January 4

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Romans 12:6.

GOD does not communicate the same favours to all, nor in the same degree. To some he gives more, to some less. Some he places in splendid stations, others are called to pass their days in obscurity. But to “every one is given grace according to the gift of Christ.”

There is a variety in all his works. If we look up we shall see “one star differeth from another star in glory;” if we survey the earth, we shall find hills and valleys, rivers and oceans. If we observe the natural body there is a diversity of parts, and these are very unequal, yet no one of them is needless oj useless. It is the same in the mystical body; there are many offices, but all cannot fill the same office. “Having, then,” says the apostle, “gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; for as we have many members, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” So the apostle Peter says, “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Grace again, manifold grace! “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracle of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Unto Christians at large is this grace given-“gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us”-that some should be employed in teaching poor children to read the Bible, and that others should “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction;” to some it is given to subscribe to Bible and Missionary and Tract Societies, and to others to collect for them. Thus we see all may be graciously employed and honoured. And Newton, when he says that at God’s bidding some fly over earth and seas, adds finely, “They also serve thy will, and they require more grace who wait than those who fly.”

“For unto you it is given,” says the apostle, “in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”