ve remained alone in conceit and ignorance, hated by all the
nations; instead of being what, thank God! she is--the Sanctuary of
the world; to which all the oppressed of the earth may flee; and
find a welcome, and safety, and freedom, and justice, and peace.

And so with us, my friends. It is natural, and according to the
brute nature of the old Adam, to dislike this person and that, just
because they do not suit us. But it is according to grace, and the
new Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, to honour all men; to love
the brotherhood; to throw away our own private fancies and personal
antipathies; and, like the Lord Jesus Christ, copy the all-embracing
charity of God. And no one has a right to answer, 'But I must draw
the line somewhere.' Thou must not. I am afraid that thou _wilt_,
and that I shall, too, God forgive us both! because we are sinful
human beings. We may, but we _must_ not, draw a line as to whom we
shall endure in charity. For Christ draws no line. Is it not
written, 'No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost.' Is not the Spirit of Christ in a Christian man, unless he
be a reprobate? and who is reprobate, we know not, and dare not try
to know; for it is written, 'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:
condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.'

But what has the text to do with all this?

My friends, is not this just what the text is telling us? I said
this moment, that the Spirit of Christ was in a Christian man,
unless he be a reprobate. And the text says further, that there are
diversities of gifts in Christian men: but the same spirit in all
of them.

Yes: people _will_ be different one from another. There are
diversities of gifts. Differences in talents, in powers, in
character, in kinds of virtue and piety; so that you shall find no
two good men, no two useful men, like each other. But there is the
same Spirit. The same Spirit of God is in each, though bearing
different fruit in each. And there are differences of
administrations, of offices, in God's kingdom. God sets one man to
do one work, and another to do another: but it is the same Lord who
puts each man in his place, and shows him his work, and gives him
power to do it. And there are diversities of operations, that is,
of ways of working; so that if you put any two men to do the same
thing, they will most probably do it each in a different way, and
yet both do it well. But it is the same God, who