Gifts and Offices
– J. N. Darby, E. L. Bevir
and J. B. Stoney

The following articles by JND, ELB and JBS – while overlapping somewhat – set out the scriptures and principles which governed 'brethren' from the outset.

There is a great difference between gifts and charges.

• Gifts flow down from the Head, which is Christ, among the members, so as to assemble, by their means, the Church outside of the world, and to build it up so far as thus gathered together.

• Those to whom charges were entrusted, were as such 'overseers', or 'servants', established in each locality by the apostles, and who received from them their position and their authority.

• They might have gifts, and it was desirable that they should; but very often they had none.

• In either case, when they were faithful and devoted to their service, they were blessed of God.

We will now examine the instruction of holy scripture concerning gifts.

Everything which is good is a gift, and comes from God. But here we speak of gifts in a rather more restricted and more limited sense;

• namely, the gifts bestowed by God for the gathering together of His Church and for its edification, according as it is written:
  • "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men", Ephesians 4: 8.

• That is, the gifts of which we speak are those which, according to scripture, Christ received from the Father, after having ascended up on high to be Head over all things to the Church.

Man, through sin, has brought many a thing to a close in ruin. Without law he was lost in dissoluteness, in independence, in towering violence and corruption.

• Under the law he became a transgressor and despiser of the authority of God.

• God visited man in mercy there where he was lying in misery, vile and disobedient; and man has rejected God. He was a sinner, driven out of the earthly paradise.

• God came down into this miserable world of man's; but, so far as it lay in man's power to do it, he drove God out of the world.

• There remains thus for man – as altogether the servant of the prince and god of this world – nothing but judgment.

• God will not however, in any, even the least respect, fail to accomplish His own designs. Every hope for the first man, as such, is lost.

• But God has glorified the second Man, Adam, even Him who was obedient – the Lord from heaven – and has taken Him up into the heavenly place predestined for Him.

• Yet He still acts in grace upon the hearts of the children of men to give them a new life, and to gather the objects of His grace outside of the world, uniting them to Christ glorified,
  • so that they may enjoy, together with Him, all blessings, and, which is more precious than all else, that they may rejoice together with Him in the Father's love.

• Thus those that are born again are also members of Christ, of Him who is the Head of the body.

• But there is still another truth which connects itself with the object we have in view; namely, that Christ has won that position by the accomplishment of the work of redemption.

• We were captives of the devil and of sin: now we are set free. Christ has led captivity captive, and He fills those whom He sets free with the power of the Holy Spirit that they may serve Him.

• Having overcome Satan and finished the work of redemption, He is ascended up on high, and, as Head of the Church, He has received of the Father the Holy Spirit of promise for the members of His body.

The Christian being redeemed receives the Holy Spirit in two manners.

1. He is sealed with the Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance, and thus is one with the Lord, and united to Him;

2. then he has received the Holy Spirit as power for service to Christ.

• Such is the way the gifts connect themselves with these truths. The work of redemption is accomplished; and believers are perfectly purified from their sins,
  • so that, by virtue of the blood of Christ wherewith they are sprinkled, the Holy Spirit can dwell in them.

• Christ, having glorified God, His Father, upon earth, has sat down, as man, at the right hand of God, as Head of the Church, whose everlasting righteousness He is.

• As such, He has received the Holy Spirit for His members, that is to say, for those that believe in Him; Acts 2: 33; Ephesians 4: 8. We are the righteousness of God in Him; 2 Corinthians 5: 21.

• Already the Holy Spirit – sent by the Father in the name of the Son –
  • and come down from the Son, dwells in believers as the witness of His glory and the Spirit of power, as the Spirit of liberty and adoption, on behalf of the Father,

• and as coming from the Father, in order to communicate to them the certainty of salvation, and also to accomplish on the earth, as power and wisdom, the work of the Lord, in the members of the body.

All important and precious as is the first-named point, we will for the present leave it in order to say a few words on gifts.

• The Holy Spirit is upon earth, in virtue of the finished work of redemption, and of the session of Christ at the right hand of God.

• There He acts, by means of the gospel, so as to proclaim the love of God, to gather together the elect, and to form of them one body, the body of Christ.

• Every converted soul, which has received the life of Christ and been sealed with the Holy Spirit, is a member of Christ, of the heavenly Head.

• We can consider then the gifts as either the gifts of Christ, or as the operation of the Holy Ghost now upon the earth. The holy scripture gives us both of these aspects.
  • In Ephesians 4 it speaks of the gifts of Christ.

  • In 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 it speaks of the unity of the body, and of the gifts as produced by the Spirit in the different members.

• In each case, the gifts are in connection with the unity of the body, as may be easily seen by reading Ephesians 4.

Before going farther, let it be remarked, that the gifts are of two kinds:

1. first, such as serve to awaken souls, and to gather the Church; and,

2. secondly, such as are signs to the world, signs of the presence of God in the Person of the Spirit in the Church.

• The Epistle to the Ephesians speaks to us only of the former; the Epistle to the Corinthians speaks of both.

• The word of God itself makes the above distinction, when it says that tongues are for a sign to unbelievers, and prophesyings are for believers. 1 Corinthians 14: 22.

• This distinction is important, because it is impossible that anything should fail which is necessary for the conversion of souls, and for the building up of saints;
  • whereas it is easy enough to conceive that God should withdraw that which was an ornament to the Church, and a token of its acceptability,

  • when the Church is unfaithful, and when, instead of honouring God, she has grieved the Spirit.

• Nevertheless this external testimony remained, according to the wisdom of God in the Church, so long as it was needed, in order to confirm the preaching of the truths of the gospel.

All gifts proceed immediately from Christ the Head, and have their existence in believers by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

• Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 present to us these two important truths very clearly and very explicitly, while at the same time they give us their principle and their development.

• Ephesians 4 treats exclusively of the gifts which serve for the gathering and edification of the Church.

• Christ is ascended up on high, and has received gifts for men, who, in the enjoyment by faith of the work of Christ in redemption
  • by the which they are completely delivered from the power of Satan, to which they were previously subject

  • – having also been made vessels of the grace and power, which flows down from on high, of Christ, who is the Head –

• become instruments of the Christ who is absent, by means of the gifts which are communicated to them.

• The Lord laid the foundation by the apostles and prophets, who are – says the apostle Paul, Ephesians 2 – the foundation, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

• There yet abide evangelists, pastors, and teachers; and, so long as Christ loves the Church, and is the alone source of grace –
  • so long as He desires to nourish the members of His own body

• – these same gifts will remain for the edification of the Church.

• But whereas – while the healthful action of these gifts is by means of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit – Christians are unhappily often unfaithful, and neglect His rebukes,
  • it comes to pass that the development of the gifts, and their public efficacy, are little apparent, and their activity is diminished.

• This is true in general; and that both as to individual Christian life, and as to the practical state of the Church.

• But it is not the less true, that Christ always faithfully cares for His own body. On that care we can always count, though as to details we may be humbled on account of our own unfaithfulness.

• Also the Lord has said, The harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few; and that we should pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more labourers.

Every one who has received a gift has thereby become servant of Him who communicated it to him.

• In every case we are the servants of Christ, who alone is Lord of our souls;
  • but every Christian, in particular, is His servant, as to any gift He may have conferred upon him; and, because He has conferred it on him,

  • each one is responsible both to use it and to trade with it – I mean to trade with it, with the view for which Christ communicated it.

