wrote to the Asiatics, he was in presence of errors which beclouded the living splendour of the Head. When he wrote to the Romans, he was concerned rather with the interdependence of the limbs, in the practice of Christian social life. We have spoken of "_the parable_ of the Body." But is the word "parable" adequate? "What if earth be but the shadow of heaven?" What if our physical frame, the soul's house and vehicle, be only the feebler counterpart of that great Organism in which the exalted Christ unites and animates His saints? That union is no mere aggregation, no mere alliance of so many men under the presidency of an invisible Leader. It is a thing of life. Each to the living Head, and so each to all His members, we are joined in that wonderful connexion with a tenacity, and with a relation, genuine, strong, and close as the eternal life can make it. The living, breathing man, multifold yet one, is but the reflection, as it were, of "Christ Mystical," the true Body with its heavenly Head. [Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =For just as in one body we have many limbs, but all the limbs have not the same function,= [Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =so we, the many, are one body in Christ,= in our personal union with Him, =but in detail (τὸ δὲ καθεῖς), limbs of one another,= coherent and related not as neighbours merely but as complementary parts in the whole. [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =But having endowments (χαρίσματα)--according to the grace that was given to us--differing, be it prophecy,= inspired utterance, a power from above, yet mysteriously conditioned (1 Cor. xiv. 32) by the judgment and will of the utterer, =let it follow the proportion of the= man's =faith,= let it be true to his entire dependence on the revealed Christ, not left at the mercy of his mere emotions, or as it were played upon by alien unseen powers; [Sidenote: Ver. 7.] =be it active service (διακονία),= let the man be =in his service,= wholly given to it, not turning aside to covet his brother's more mystic gift; =be it the teacher,= let him likewise be =in his teaching,= whole-hearted in his allotted work, free from ambitious outlooks from it; [Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =be it the exhorter,= let him be =in his exhortation; the distributer= of his means, for God, =with open-handedness; the superintendent,= of Church, or of home, =with earnestness; the pitier,= (large and unofficial designation!) =with gladness,= doubling his gifts and works of mercy by the hallowed brightness of a heart set free from the aims of self, and therefore wholly at the service of the needing.