says
that Believers are His friends and, therefore, there is no blasphemy in
repeating the declaration.

Some may think it is absurd to talk of our being "one with the Savior."
It is not absurd, because it is Scriptural. We are s o and we feel,
when we drink the wine, that the blood of the Savior is spiritually in
our veins, as well as in His–that we are brethren in ties of blood. I
hope we shall be able to say that we were one with Him when He died,
one with Him when He rose, one with Him when He triumphed over the
grave, one with Him when He ascended up on high, one with

Him, now, and one with Him eternally! I believe that not a few of us
will get so near to Christ that we shall not only lay our heads on His
bosom, but shall do more than that–we shall not put our heart against
His heart, but right into His heart–and we shall feel as much one with
Christ as the little drop of dew is with the stream into which it
falls. I hope we shall be as much a portion of Christ, while we sit
around the Communion Table, as the particle of flesh is of the body and
shall feel that each pulse that beats in Him also throbs through our
frame–that the blood of Christ runs through our veins! That each sigh
we heave, He heaves, and that each groan we utter, He utters! I hope we
shall hear Him say–

"I feel at My heart all your sighs and your groans,

For you are most near Me, My flesh and My bones.

In all your distresses your Head feels the pain,

Yet all are most needful, not one is in vain," Beyond this, the
Christian cannot survive on earth! It is the highest style of
communion, till–

"That happy hour of full discharge

Shall set his ransomed soul at large!

Unbind his soul and drop his clay,

And speed is wings far, far away"–

up where Christ dwells!

And there, Beloved, we shall know communion with Christ in a sense
which only folly will labor to depict, for wisdom's self knows nothing
of it! There at His feet we will sit and on His breast we will lean!
There from His lips will we hear sweet music, from His mouth we will
breathe perpetual balm, from His eyes we will draw Divine Light! We
will press His hand inside these palms. We will kiss Him with these
very lips. We will put ourselves within His arms we will abide all day
close by our Beloved. We will talk with Him. We will be with Him
wherever He goes. And He shall lead His sheep "unto living fountains of
waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

IV. This fellowship, of which I have been speaking, is a steppingstone
to that best, that beatified fellowship which we shall have in a few
more years–THE FELLOWSHIP OF HEAVEN.

O Christians do you ever imagine how sweet it will be to be with your
Lord? I sometimes think to myself–Oh, how strange it will seem, to
have a crown upon this head, to have sandals of gold on these feet, to
have a vesture of white on this poor body, to have rings of everlasting
love decorating these fingers, to have a harp, over which my delighted
fingers shall run, making it emit the sweetest melody in praise of
Jesus! And to have a throne on which to sit to judge the tribes of
Israel. To have songs more melodious than music ever evoked,
perpetually rolling from my lips! To have my heart brimful of bliss and
my soul baptized in love and glory! Above, beneath, around, within,
without, EVERYWHERE, it is Heaven! I breathe Heaven, I drink Heaven, I
feel Heaven, I think Heaven, everything is Heaven!

Oh, "what must it be to be there?" To be there is to be with Christ!
Wait but a little while, Dearly-Beloved, and you shall realize what
Paul meant when He said, "We know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens." Soon, World, I shall say farewell
to you! Soon, beloved Friends, I shall, for the last time, shake hands
with you! Soon, these eyes shall see their last dim mists, there last
tears shall have been wiped away forever! My last sighs shall have been
wafted away by the breath of God and there, ah, there! God knows how
soon, there–

"Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in"

–I shall be with Him forever!

Do you believe that concerning yourselves, my dear Christian Brothers
and Sisters? Then, why are you afraid to die? Why are you so often
fearing? What? Men and women, Brothers and Sisters, do you believe that
in a few more days you will be in Heaven–and see all you love and all
you live for here below? Do you believe that in a few more months or
years, you will clasp your Savior and be blessed forever? Why, Beloved,
it is enough to make you leap for joy and clap your hands in ecstasy!
What? You are troubled? You are desponding? No, go your way, eat your
bread with joy, be happy all your life, for you know that your Redeemer
lives and though after your flesh, worms shall destroy this body, yet
in your flesh you shall see God!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-31.