• Without doubt, each Christian is subject to the general discipline of the Church, or of the assembly, both as to his whole life and as to his service.
  • But he serves Christ, and not men.

• He brings forth fruit for the assembly, because he serves Christ; he renders service to Christians, because he is the servant of Christ the Lord.

• Also, he must needs serve, because he is the servant of Christ, and has received, for that end, a part of his Lord's goods.

• Such is the doctrine of the parable of the three servants, whose lord went into a far country, and gave unto them of his goods; to the one more, to the other less.

• With what view? that they might be idle and listless? No; he committed to them the talents in order that they might trade with them.

• We do not commit materials and tools to men, in order that they may do nothing. Not only is such a thought senseless,
  • but, if the love of Christ and His love to souls energize in our hearts, idleness and inaction are altogether impossible.

The presence and the activity of Christ's love in our hearts is thus, in truth, tested.

• If the love of Christ be active in my heart, would it be possible for me to remain inactive in any case in which I could be of use to one soul beloved of Him? Certainly not.

• The power to act thus, the wisdom needful to do it, in a way which would be agreeable to Him, comes always and directly from Himself, while the love of Christ in the heart is that which keeps the heart lively.

• In order to have courage for action, I must have confidence in Christ: otherwise the heart will say,
  • 'Perhaps He will not accept what I do';

  • 'It may be He will not be content with me';

  • 'Would not this be too rash, too hasty?'

  • 'It might be proud to attempt that'.

• The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the way"; whereas love is not inactive but intelligent, because it confides in Christ.

• Love apprehends what love wishes; it yields itself to the will of Christ, and follows the example of Christ, its guide.
  • Such is the action of that very love which is in Christ, and which acts with humble and true wisdom.

• It is obedient and intelligent, understanding from grace its duty, and drawing out of the love of Christ courage to fulfil it.

• And whose conduct did Christ approve of and accept? Was it his who, out of a heart's confidence, laboured without any other commandment, or his who was afraid to do so?

• We all know the answer. The approbation of Christ suffices for the heart of the Christian, and suffices for his justification in his deed.

Brethren, when we have His acceptance manifest and declared, we may leave all the rest alone.

• This is just what to be faithful to Christ means. Let us have patience. He will judge everything ere long.

• Till then let us walk by faith: His word is enough for us. At the time appointed He will justify us before the world, and will put full honour upon His own word and our faith.

The Lord Jesus has, then, received these gifts as Himself a man, and has given them to men, for the effectuating the work of the gospel and of the Church;

• those therefore who have received these gifts must needs turn them to their full profit, according to God,

• to win souls, to edify Christians, and to glorify their Lord and heavenly Master.

• In Ephesians 4 we have seen the gifts of edification represented as being trusts made here below by Christ Himself ascended up on high,
  • while the members of His body upon the earth are being gathered, and while, by means of an activity which acts the one upon the other, the body grows,

• and is at the same time kept from every wind of doctrine, until it come unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

The gifts are looked at in 1 Corinthians 12 rather according to the energy of the Holy Spirit upon earth, who distributes them to each as He will.

• Therefore we find here, not only gifts of edification, but all those which are the result of the power of the Spirit and signs of His presence.

• This chapter examines everything which can be considered as a spiritual manifestation;
  • and while it distinctly speaks of the action of the power of demons, it shews us the means of distinguishing these from divine gifts.

• It sets forth, in the very clearest manner, the doctrine of the body and members of Christ, drawing our attention to this:
  • that there is but one only Lord, by whose authority those who have gifts labour – whether in the world, or in the assembly of saints – to accomplish the work of God by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.

• Each member is dependent upon the action of the others, because all have been baptized by one and the same Spirit.

In Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4: 10 the gifts are briefly enumerated.

• In Romans, again, as the members of the body of Christ, and, in general, with the object of exhorting those who possess gifts not to go beyond that which has been given to them, but to keep within the limits of their gift.

• In 1 Peter 4 the Holy Spirit exhorts Christians to use the gifts which have been bestowed upon them, as the immediate and faithful stewards of God Himself; to speak as the oracles of God; to serve as by the ability received of God.

• In all this teaching, we find nothing about office; the subject is simply the members of the body of Christ who all take their part in the edifying of the body, and who are held responsible to do so.

• All do not speak – all do not preach the gospel – all do not teach, because all have not these gifts; but all are obliged, according to scripture, to do – according to the scriptural order of the house of God – that which God has given them to do.

• When once it understood that all Christians are members of Christ, and that each member has his own proper work – his own service in the body, all becomes simple and clear.

• We have all a duty to fulfil, and that in the strength of God; and the less seen is perhaps the most precious, while exercising itself before God and not before man. But all have something to do.
  • To say that all have office is to deny that there are special offices.

• Nothing can be clearer, if we examine history and the instruction of scripture upon this point.

• We see in it that, in that which concerns either the preaching of the gospel in the world, or the edification of Christians in gathering, the question is never about office, but that all depends upon gifts.

Let us turn to a few passages in proof of this assertion.

We have already called attention to Matthew 25. In the parable of the talents committed to the three servants, the Lord lays down this principle, that

• two of them are worthy of praise because they had traded, without being otherwise authorized than by the fact itself that their lord had committed to them his money;

• while the third is blamed and punished for having expected a warrant, because he had not confidence in his lord, and had not dared to trade without some further obligation.

• This means, that the gifts themselves are, for the workman, a warrant or authorization fully sufficient to trade with the gift which he has, if the love of Christ constrain his heart;
  • but, if this love is not there, he is under responsibility; and the proof that the love of Christ is not in action in him is, that he has not served by means of his gift – he is a bad and a lazy servant.

• Christ gives not gifts with the object that we should not turn them to profit; He gives them, rather, that we may use them with energy.

• We find also, that, in point of fact, so it was among the early Christians.

• When the persecution which ensued upon the death of Stephen had dispersed the Christians, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. Acts 8: 4. And we read – chap. 11: 21 – that the hand of the Lord was with them.

• But is it possible that if I know the means by which a soul may be saved, I ought not to announce that way, though God may have rendered me able to do so?

• In private anyone can do such a thing; but the ability to preach in public is precisely the gift of God in this respect.

Paul finding himself in prison at Rome, many of the brethren in the Lord waxed bold on seeing his bonds, and fearlessly dared to preach the word; Philippians 1: 13, 14.

When false teachers go forth to seduce the Lord's people, the receiving them or the not receiving them in no wise depends upon any office they have, or upon the absence of an official character.

• Even a woman is directed to judge for herself by doctrine. 2 John 10.

• It did not for an instant come into the thought of the apostle to use such a means as the possession of office, in order to guard a woman on the occurrence of a time of difficulty;
  • he simply writes to her to judge each according to his doctrine.

• It does not even come into his head to counsel this woman to ask of him who presents himself as preacher whether he has office, or is consecrated or ordained.

• On the contrary he praises the beloved Gaius, because he had received the brethren who were gone forth in the name of Christ; and he exhorts him to bring them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

• In so doing Gaius would become a co-labourer with the truth. 3 John 8.

So far as the preaching of the gospel is concerned, the word of God then confirms this doctrine,

• that each, according to his capacity, and the opportunities which God in His grace affords him, is obliged to announce the good news.

The scripture is quite clear also as to the edification of believers.

