ist yields Himself to us. The possession of these gifts of
grace is no prerogative of officials; and, indeed, in all the
exhortations which follow there is no reference to officials, though
of course such were in existence in the Roman Church. They had their
special functions and special qualifications for these. But what Paul
is dealing with now is the grace that is inseparable from individual
surrender to Christ, and has been bestowed upon all who are His. To
limit the gifts to officials, and to suppose that the universal gifts
in any degree militate against the recognition of officials in the
Church, are equally mistakes, and confound essentially different
subjects.

II. The graces that flow from the grace.

The Apostle's catalogue of these is not exhaustive, nor logically
arranged; but yet a certain loose order may be noted, which may be
profitable for us to trace. They are in number seven--the sacred
number; and are capable of being divided, as so many of the series of
sevens are, into two portions, one containing four and the other
three. The former include more public works, to each of which a man
might be specially devoted as his life work for and in the Church.
Three are more private, and may be conceived to have a wider relation
to the world. There are some difficulties of construction and
rendering in the list, which need not concern us here; and we may
substantially follow the Authorised Version.

The first group of four seems to fall into two pairs, the first of
which, 'prophecy' and 'ministry,' seem to be bracketed together by
reason of the difference between them. Prophecy is a very high form
of special inspiration, and implies a direct reception of special
revelation, but not necessarily of future events. The prophet is
usually coupled in Paul's writings with the apostle, and was
obviously amongst those to whom was given one of the highest forms of
the gifts of Christ. It is very beautiful to note that by natural
contrast the Apostle at once passes to one of the forms of
service which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest from the
special revelation of the prophet, and is confined to lowly service.
Side by side with the exalted gift of prophecy Paul puts the lowly
gift of ministry. Very significant is the juxtaposition of these two
extremes. It teaches us that the lowliest office is as truly allotted
by Jesus as the most sacred, and that His highest gifts find an
adequate field for manifestation