doubt the poor envied the rich
heartily enough in return. And these Corinthians were very
religious, and some of them, too, very clever. So those who, being
poor, could not set themselves up above their neighbours on the
score of wealth, wanted to set themselves up on the score of their
spiritual gifts. One looked down on his neighbours because he was a
deeper scholar than they; another, because he had the gift of
tongues, and understood more languages than they; another could
prophesy better than any of them, and so, because he was a very
eloquent preacher, he tried to get power over his neighbours, and
abuse the talents which God had given him, to pamper his own pride
and vanity, and love of managing and ordering people, and of being
run after by silly women (as St. Paul calls them), ever learning and
never coming to the knowledge of the truth. And of the rest, one
party sided with one preacher, or one teacher, and another with
another; and each party looked down on the other, and judged them
harshly, and said bitter things of them, till, as St. Paul says,
they were all split up by heresies, that is, by divisions, party
spirit, envying, and grudging in the very Church of God, and at the
very Table of The Lord.

Now says St. Paul, 'Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I
you a more excellent way;' and that is charity; love. As much as to
say, I do not complain of any of you for trying to be the best that
you can, for trying to be as wise as you can be, as eloquent as you
can be, as learned as you can be: I do not complain of you for
trying to rise; but I _do_ complain of you for trying to rise upon
each other's shoulders. I do complain of you for each trying to set
up himself, and trying to make use of his neighbours instead of
helping them; and, when God gives you gifts to do good to others
with, trying to do good only to yourselves with them.

For he says, you are all members of one body; and all the talents,
gifts, understanding, power, money, which God has bestowed on you,
He has given you only that you may help your neighbours with them.
Of course there is no harm in longing and praying for great gifts,
longing and praying to be very wise, or very eloquent; but only that
you may do all the more good. And, after all, says St. Paul, there
is something more worth longing for, not merely than money, but more
worth longing for than the wisdom of a prophet, or the tongue of an
angel; and that is chari