• Not only does it present us with this general truth, that Christ has given gifts, and that the Holy Spirit acts thereby, in order that we may fulfil the work of God in every way – Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12;
  • but, moreover, it speaks with exactness and clearness of the duty of those who possess gifts.

• The Holy Spirit says by the mouth of Peter,
  • "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards. of the manifold grace of God", 1 Peter 4: 10.

• Then in 1 Corinthians 14 we find the order according to which the exercise of gifts should take place,
  • "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted".

• James shews us distinctly the true limits of this service, without reference to office, when he says that believers should not be many teachers,
  • because that the responsibility thereof would be all the greater, and that – since we all in various ways offend – they would suffer a so much the greater judgment.

• It is, then, perfectly certain that gifts, and the service which believers render by gifts, are completely independent of the possession of office;
  • and that those to whom God has communicated these gifts are obliged to use them for the edification of the saints.

• The scripture gives the rules according to which the exercises of the gifts ought to take place;
  • it requires that the spirits of the prophets be subject to the prophets, and that all be done unto edification, in such wise that there be no disorder in the assembly.

• As to office, the scripture says not one single word upon this subject in this respect. *

* It is remarkable that in the epistle to the Corinthians elders are never once mentioned;

• and there, where there existed so much trouble and evil, the apostle nevertheless does not propose to the assembly to nominate or establish elders;

• but he acts upon the conscience of Christians by the word, in order that they may be roused to remove the evil.

Now, on this subject, we beg that it may be remarked, that between gift and office there exists a great difference, and that this difference depends upon the nature of the two things.

• The gift has its course, it is available everywhere.
  • If I am an evangelist, I shall preach the gospel wheresoever God may call me.

  • Am I a teacher? I shall teach believers according to my ability, wheresoever I may chance to find myself.

  • Apollos teaches at Ephesus; he is also of use to believers at Corinth.

• But if any one has received an office, he fulfils the service which is connected with it in the determinate place where he has been nominated thereunto.
  • Is he an elder, or a deacon at Ephesus? he ought to fulfil his office at Ephesus; his official authority is valid at Ephesus. At Corinth he would have none.

• The possessors of office are not, as such, members of the body of Christ; though those who are installed therein are themselves individually such.

• The gifts, as gifts, are the various members of the body – see Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 14, and Romans 12 – who ought to render their service according to the will of God, wheresoever they may find themselves.

• The scripture never says that an evangelist is the evangelist of an assembly or of a flock; neither does it recognize a teacher or a pastor of a flock; but God has put such gifts in the Church, in the body of Christ.
  • "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 fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love", Ephesians 4: 11-16.

There were, without any question, at the commencement, offices in the assemblies; we find two kinds of them in the holy scriptures; overseers and servants,

• and if any one is pleased to make the distinction, sisters in service.

• The first-named were ordinarily – presbuteroi – what are now called elders. The others were deacons or deaconesses.

• We do not find, however, that elders were established in any determinate manner among the Christian Jews.

• Among the Christians who had been called by grace, from among the heathen, we see very clearly, that they were chosen and installed in their charge by the apostles or their delegates.

• We read in Acts 14: 23 that Paul and Barnabas choose, in each town, elders for the assemblies; and in Crete the apostle left Titus, in order that he might establish elders in every town.

• As to Timothy, although that was not his service, having been left by the apostle at Ephesus, to watch as to doctrine, yet he received from Paul instruction as to the qualities suitable for an overseer.

• Nevertheless, the apostle did not enter into conference upon this point with the assemblies; but he did everything himself personally, or else he entrusted this service exclusively to his delegate; even there where assemblies were already formed.

We find but little in scripture about the servants – or deacons.

• In Acts 6 we read that the apostles, not wishing to have any more to serve tables, require the Christians to choose seven from among themselves, who should fulfil the duties of deacons, though they are not called by the name;

• and, to say the least, they had in many respects the suited qualifications which are enumerated by the apostle Paul to Timothy and to Titus.

It may be asked, Now that there are no apostles, what ought we to do as to elders?

• Our God, who has in all times foreknown the wants of His beloved Church, has given us the answer in the word, and has taken sufficient heed of these wants. We read,
  • "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves", 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-13.

• At the same time, the apostle distinctly sets forth the common responsibility of all the saints.
  • "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men", 1 Thessalonians 5: 14-15.

In Hebrews 13 he speaks of the real leaders of the assembly.

• "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation", Hebrews 13: 7.

• The word is the same as that used in Acts 15: 22 of
  • "Judas and Silas, chief men among the brethren".

Such ought to be esteemed among them. We see in the same chapter, verse 7, that some of them were dead, and we learn here what had been their disposition; but the rest still lived.

The duty of elders is that of oversight. In Acts 20 the apostle gives them this name –

• in our language, bishop; in Greek, episkopos.

• We find this title again in the Epistle to the Philippians.

• In Acts 20: 28, 31, we see in what their duty consisted – to nourish with sound doctrine, to be watchful against false teachers, and attentive to everything.

• The passage in 1 Peter 5: 1-3 speaks the same thing.

The duty of deacons is also, as for the elders, expressed in their name. The Greek word diakonos signifies servant.

• They served the assembly as its servants; there were also sisters – as Phoebe – with the same title.

• If we examine Acts 6, the seven who cared for the poor widows as deacons had this service specially allotted to them for their portion.

These were the offices then in the various assemblies, which the apostles, and Paul in particular, established when all was yet in order. There were in each assembly several elders.

Nevertheless all the elders had not gifts.

• "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine", 1 Timothy 5: 17.

• The deacons, like all other Christians, had to exercise them when they possessed them. The deacons, where they fulfilled their charge faithfully and carefully, found also their own spiritual profit therein.
  • "For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus", 1 Timothy 3: 13;

• as we may see most fully made good in the cases of Stephen and Philip; Acts 6, 7 and 8.

We see too elsewhere how Christians, without losing their proper responsibility according to grace, had to be subject to those that were at the work.

• "I beseech you, brethren – ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints – that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to everyone that helpeth with us, and laboureth", 1 Corinthans 16: 15-16.

• The Christian can never lay aside his individual responsibility. The discipline of the assembly recalls to a walk according to that responsibility, when the Christian has forgotten so to walk.

• Brethren, then, who by the Lord's grace are called to the work, labour to maintain the Christian walk,
  • to strengthen the feeble, to instruct the ignorant, to exhort and to encourage all, to nourish by the word and to render all able, by that divine nourishment, to honour God and the doctrine of the Saviour –

• in short, to be in every way a help, the common responsibility being in view.

The Christian can say: All things are mine – the activity of the workman of God, as much as his efforts to remove every kind of evil.

• "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's", 1 Corinthians 3: 22-23.

• The apostle says, "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake", 2 Corinthians 4: 5.

These two public offices then are now entirely wanting to us; no one can restore them officially according to holy scripture, after a divine sort, because

• no one has received, in order to do so, authority or commission on the part of God to do so.

• But the scripture provides morally for subjection to those whom God raises up to service: and
  • inasmuch as Christ is infallibly faithful toward His body, and inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is always in the Church upon earth, the gifts necessary to the edification of the assembly are always there.

• The feeble state of the Church of God shews itself, it is true, in this respect as in every other;
  • but Christ ever remains faithful, and cannot cease to nourish His members.

The doctrine of scripture as to gifts has been almost forgotten;

• or else it is altogether set aside by assigning the right to edify men to those who have been placed by men in their positions

• – positions which men have for the most part invented for themselves.

