God is glorified by the diffusion of such knowledge respecting His works, as tends to give a lively conviction of His existence, and His attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness.2. He has made us so necessary the one to the other, that selfish separatism is hardly less consistent with human well-being than with Divine philanthropy. But it is in the use of these powers that the man himself is to gain credit and honour. Or it may be so worthily framed and so fitly placed that the skill and power of the artist's work appeal to the most casual beholder. 2. 2. So humble people often make great men possible, although the world knows the great men only, and forgets the lowly helper. Varied.3. You cannot move the boat from within, but you may obtain a purchase from without. Our gifts in their most highly cultivated form are all to be used for the common good. 7. He divides "to every man severally" as He pleases. God is glorified in an especial manner, by the effectual diffusion of the gospel, since there His perfections are most plainly illustrated, His dealings towards mankind most clearly displayed, and His requirements of homage and service most forcibly delineated and sanctioned.4. As the sun shines not for itself, nor the earth bears for itself; so have not we a gift for ourselves, but for the common good.2. Great numbers of ordinary men are made very much by that which they read, or that which they hear, of the sentiments of those who are abler than themselves. We are to be imitators of God in the swiftness and completeness of His forgiveness. In all cases, our first prayer needs to be, "Lord, teach us to pray. 2. THE FERVOR OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. )In what a variety of ways we may serve and benefit othersG. The power once hidden in electricity is now in exercise in every village, carrying on swift and silent wing the thoughts of men across the continents, "and their words to the world's end." The lily in the field is one of a million, but it makes the summer air a little sweeter for all that; the star of the sky is one of a million, but it is not less a thing of glory for that; the dewdrop of the morning is one of a million, yet it leaves a spot of fresh beauty as it exhales into the light. It is this diversity that gives a chief interest, and even beauty, to human life, and affords opportunity for the exercise of some of its highest virtues. Individual character determines largely individual spiritual gifts. The man of sagacity is not always good in action: he wants an energetic coadjutor. to see that it was sent to win every affection, to brighten every smile, to shed fresh interest over every pursuit, to light up new hopes in every prospect — to embrace every variety of human temperament, assist every degree of human capacity? 2. I cannot but feel that, if we would minister the gift as the Lord would have us minister it, we require greater delicacy of touch, keener discernment of human character, and a fuller appreciation of God's different methods of dealing with different souls than are commonly to be met with.(W. The contrary is the case with these mirrors of our spirits. How could men or angels worship an inaccessible and unknown God? Moses, good in counsel, requires the help of Aaron ready of speech. (John Rogers. We have been ever apt to look on the grace of God in one or at most in some few of its aspects only. 2. It is that glorious nature which has affinity with good under all forms, and loves to find it, to believe in it, and to see it. (2) This pleasure and joy that attends charitable actions doth herein exceed all fleshly delights, that it is then at the highest when we stand in most need of it. "Granted, that he is now becoming soured and crabbed; but, then, what a glorious man he was in those earlier days, when he stood in the breach." when once again the coachman refuses to obey. St. Paul tells us, "the greatest of these is charity." They consist in redemption if we will accept it; sanctification if we will seek for it; and all the blessed means whereby the life of the Incarnate Word is bestowed upon us and kept alive within us, if we will use them.2. A ray of light passing through a crystal heptahedron is broken up into seven different colours, one of which is appropriated by each of its seven sides. Want torments them. 2. Charity also covers the sins of others. B. Meyer, B. Now human life, as it presents itself to these two different eyes, the eye of one who sees only evil, and that of him who sees evil as perverted good, is two different things. 5. )Minister the same one to anotherGifts to be communicated for the good of othersJohn Rogers.Though a Christian be the freest man in the world (as being freed from Satan, sin, hell, the law, etc.) And thus the matter stands in numberless other cases. I. it is this spirit which our Christian society lacks, and which we shall never get till we begin each one with his own heart. However much you admire another man's gift, and profit by it, there is no call to imitate it. to see that it was sent to win every affection, to brighten every smile, to shed fresh interest over every pursuit, to light up new hopes in every prospect — to embrace every variety of human temperament, assist every degree of human capacity? Thinking and speaking, keeping silence and hearing, giving and lending, partaking and borrowing, bearing and suffering and relieving, doing and not doing, are so many different methods of serving and being useful to others, and each the best in its proper season, the most productive of beneficial consequences.