That oneness is independent of our organisations, and even of our will, since it comes from the common possession of a common life.  Its enemies are not divergent opinions or forms, but the evil tempers and dispositions which impede, or prevent, the flow into each Christian soul of the uniting ‘Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ which makes the many who may be gathered into separate folds one flock clustered around the one Shepherd.  And if that unity be thus a fundamental fact in the Christian life and entirely apart from external organisation, the true way to increase it in each individual is, plainly, the drawing nearer to Him, and the opening of our spirits so as to receive fuller, deeper, and more continuous inflows from His own inexhaustible fullness.  In the old Temple stood the seven-branched candlestick, an emblem of a formal unity; in the new the seven candlesticks are one, because Christ stands in the midst.  He makes the body one; without Him it is a carcase.

II.  The diversity.

’We have many members in one body, but all members have not the same office.’  Life has different functions in different organs.  It is light in the eye, force in the arm, music on the tongue, swiftness in the foot; so also is Christ.  The higher a creature rises in the scale of life, the more are the parts differentiated.  The lowest is a mere sac, which performs all the functions that the creature requires; the highest is a man with a multitude of organs, each of which is definitely limited to one office.  In like manner the division of labour in society measures its advance; and in like manner in the Church there is to be the widest diversity.  What the Apostle designates as ‘gifts’ are natural characteristics heightened by the Spirit of Christ; the effect of the common life in each ought to be the intensifying and manifestation of individuality of character.  In the Christian ideal of humanity there is place for every variety of gifts.  The flora of the Mountain of God yields an endless multiplicity of growths on its ascending slopes which pass through every climate.  There ought to be a richer diversity in the Church than anywhere besides; that tree should ’bear twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month for the healing of the nations.’  ‘All flesh is not the same flesh.’  ’Star differeth from star in glory.’

The average Christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things:  in being true to itself, and in tolerance of diversities.  We are all so afraid of being ticketed as ‘eccentric,’ ‘odd,’ that we oftentimes stifle the genuine impulses of the Spirit of Christ leading us to the development of unfamiliar types of goodness, and the undertaking of unrecognised forms of service.  If we trusted in Christ in ourselves more, and took our laws from His whispers, we should often reach heights of goodness which tower above us now, and discover in ourselves capacities which slumber undiscerned.  There is a dreary monotony and uniformity amongst us which