• And when even it is conceded that God furnishes the gifts, it is not any the more permitted to those who possess them to exercise them without a sanction from man.

If any man build a house, he will begin by the foundation and will not try to make the roof first.

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that an apostolic service is analogous to laying a foundation.

• Indeed the great Apostle to the Gentiles uses the figure where responsible work on earth is in question.
  • "According to the grace of God which has been given to me, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it."

• Again, there is an eminently fundamental character in the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Revelation 21: 14.

I suppose that in whatever way the gift be considered, whether in ministry especially among the Israelites – as Peter – or amongst the nations – as Paul – it implies the work of founding.

• The foundations laid, there is no more need of apostolic work; and indeed, as someone has very justly remarked, an apostle would be entirely out of place at the present time.

We may dismiss every other thing but those gifts which are mentioned in Ephesians 4 – for that is our subject –

• and look, very briefly, at apostolic service after the ascension and glorification of the Head of the church.

• "He has given some apostles", verse 11; this is the first gift mentioned.
  • A passage in 1 Corinthians 4: 9 will give us to understand the importance of the mission and its extent; and I think will confirm what we have already noticed.

As at the end of some great spectacle, the apostles are set forward, as the great crowning event of the whole work of God upon earth.

• The figure is evidently taken from the public games, where the last act was always the most awful, and we recollect the "morituri te salutant!" as we see these men, God's warriors against the powers of evil, brought forth as doomed to death,
  • Note: I would call the careful reader's attention to this word as making the figure all the more striking; it was the highest form of a service of danger. ELB

• they come forth, wondered at by the whole mass of spectators – world, angels and men; it could be no light or easy task, that of bearing the grand foundation truths of Christianity into the world.

• They must fall, but in the very act of the enemy they should confirm and consolidate by their blood the very foundation that they were laying.

• In hunger and thirst … the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all … they were to carry forth the full revelation of God in Christ and to accomplish upon earth the last grand act in the unfolding of God's ways and counsels.

I well remember having the erroneous idea, from cathedral windows, that the apostles were demi-gods, with their heads surrounded by a halo, exempt from all the ordinary sufferings of men;

• whereas the word of God shows them to us in all the fragility of the earthen vessels, but at the same time carrying forth the power of God in the most astounding work that had ever been seen.

All Asia was turned upside down, and wherever the Spirit of God worked Judaism and idolatry had to give place to the truth sent forth by the heavenly Christ.

An apostle as we all know means 'a sent out one'; and it has been well remarked by another that this is the very first thought in a gift.

• They come out from Christ and bring His message: many of us like the thought of Christ coming to us, but to go out from Him is quite a different thing.

It is impossible in a short paper to do more than present the grand features of the gifts.

• It would be well, however, to call the attention of the reader to 1 Corinthians 12: 28-29; 15: 9; and 2 Corinthians 11: 5.

• There is a very interesting connection between apostles and prophets – which two gifts are grouped together in Ephesians 3: 5 – which we may leave perhaps until we endeavour to investigate the gift of a New Testament prophet.

The great character of the apostle is being sent out by the Head of the Church in the great mission of founding the assembly upon earth.

In the passage quoted the gift is second to that of the apostles, although the connection between the two is to be noted.

I suppose that if we investigate this part of the word of God – 1 Corinthians – we shall find that the gift in question implies the revelation of God's mind in connection with Christian truth, that it corresponds to inspiration;

• indeed, I presume that when the scriptures were completed and there was no further new revelation to be made, the gift of prophecy ceased.

• Of course I mean the gift in the strictest sense: "He has given … and some prophets"; and I am not speaking merely of action in the assembly.

• There was a certain inspired revelation of God's mind, so that another who might be speaking should be silent to allow the exercise of the former. 1 Corinthians 14: 30.

The connection with the apostles is found in Ephesians 2: 20 and 3: 5, and should be considered.

• First of all, we find the foundation of the apostles and prophets – 2: 20 – where the work of building the assembly is being presented to us;

• and the two – apostles and prophets – are so placed together as to form one object before the mind.
  • Note: There is no article before "prophets".
    "The whole class – apostles and prophets – is even together in the speaker's mind, as one for the purpose of which he is speaking, as an unity or as a whole", JND on the Greek Article, p. 35.

• To use an illustration, I believe that Smeaton used several kinds of stone, different in themselves, to form the foundation of the Eddystone Lighthouse; they became cemented together and could be looked at as a whole.

There is an analogous expression as to "pastors and teachers" in chapter 4; but here – chapter 2 – it is a work of foundation,

• and the gift of prophet – that of bringing out a fresh revelation of God's mind in connection with His counsels in Christ – is so connected with the apostolic gift,

• that the two – different in themselves – are blocked together as forming the fundamental work of the assembly, in the carrying out of God's plans upon earth.

This gift has evidently ceased to exist, for there is now no new revelation now that the word of God has been completed – Colossians 1: 25;

• and if any one should pretend to have any further revelation, he would deservedly be looked upon as an imposter.

• As we noticed in speaking of apostles, there was a certain work at the beginning of the foundation of the assembly upon earth, that has no place now.

That there might be an analogous action of the Holy Ghost, in recovering revealed truth with power, and bringing consciences into God's presence through it, I should think no one would deny;

• but one who would have so blessed a ministry confided to him would be the very last to claim to have the gift of a prophet in the literal true sense of the word.

We have again Ephesians 3: 5, where the two – apostles and prophets – are grouped together as above;

• and I think that the context will bear out that which I have tried to say on the connection of the two.

To sum up: a New Testament prophet is one who has a revelation of God's mind made to him in such a way that

• souls are brought into God's very presence by His own inspired truth, and His counsels in Christ made known with all authority over the heart.

• Whilst an apostle was going forth in the active forming of assemblies, the prophet declared God's mind
  • in such a way that all spiritual could at once bow to its authority, as any true-hearted soul will bow at the present time to the completed scriptures.

A pastor and a shepherd are the same thing; and the gift is mentioned in Ephesians 4: 11.

• In the New Testament it is a gift in the church, and given by the exalted Head with other gifts, for the perfecting of the saints.

• Bearing this in mind, I think we shall find several passages, in the Old Testament that will greatly help us to understand what the true force of a pastor's gift is.

I think it will be found that it accompanies the perception of what is God's mind for His  people at any given time.

• David was a man after God's own heart, and had the heart of a shepherd. "These sheep, what have they done?" said he, when he saw the destroying angel stretch out his hand upon Jerusalem.

Then again, to use another illustration, in that beautiful part of Zechariah where the Spirit of Christ foretells the awful appearing of the idol shepherd, the pastoral heart of Messiah himself is unfolded in a striking way.

• Who can read the story of Beauty and Bands, and the value of thirty shekels of silver set upon the great Shepherd of Israel, and not be touched?

• And again we remember His heart who had compassion on the multitudes, because they were like sheep with no shepherd. Mark 6: 34.

It has been said that a true pastoral gift is rare, and that there is a great apparent need of such;

• Christ alone, the exalted head of the church, gives the gifts, and we depend upon Him, and wherever His gifts appear and make themselves felt in active ministry of the word, we should praise Him.

I believe that many would lower a pastoral gift to the mere fact of visiting and reading to the sick and lonely; I do not deny that this forms part of it,

• but I would call attention to the fact that the true care of and feeding the flock of God is a far higher thing.

