Does the reader thoroughly own this great principle? is it as clear as a sunbeam to his soul? Has he any difficulty respecting it? If so, we entreat him to seek to divest his mind of all preconceived thoughts, from what source soever derived; let him rise above the hazy mists of traditional religion; let him take the New Testament, and study, as in the immediate presence of God, the twelfth and fourteenth chapters of 1 Corinthians, and also Ephesians iv. 7-12. In these passages he will find the whole subject of ministry unfolded, and from them he will learn that all true ministry, whether it be apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, or evangelists,—all is of God—all flows down from Christ, the exalted Head of the Church. If a man be not possessed of a _bona-fide_ gift from Christ, he is not a minister. Every member of the body has a work to do. The edification of the body is promoted by the proper action of all the members, whether prominent or obscure, “comely” or “uncomely.” In short, all ministry is from God, and not from man; it is by God, and not by man. There is no such thing in Scripture as a humanly ordained ministry. All is of God. We must not confound ministerial gifts with office or local charge. We find the apostles, or their delegates, ordaining elders and appointing deacons; but this was quite a distinct thing from ministerial gifts. Those elders and deacons might possess and exercise some specific gift in the body; the apostle did not ordain them to exercise such gift, but only to fulfill the local charge. The spiritual gift was from the Head of the Church, and was independent of the local charge altogether.