It is most necessary to be clear as to the distinction between gift and local charge. There is the utmost confusion of the two things throughout the entire professing church, and the consequence is that ministry is not understood. The members of the body of Christ do not understand their place or their functions. Human election, or human authority in some shape or another, is deemed essential to the exercise of ministry in the Church. But there is really no such thing in Scripture. If there be, nothing is easier than to produce it. We ask the reader to find a single line, from cover to cover of the New Testament, in which a human call, human appointment, or human authority has any thing whatsoever to do with the exercise of ministry in its very fullest range. We boldly assert there is no such thing.[14] Ah! no; blessed be God, ministry in His Church is “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” “_God hath set_ the members _every one of them_ in the body, _as it hath pleased Him_.” (1 Cor. xii. 18.) “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, ‘When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’ ... And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. iv. 7-13.) Here, all the grades of ministerial gift are placed on one and the same ground, from apostles down to evangelists and teachers. They are all given by the Head of the Church; and when bestowed, they render the possessors responsible at once to the Head in heaven and to the members on earth. The idea of any possessor of a positive gift from God waiting for human authority is as great an insult to the Divine Majesty as if Aaron had gone, with his blooming rod in his hand, to be ordained to the priesthood by some of his fellows. Aaron knew better. He was called of God, and that was quite enough for him. And so now, all who possess a divine gift are called of God to the ministry, and they need nothing more, save to wait on their ministry and cultivate their gift.