• It consists in applying to souls with divine power the truths that are actually in God's mind for them.

• To refer one instance to the prophets as a kind of illustration, surely the pastoral work in Israel was confided to those who had Jehovah's thoughts,

• and the reverse was the development of false shepherds who should culminate in the very Antichrist himself, "the idol shepherd". Compare too, John 10.

The zealous care, and patient visiting and exhorting the saints, as in Paul's night and day work, in following up and looking after souls, would form rather the outward action and mode of the pastor's gift.

• Admitting freely all this, and the diligent work of feeding, the question must always arise as to what kind of food is administered;
  • Note: It is a gift no doubt to make souls receive spiritual food. It is not easy even in material things to make it acceptable. ELB

• and the fact before us is that the heart of a pastor is first concerned for the glory of God and His thoughts before using his gift towards the saints.

The exercise of this wonderful gift will no doubt tend to gather and to keep together the sheep, and though in its working it may often be employed towards individuals,

• I fully believe it will have the "one flock" in view, and a strong desire for the flock's welfare.

• Moses had this feeling when Jehovah told him that he must die. Numbers 27: 7.

To sum up: a pastor and a shepherd is the same thing, he has God's mind as to His people, and the faculty of taking care of and feeding them according to that mind.

• It may be said, "What then is the difference between a pastor and a teacher?" I will leave this interesting question for another short paper.

See Ministry: J. Collie-Smith: Shepherding, for a stimulating address for those who seek to care for the flock of God.

The gift of a teacher is a peculiar one: he will not only propound truth, but will communicate it in such a way that it will remain in the souls of his hearers.

• It is like a man engraving on copper-plate with a steel cutter; it is strictly incisive.

• This is stating in the simplest way the effect of the gift; and now let us look a little more at its nature, comparing it with that of a pastor.

I believe that the latter involves solicitude and care – as a shepherd would look after his sheep, giving them that food which is needful in season;

• whereas a teacher will lay down in clear lines the meaning of God's word, cutting it straight in such a way that he can say, 'This is the truth, no matter what any received opinion may be'.

It is evident that there must be a direct appeal to scripture in order to be able to assert anything in this way.

• No book written by man, no theological treatise of any kind can ever serve as a basis of appeal;
  • but the scriptures alone form a certain standard, an infallible oracle inspired by the Spirit who never makes mistakes.

• A teacher – I mean of course a real bona fide gift of Christ to the assembly – will appeal always to scripture, nor will he go by any other rule.

The gift is rare; and we are told not to be many teachers, which I apprehend to mean

• not to be bringing out our own opinions and interpretations – as the Babel of voices of conflicting schools of doctrine in Christendom – for what is not of God will certainly be condemned.

• There is an order in God's assembly that is divine, and one teacher's gift will never clash with another.

I believe that the great characteristic of this gift is that it will leave indelible marks on souls prepared to receive God's revealed mind; as the incisions in my illustration of the engraved copper-plate.

I suppose that we shall all admit that if the gift exist there will be something to communicate;

• it may not be instantly apprehended – indeed I think that a certain resistance is good, that is, to follow my illustration, that the copper be not too soft – for God's great truths are received through exercise and real work in the soul.

• What I assert is, that the marks be left indelibly graven, when the teacher's work be properly done, and God's word is communicated, that certitude is the result, the full assurance of understanding.

A heart and mind subject to God will receive His truth even though it may not understand all at once.

• Thus Peter, speaking of the great teacher of the Gentiles, said that the "beloved brother" had written some things "hard to be understood" in the very epistles where he had brought out the truth "according to the wisdom given unto him".

• The apostle to the scattered sheep of Israel did not refuse the doctrine on this account.

As in every other gift, this one will be known by its effects; and its first and great effect will certainly be a deep incisive work in the soul.

It will not be denied that the work of an evangelist is to proclaim the gospel, that is, the good news from God.

• The Person of Him who has accomplished the work is to be presented, and so we read that Philip "evangelised unto him Jesus", Acts 8: 35.

• A good instance of the work of an evangelist is the well known history of the Philippian jailor, to whom, terrified and with a drawn sword actually in his hand in despair, the apostles announced the Person and work of Christ.

I would not for one moment deny that there is a diversity in different cases of this gift; but if we look at the New Testament and keep to that which it teaches as to the good news,

• we shall find that an evangelist, properly speaking, is one who makes known "tidings of great joy" to those who stand in need of it.

• Again, I shall venture to say that the evangelist ̫ I am speaking of the gift – will proclaim God's estimate of the Person and work of Christ, and this is good news indeed to any who have not received it.

If it be asked if this excludes the work in a conscience, and deep sense of guilt and need produced in souls, I should say – Certainly not;

• but the announcing of the good news is that which meets the guilt and need, which may very likely have existed some time before the evangelist brought the happy message.

• In Acts 8 the need and desire had been created in the poor man's heart before Philip was guided to him and proclaimed Jesus to him.

• In Acts 16 the terror and guilt had been produced in the jailor before Paul and Silas drove them from his heart with the gospel.

The great power of an evangelist is the light; and in the most blessed statements as to God's activity in grace, we find the woman lighting a candle and finding the drachma by it.

• I shall never forget the effect of light in an old underground vault, from which the sun's rays had been excluded for years;

• the more the illumination proceeded, the more clearly did the state of things appear, and the more conspicuous did those reptiles become which shun the light.

Now it is God that converts the soul, and not the evangelist; but he brings that which is joyful news to the lost.

• The greatest importance then will be attached to the terms in which the gospel is presented; and the true gift of the evangelist consists in giving the divine message rightly.

• It is of greatest moment, for it will give a determinate character to the evangelised soul: "As ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord", etc.

Of this it may be well to say one word. The great point, I believe, will be: 'What is God's estimate of Him [Jesus Christ] who is announced?'

• The good news of God would not be adequately presented if they were lowered to meeting man's need and guilt, and nothing more.

• The guilt and need are met, but in God's own way, so that the good news is the power of God unto salvation to the believer, and the divine character of the message will be at once seen in him.

I believe that in all cases where the feelings have been worked upon so as to produce an impulsive acceptation of Christ, that such work falls short of an evangelist's.

• I suppose that there can be no doubt that what is always proved in the long run to be the work of God is that which remains and answers to His thoughts, to His mind, as to Christ;

• and surely this is the very essence of the glad tidings of the grace and glory of God.

Perhaps the pure gift of an evangelist is far less common than we suppose, though we all may evangelise according to our measure;

• an evangelist of Ephesians 4 is not merely synonymous with 'one who holds evangelical services'.

• It is a very high and blessed gift, and we may look to our Lord to raise up and sustain such.

The grand object in view in Ephesians 4: 12 is the "perfecting of the saints"; and it is to this end that the gifts have been given to the church by its glorified Head.

• This verse has very often been considered. There are two dependent clauses attached to the first one already alluded to, referring to the work of the ministry and the edification of the body of Christ.

• It is of the first that I should like to say a few words: it denotes a point to be reached, and anything that stops short of it would be a wrong view of the true exercise of gifts.
  • Note: See the admirable note in the 'New Trans-lation' as to the preposition in this case. ELB

Nothing could be ampler than this passage: all the saints are in view, and each saint to be fully developed.

• Again, there is the full knowledge of the Son of God, and the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ.