Verses 12, 13. For as the body is one, and has many members, and all
the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into one Spirit Oh, what a sacred oneness that is which
subsists between all the Lord's people! We are not simply Brothers and
Sisters, but we are one! We are not allied by affinity, but by actual
identity! We are parts of the same body. We are brought into spiritual
membership with each other as real and as effectual as that membership
which subsists between the various parts of the body. Yet we are not
all alike, although we are all of one body. Some are Jews, some are
Gentiles, some are bond, some are free. And yet, in some things, we are
all alike, for we have all been baptized by one Spirit. And, moreover,
we have all been made to drink into one Spirit–we have had one
spiritual baptism, and we have had one spiritual drinking. Would to God
that we felt more one, that our hearts beat more in tune with each
other, that we had a sympathy with each other in woes and sufferings,
that we had a fellow feeling with all who love the Lord and could at
all times weep with those that weep, as well as rejoice with those that
rejoice

14, 15. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shallsay,
Because Iam not the hand, Iam not ofthe body–is it, therefore, not
ofthe body? Do not be comparing yourself with others and saying, "Ah,
if I were such-and-such a person, I might then think myself to be part
of Christ's body." No, you might not, even if you were just like he. As
there are only certain members of a sort in a man's body, so, by a
parity of reasoning, there would not be more than a certain number of
members alike in the mystical body. We do not imagine that there will
be many members of this body, the Church, of one class, or of one
character–so that, if you are different from others, you are
fulfilling a different office in the body. You may, from that fact,
draw an inference of comfort rather than one of sorrow and despondency.
Even should you say, "Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body,
are you therefore not of the body?" Oh, no! You are still of the body,
even though you do not think that you are.

16, 17. And if the ear shall say, Because Iam not the eye, Iam not
ofthe body; is it therefore not ofthe body? If the whole body were am
eye, where were the hearing?If we were all preachers. If we could all
see into God's Truth and set it forth in a public manner, where should
we get our congregations?

17. If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?There must be
different members to fill different offices. If we were all so one that
there was no distinction, whatever. If we were all of one rank, all of
one age, all of one standing, the body would be incomplete.

18-21. But now has God set the members, every one of them, in the body,
as it has pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the
body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of you: nor again the head to
the feet, I have no need of you. Brothers and Sisters, you sometimes
think there are some belonging to the Church whom we could well spare.
But there is not one superfluous member in the whole body! If they are
truly united to Christ, they have all their offices, all their places.
There is not a poor old woman who has not been able to get up to the
House of Prayer for several years, who is not of some use to the
Church, for she lies upon her bed and there she intercedes with God!
There is not a member of the Church so humble, so illiterate, so
unin-structed, that he or she may not be of essential service to the
whole body. There is some little part, my Brother or Sister, which you
are to take in the great Church of Christ. You may not be always able
to tell what it may be, but still there is a place for you to fill!
There is a linchpin in a chariot–who thinks much about or thanks that
pin? Indeed, it is so very small and insignificant, who would imagine
it is necessary to the locomotion or speed? The wheels carry it around,
but who would suppose that if it were taken away, the wheel would fly
off? Perhaps you are like one of these little linchpins which keep the
wheel right. You may not know what use you are, but, possibly, you
prevent someone else from turning aside. Let us each keep in our
station, endeavoring, God helping us, to exert the influence which He
has given us.

22-24. No, much more, those members ofthe body which seem to be more
feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body which we think to
be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor and our
uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have
no need but God both tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to that part which lacked. A moment's thought will tell
you that those parts of our frame which are most tender are the most
necessary parts; and those members of the body which we think to be
less honorable, upon these, by clothing them more than other parts, we
bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts have more abundant
comeliness, for our comely parts have no need of being covered and,
therefore, we leave them exposed.

25. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members
should have the same care, one for another We have heard this text
urged by some who are in the Church of England as a proof that we are
wrong in departing from it. They tell us that there should be no schism
in the body. We beg to tell them that there isno schism in the body
that we know of! We do not belong to their body and, therefore, we make
no schism in that body–we are quite clear of them. We have neither
stick, nor stone, nor part, nor lot in their State Establishment!
Therefore we do not create a schism in the body. When they divide
themselves into Puseyites and Evangelicals, they make a schism in their
own body, but, as long as we are all united, as long as the members of
a church walk together in unity, there is no schism in the body. We are
different bodies altogether! They say that a schismatic is one who
departs from a Church, and makes a rent from i t. By no means! A
schismatic is one who makes a rent in i t, not from i t. We, I say, are
not schismatics. Those who are in the Church of England and yet do not
agree with its fundamental principles and its Articles of Faith, they
are schismatics! But we are not.

26. And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it Is
that true of our churches? I am afraid not. The members of the one
Church of Christ have not been brought to that unity of feeling and
sympathy which they ought to have.

26-30. Or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it Now
you are the body of Christ and members in particular And God has set
some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly
teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all
prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the
gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? God
intended that there should be different offices in His Church. Let us
look on each other as being different and yet united in the common
faith of Christ.

3l. But covet earnestly the best gifts. I would not wish you, Brothers,
to repress your aspirations after these blessings. I am most anxious
that you should earnestly desire and seek to possess a large share of
all these spiritual endowments.

31. And yet show I unto you a more excellent way. Which is, holding the
Truth of God in love and walking in charity, one toward another.