wait on,' and in the Revised Version by 'let us
give ourselves to'; we might with advantage substitute for either the
still more simple form 'be in,' after the example of Paul's
exhortation to Timothy 'be in these things'; that is, as our Version
has it, 'give thyself wholly to them.' The various gifts are each
represented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, for
the opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch,
and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That general law
applies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. We are to
seek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if not
absorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the gift
which we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our several
spheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacred
as the manifestation of God's will for each of us. The divergence of
forms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether 'the Giver of
all' grants less or more. The main thing is that each be faithful in
the administration of what he has received, and not seek to imitate
his brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for himself
another's gifts. To insist that our brethren's gifts should be like
ours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins against
the great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the example, that
there are 'diversities of operations but the same Spirit.'

The remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown together
by a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doer
is put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the commandment is
rested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. The reason for
that may be that in these three especially the manner will show the
grace. 'Giving' is to be 'with simplicity.' There are to be no
sidelong looks to self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height,
as a bone might be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; no
ostentation in the gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as these
infuses poison into our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to the
receiver, and recoil in hurt upon ourselves. To 'give with
simplicity' is to give as God gives.

'Diligence' is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules.
We have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a much
wider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. It points to
another kind of rule, and the natu