• So wide and glorious a view of ministry, in which the whole company of saints from Pentecost till the completion of the assembly comes fully into sight,
  • must at once deliver a faithful soul from narrow ideas as to the exercise of gifts.

A stupendous work is being accomplished, all is proceeding toward one end that is to be reached – the perfecting of the saints.

• There is nothing of the first man here: the gifts are given from Him who has led captivity captive and ascended up on high, the source of all is in heaven,

• and all the gifts have been bestowed for the one end – the full development of the saints.

It will be said that this work takes place on earth, whatever the source maybe.

• Exactly; and that is what makes the subject so important for us all – none the less so, that it has been so disregarded.

• In waking up to it, the blessed Lord's heart of love to the assembly comes before us together with the unfailing resources which are in Him, the Head, and His own gifts to the assembly.

Any such thought as private ministry, or anything short of the whole blessed end, is precluded;

• and I believe that there will be a strenuous desire to find out what one's gift is, and to use it for the whole church of God.

There can be no jealousy here, not merely because jealousy is a poor thing, but because

• the heart has Christ's end in view and becomes enlarged in the wonderful vista of the ascended Head bestowing the gifts – which no enemy can intercept – to His beloved assembly, in view of the perfecting of the saints.

• There is ample room for all, and the Head has not bestowed less than the spiritual treasure alluded to in Acts 2: 33;

• the end and object then of all ministry will be this perfect growing up of the saints.

I shall never forget the effect produced upon my mind years ago on being shown, in Italy, a wonderful carving, giving the full articulation of a perfect human frame: there was a sense of satisfaction in seeing a perfectly developed man.

• It is not physical development here, but the reaching to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, and let us notice that

• whilst the passage takes in all the saints, it presents to us, at the same time, the perfection of each.

In a short article like this, the fact can be presented, and no more; but I will say that the first practical effect will be immense.

• The heart will be aroused to Christ's glory and to His present work, there will be exercise as to His beloved assembly;
  • prayer and awakening of conscience as to one's place, and a deep desire to answer to the mind of the glorious Head in using whatever He shall have confided to one for the whole assembly of God.

• Exercise too in receiving, from the gifts He has given, that which comes from Himself for the good of His beloved assembly.

But in Christendom everything is upside down.

• I see a young man beginning to do some little service for the Lord; his delight is in visiting a poor sick old woman, reading to her, and leading her soul on in the things of God.

• Presently I hear that he has been sent out to China as a missionary.

• His gift is all right but the administration is wrong.

Then I hear of another young man whose delight has been talking to navvies in a lane, seeking to bring sinners to Christ;

• and presently I hear that he has been sent as minister over a congregation in London.

• Just as if in a house where there are many different candles, I were to take a dip into the drawing room, and a wax candle into the stable.
  • It is all wrong administration.

You may have a gift, but the question is, are you using it in the right place?

• Thus individually with the saints Christ is Lord
  • when I speak of Him corporately, in connection with the church. He is Head.

Everything, even in my private life, should be determined by my relation to the church.

• If you are wrong in your relation to the assembly, you will be wrong in your own house. And if wrong at home you must be wrong in the assembly.

• The assembly is the first circle of interest. In every epistle it is so.

• Ephesians begins with keeping the unity of the Spirit, and ends with the servants in the home.

• Romans in like manner. We begin with "one body in Christ", and end with living "peaceably with all men".

These, gifts are "given to every man to profit withal", 1 Corinthians 12: 7,

• not for his own profit but for another person's.

• You have not only drunk into this Spirit for yourself, but for others; for the one body. See then, how you stand in relation to it.

When you come into the assembly your gift is a member of it, because you drop into the corporate thing;

• you leave your individuality and become a member; it may be a mouth or an eye.

• If a man be a teacher he is a gifted member. He may, at any time, ask his fellow members to come together to hear what he has to say,
  • but this is not in the assembly.

• The moment he comes into the assembly he is simply a member of the body, though a very useful one.

Suppose a man says, 'I have been reading and enjoying during the week a portion in 2 Chronicles; I will read it now'.

• He is acting as an individual if at the time he is not consulting for the good of the assembly.

• Suppose he comes with a hymn marked in his hymn book ready to give but, he comes into the assembly as an individual, and not as a member.

• He says perhaps, 'I have it on my heart', but that is no reason for giving out a hymn. I hope sisters have hymns on their hearts as much as brothers.
  • It was this thought that gave rise to Quakerism.

• Suppose he says, 'I thought there was a pause'. A pause! Is that the way to minister in the assembly of God?

• It is little understood how responsible a thing it is to give out a hymn.

• To avail yourself of a silence without faith is the most terrible thing, for it is intruding in the most holy place.

A stranger in the power of the Spirit will walk into an assembly and bring out the very truth that is needed in the place.

• He will not need to be told of the state of things there; indeed he will prefer not to hear it, for he will be guided.

• In all my service for Him I may walk in the confidence that the Lord would have me do it.

• You ask me why I give out such a hymn. I answer. Because the Lord would have me.

• And in all this I have a certain proof from Scripture whether it is so or not, and that proof is whether it edifies the body.

If you see a person very anxious to minister in the assembly you may be sure that person does not know the responsibility of it.

• Those who really do know what a grave thing it is will more likely err on the side of timidity, though timidity may be as much nature as forwardness.

• By keeping back I may give an opportunity to some person who is not in the Spirit to make an intrusion.

In one way there is nothing happier than being in a meeting where one is not called upon to take any part,

• for the sense of responsibility in a certain way checks one's happiness.

• Of course, one is happy after it, but, I mean at the time.

• But I would add that when taking no part it is not that one has no responsibility, but rather that the responsibility is in another direction
  • for hearing is as much responsibility as seeing; it is simply the difference between being an ear and a mouth for the body.

• So that sisters do not escape the responsibility.

Health in the body is when it is

• "fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth", Ephesians 4: 16.

• To have health, both food and exercise are needed. lf you say you do not need gifts, then you do not need food; and, if so, there cannot be health.

But while, as we have seen, when a soul is wrong in the assembly he will be wrong at home,

• it is equally true that if his own house be in a disorganised state he must bring wrong elements into the church.

• If he can but get right with God in the assembly he will go back to his house and say, I can no longer allow things to be as they are; I have judged them in God's presence.

• There never was a man who was unfaithful to God that he was faithful to anyone.

• You may hear it said, 'What a nice man so-and-so is', but I tell you if he has been unfaithful to God you need not expect that he will be faithful to you.

• If he does not love the greater, how can he love the lesser? The relations of a man with God in the assembly affect all his other relations.

There are then the two sides to the ministry in the assembly:

1. there is the responsibility of caring for the Lord in His body,

2. and there is the danger of intruding in His holy things.

In chapter 13, he goes on to say that while it is very good to have gifts, one who has them cannot in consequence take a prominent position, cannot take leadership;

• he must be the servant of the assembly, and nothing more.

• My eye is the servant of my body; it does not assume to lead my body.

• The more excellent way for this is charity. If we were divested of our own selfishness we should become useful to the assembly of God.

• Two or three things may perhaps occur to me to say in the church I wait then on the Lord; I turn to Him to get His support, and then I do not trouble myself about how I shall get it out, how I shall express it.

• It is not a question of long prayers or long sermons. People often, think that by making long prayers they shall make a great impression.

• But, says the apostle, it is not the possession of gifts, but it is the getting rid of yourself that is charity.

• You are then like a well-trained horse ready to go in any direction it is required; you have got rid of the selfishness, which prevents your being useful to others
  • and in the grace of Christ you become a great benefactor.

• The most charitable man in the world is the man who is self-divested.

• Charity is generally supposed to consist in doing for another that which he wishes,
  • but charity in God's thought is removing from another that which hinders his communion.

• If I remove a little worldliness from you, that is charity; also if I remove anything from myself that hinders my being useful to you, and I cultivate all that will, that is charity.

I have not much to say on chapter 14, which is the working of the gifts in the assembly. One interesting thing we may notice in verses 23-25.

• The Holy Spirit is actually dwelling in the house of God on earth; but it is not the simple fact of His dwelling there that affects people; it is His activity in the house.

A teacher is one who expounds the word.

• A prophet is one who, brings out the character of the word so as to expose one to oneself.

• It is the opening out of the word so lucidly and so effectively that the heart is searched by it.

• It is not great eloquence; there my be nothing very striking or stirring in what is said,
  • but people are nevertheless subdued into quietness and attention, listening, and the conscience is reached.

• Let everything be done to edifying is the great point of chapter 14.

Rule is not merely government; it is oversight.

• "If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?"

• It is character that is the qualification for rule. I see it in every place that it does not depend upon the gifted person there, but upon the character of the oversight.

• A teacher may be an elder, but it is not of a teacher but of an elder it says,
  • "They watch for your souls". And of such it says,

  • "Obey them that have the rule over you" – the guides, properly speaking.

• I therefore have read this verse as the best passage I can find to bring the subject before you.

From the beginning I see how necessary it is to be subject to rule.

• At the very start the breakdown was through disobedience; and the first commandment with promise is in connection with obedience to rule. Eph. 6: 1-3.

• The wife is to be in subjection to her husband.

• It is a principle which you find pervading all Scripture, and the contrary principle you find running parallel with it all through also.
  • Cain says, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

• Christianity maintains that you are to be your brother's keeper; it is the principle of John 13.
  • "If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them".

I am called to minister to a person, not as he desires, but to so minister to him that I may remove from him anything that comes in as a hindrance between his soul and Christ.

• I see something in you, and I take pains to remove it; that is charity.
  • "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you".

  • "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you".

• I do not act towards you as your inclination dictates; but just as a father might say to one of his children, I do not like that colour that you wear; or, I do not like the way in which you act.

• It is not that I wish to wound you, but I take such an interest in you that I wish to improve you. True love desires the perfection of its object.

• Love is not blind; it says, I will take care that you shall be altogether such as I would have you:
  • "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee".

• That is the great principle. Thus in small meetings there is often more real vitality than in large, because there is more oversight.

I am not touching on the place of the pastor. The great principle is that we are all to have oversight:

• "Be subject one to another".

• We are all to have godly care over each other, and if this be common to all, how much more those who are older?

• Of course it would not be right for a young person to go up to an old brother and say, I do not at all approve your ways.

• "Thou shalt rebuke thy brother" is law. Legality consists in pointing out the fault; rebuke is always legal;
  • washing is with divine power removing the defects that I perceive, else it is only making the blot still greater.

• If I see a defect in you I am responsible to remove it, though I may not be able to do so.

• Whether able to remove it or not, if I charge myself with the responsibility of it, I shall not be very ready to gossip about it.

• If I am responsible for a window being clean, I shall not be in a hurry to point out the spots on it; I shall not want to talk about them to the master and the company.

• I often say to myself, You are responsible for that defect; do not be in a hurry to talk about it.

• You may be very quick to see defects, but your very quickness of perception only saddles you with the greater responsibility.

• Some are more responsible than others; the greater your age the greater your responsibility, so it is,
  • "not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil".

Now there is a difference between gifts and office.

• If I am a bishop in Quemerford I am not a bishop anywhere else.

• If I am a gift in Quemerford I am a gift everywhere else.

• Christendom is very anxious to maintain the office, but it overlooks the gift.

• If I could say of any regiment, All the officers of that regiment are there, I could not say it was demoralised, though the rank and file might be in a very low state.

• But if the officers are wanting, I admit the regiment is demoralised, and I am anxious to get it into order of some kind.

• There must then be some officer, there must be order. There is no such thing as being left by God to do things in the church anyhow at all.

• I know places where things go on well, and where, as I have said, it does not depend so much on the gift as on the oversight.
  • "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof", or as it is literally,

  • "Shepherd the flock".

There is always a tendency to connect rule with teaching; and that is clericalism.

• I do not know anything that has caused more confusion than teachers trying to be rulers, gaining a certain prominence in rule because of their having a gift.

• Teachers are often young men, and I say to such, you must be subject to rule.

• There are other qualifications for rule besides that of age.

• I never take the place of rule myself, though certainly I am old enough; still I lend my aid to any ruler in case of difficulty.

There must be divine intelligence in ruling; the work is done by the power of God – there could be no order otherwise – but meanwhile there is no assumption of office.

• I may not be able to appoint the rulers officially, at least I cannot give them their commission.

• But as it is said, when there is no Lord Chancellor, the great seal is put into commission – what is called a care meeting; just so we may not have a bishop, but three or four do the work.

• I am not so particular about who does the work, as that the work is to be done.

You cannot appoint bishops; for if you were to try to do so in Quemerford, you would find that some of them would be in system, and that therefore you could not get them.

• "Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment".

• It is lost because there is not a man who can come in and say, I am the deacon or the bishop of this place; and so the work is left in abeyance, and there is untold lack for want of judgment.

• People say, You have no bishops and deacons, and I answer, Well, I cannot say we have them, but anyhow if you come amongst us you will find the work is done.

• Just as I might say, In this house there is neither governess nor tutor, but there is a maid-servant who has so much grace and power that she keeps the children in order, and the children are so good that they obey her.

• So do not talk about the lack of officers, but see that the work is done.

Turn for a moment to Acts 20. What do we find here?

• When the apostle comes to the church at Ephesus, for whom does he send? for the teachers? Not at all!

• He sends for the elders – the overseers as they are called in verse 28; and he puts them in the place of watching.
  • "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch".

I now pass on to 1 Timothy. I know what objections are raised as to this epistle;

• but I am very certain no person can understand the second epistle without understanding the first.

• We get here the orderly state of the church as it was at the first.

• Suppose there is a garden all grown over with weeds, and entirely gone to ruin, so that no traces of what it was at one time remain, and I want to put this garden to rights again.

• I make inquiries as to who saw it in its original state, for it is the original idea I want to respect.

• And an old man turns up who says, There was once a walk that went down in this direction. I know so much. Well, immediately I set to work to clear out anyhow that one walk.

• Thus 1 Timothy gives us the original idea.

Young Christians are full of enthusiasm as to the wonderful truths that God has recovered to us in these last days,

• but I believe we have no conception as to what the original church was – as to its magnificence on the earth.

• I am as ready as any one can be to acknowledge with my whole heart before God the marvellousness of the grace that has visited us;

• I believe it is the most marvellous thing that the Lord should have taken us up and revealed to us His mind, as He did to His disciples at the beginning, in Luke 24; but I should like to know what
  • "the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" was, and what the gift that was given Timothy "by prophecy".

• I may make a sort of guess about these things, but they are beyond me quite.

• It is not that we are not to be full of thanksgiving for what we have got, but I do say that a great deal of humble waiting on the Lord is needed that He would indeed instruct us as to what is "the house of God" – as to what the church is in His mind; as it says,
  • "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God".

• When man looks at it, it is the house of God: when Christ works in it, it is the body.

• A man cannot behave himself in the body, but he is called to do so in the house.

The first chapter of 1 Timothy is taken up with doctrine; it is the essential thing.

• The second chapter is prayer. Prayer is dependence upon God.

• The man was to be characterised by prayer, the woman by appearance. That is the difference between the man and the woman.

• A godly woman, instead of seeking to attract man by dress and appearance, shows by her ways that she has retired from the world, and has taken God for her portion.

• Man, on the other side, instead of being self-reliant, is dependent on God.

Chapter 3 is rule. Here we get bishops and deacons. We all know this is the letter, but the question is whether we know it as divine.

• Some have before now been offended with me when they have spoken of beginning a new meeting, if I have asked, 'Who is to be the bishop?'

• If you are going to have the church of God in a place, I say, who is going to have the charge of it? Who is going to rule? Are you sensible of the gravity of what you are doing?

• People think lightly of it, but it is quite contrary to Scripture to do so; it is a very serious thing, therefore it is said,
  • "if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?"

• I do not know any one thing people are so slow to take as the responsibility of the church of God.

• If a man is a bishop Peter says he ought to take the oversight of the flock "willingly". And here it says,
  • "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work".

• There is no better, no higher. I am not talking of gift now; but he adds,
  • "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine".

It is a solemn question – one in which we all help or hinder. Which are you doing?

And now a word about deacons. It is not as to whether there be a deacon or not; this work also may be put into commission.

• The assembly provides the means, and there are certain persons who carry out the dispensing of them.

• A deacon is to be a well-ordered person; if you cannot find one to undertake the work you must get two or three to do it.

• The fifth chapter takes up the practical action of it in the matter of distribution.

• As much as possible you ought to be careful in the distribution of money not to put the saints in a position where faith cannot be exercised.

• Thus no one is to be put on the list until they are too old to work for themselves.

• I think every one in need ought to be looked after, but no one, except a person in certain circumstances, ought to have, so to say, a stipend.

• There are certain qualifications for such, as we get in verses 9 and 10.

I believe great mischief has been done through ignorance on this point. It is not that you should not help people over a difficulty,

• but if you make them entirely dependent on you, you hinder their faith in God, and by your very kindness you do them an injury.

• If a man be in a difficulty, help him over it. In some cases, of course, there must be a continuation, and they must be put on the list.

All this is really important, for it is a day when every barrier is broken down, rule is altogether gone, absence of subjection is the rule.

• The point is not how the oversight comes, but whether the thing itself is really worthy. This is an immense help.

• As a young man I found that obeying others who, as people say, had no right over me, was exceedingly useful.

• Often a man thinks if he has a certain gift that he is not under rule. I say, not at all. Your gift does not give you rule over others.

• On the contrary, part of that very gift consists in the ability given you to press home on others that they are to be subject to those whom God has put over them,
  • and as you do this you will find out the real honour that there is in subjection.

All I say is, I would support rule by prayer, by the word of God, in every way that I could; but do not mix up the overseer with the gift. They are not derivative in any way.

• I believe the church would hold a very different position in the eyes of men if it were known that every person who came in was looked after more than they would be in a nunnery;

• that there would be no detail in their private life that would not be a matter of interest to the overseers.

There is an order that runs all through the epistle. In chapter 3 we have what the church should be here –

• "The pillar and ground of the truth";

• and in chapter 4 comes in the apostasy, or Romanism, which attempts to set up another order of things by exaction – not supersession, which was the necessary result of
  • "Jesus Christ come in flesh".

• If He have so come, He has of necessity superseded the man that was here; and so wicked spirits will not acknowledge Him as having so come, because it supersedes everything of Adam.

But Romanism comes in admitting that the man is alive.

• It is the effort of the enemy to make a man religious without God.

• Radicalism is the effort to elevate him in his own way, and so it is called liberality, and is simply exalting man; so that 'gain is godliness'. They will be rich; they get a certain power by wealth.

• The moment a person seeks the elevation of man, he looks for all that will raise him; and so wealth comes in. Therefore it says in the midst of such things,
  • "Charge them that are rich in this world".

And this brings in something apart from deacon's work. I do not think a rich man should use deacons.

• I do not say he is never to put into the box; but this I do say, that when he hands money over to the deacons it becomes the Lord's money, and the responsibility of it is no longer his but theirs.

• The box is the Lord's money; it is simply the Lord saying to each one, Will you give me anything today?

• You may refuse to do so, and you may have good reasons for refusing; but it is to the Lord you refuse to give. The deacons are responsible to the Lord for the use made of it.

I would also notice that the apostle Paul would not take from the church at Corinth, whilst he would take from an individual Corinthian.

• I am not sure that the assembly is up to giving in ordinary cases; there is too much partiality in the saints.

• Stephanas and his companions supplied Paul with what was lacking on the part of the Corinthians; though he would not take from them, he was "glad of their coming".

• In this way it is the company in which you are least a receiver as a labourer in which you will be the happiest working.

• You will be all the happier for not being dependent on them; they receive from you, and not you from them.

Meanwhile those that are rich are to do good,

• "be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life".

• Suppose there is a penny. I have no divine title to that penny. But you cannot take it by force; for I say you have no divine title to it, either.

• I, then, have got possession of it, though no title to it; and I may do as I will with it. If I lay it out on myself, I have the good of it now, and I thank God for it; if I lay it out on someone else, I will get the good of it by-and-by.
  • "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations".

• If I lay it out badly, I have got neither the good of it now nor hereafter; I have not used it as the Lord would have me.

• I have heard people say in a radical sort of way, when receiving from another, I do not thank you for this; I thank the Lord and no one else.

• Well, I say you might as well thank them now, for the day will come when you will have to.

I object to a person having what you call an almoner.

• All I want to make clear is the difference between the individual and the assembly in the matter of money.

• I want a gifted individual to be responsible to the Lord for his money. If he likes to put anything into the box with me, all well and good; but when he does so he has handed it over to the responsibility of others.

• For my part, I think there is nothing more difficult than the use of money for the Lord.

• It is the gift that people are most anxious to have, and I think it is the most difficult to exercise.

• I believe immense harm has been done by making pensioners. It is of importance to care for poor saints, and keep them from want, and yet to leave room for faith to act.

• Never prevent a soul being exercised before God.

We can thus easily understand how it is a grief to those who rule when the saints do not go on well.

• "They watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief".

• They will have to give an account to the Lord of the way in which they have acted to souls.
  • "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward".

• It is the servant, not the people, who loses his reward. The servants have to give an account of what they have done to the souls.

In conclusion, you ought to be able to say to inquirers, Do you ask for bishops and deacons? the work is done.

• It is not a question of keeping up a position, but of keeping the house in order. And if, as I have said, there is none but a servant-maid to do it, I say she is anyhow keeping the house clean.

• It is not a person sitting ex cathedra that we want; it is a person that will do the work.

• The moment teachers take upon themselves to act for the assembly it is clericalism.

• It is not teachers, it is the assembly, that must act; it is a deliberative company.

• Overseers and pastors should visit cases, look after them, and so on, and thus prevent their coming as matters of discipline before the assembly. Only the assembly can deal with them.