(G. The sore must not lie covered up lest it prove to be deadly. She was a simple-hearted, loving, Christian woman, faithful in her duties to her earthly master, and faithful in her higher duties to her heavenly Master. The most inconsiderable people are valuable in their place. A blessing to his own relatives, to his dependants, among whom he is ever moving and speaking; a blessing to his equals, with whom he communes in the intercourse of social life; a blessing to general society in checking all that is evil and encouraging all that is good. Here are corporeal sufferings — weakness, debility, mutilation, decrepitude, pain, sickness, lingering death; there are sufferings of the soul — vexation, trouble, anxiety, grief, dejection, doubt, remorse, pangs of conscience, melancholy, despondency, peril of despair. )"As" and "so" -- the method of ministryW. No man deserves credit for mere intellectual power any more than for brute force. "Am I a good steward of this manifold grace?" Charity comprehends such a habit of benevolence in the soul as disposes us to wish all good to others in all their capacities, in respect either of their souls, their bodies, their reputation, or their estate. These were windows into the heart of God.(F. 3. He saw corruption written everywhere. Severity exercised without pity tends to provoke rather than reform the transgressor. The student who shows some unsuspected beauty in our favourite author, adds to that author's glory in our esteem. Further, I would say prayer must be in earnest. II. Life, a sphere of usefulness large or small, health, powers of mind and body. Jan 10, 1982. 3. Great numbers of ordinary men are made very much by that which they read, or that which they hear, of the sentiments of those who are abler than themselves. While it is possible to claim these natural gifts as our own without reference to our Incarnate Lord, yet it is only when we possess them in Him that we may be said to possess them truly. You may have a better mind, you may have been better trained, you may have been better educated, you may be in better circumstances, you may be surrounded by the influence of better associates, you may have ten restraints to others' one, they may have ten temptations to your one. II. G. Barrett.I. The Divine nature is love; this is the pre-eminent attribute of the Eternal Father. I think it is safe to assume that most people let alone most Christians recognize the praiseworthiness of love.  In fact I think it is safe to suggest that if you a popular entertainer were in an acceptance speech at one of the many fancy galas were to encourage those in attendance to support the need for more love in the world I think you would get a healthy applause.  While people might be skeptical about how you were going to achieve such an end.  I think people generally find the encouragement to love at least in the abstract to be quite a noble end.  I think it might be helpful at least for believers to come to some sense of why there is this disconnect.  Why is love lacking?  Love is lacking not simply because of its absence, but because of the presence of something that complicates our ability to love rightly.  It is the presence of sin that makes love feels absent.  Think for a moment about those relationships where you are most prone to be inclined to love.  It is not even like you have to try to love you have a natural inclination to be loving….you children…your parents….your wife…your husband.  Sometimes it is in these relationships that we most struggle to know exactly what it means to be in a relationship of love.  And the reason for this is because of the presence of sin:  theirs…and ours. G. 3. 4:8). It implies that we study our gifts, and so make no mistake as to the work we are fitted to do. Some cry out at indolence that men may note their industry. It is unfortunate when a Christian man is not also a man among men, able to hold his own place, and make for himself a higher. Moses, good in counsel, requires the help of Aaron ready of speech. THE IMPORT. II. Nay more, it is better for the business of the world that high attributes should not be so justly blended in the several individuals, called to act an important part, as to constitute what is nearest to perfection; but rather that what is excessive in one should be balanced and corrected by an excess of another kind in his helpmate. 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,. WHAT GIFTS HAS GOD BESTOWED UPON US, AND HOW ARE WE TO USE THEM? Bkmrk. The gift is bestowed by the hand of Him who is an example to us in giving, as well as in every other respect. a common interest. Sobriety of mind is that temperate use of all earthly things, and that moderate estimate of their worth, which disposes the Christian rather to detach his affections from present objects, than to be inordinately excited by them. The perfection of gifts consists not only in the having of it, but in the use thereof.3. "True, he was unpardonably dull and slow, but then how trustworthy and reliable." )Receiving and ministeringJ. Otherwise, they are as likely to possess us as we are to possess them, to be our masters as we are to be theirs. Spiritual gifts are such as we receive through our membership with the mystical body of Christ. ‘Above all’-‘before all things’ (P.P. In the biography of the Earl of Shaftesbury we have an illustration of the ministry of the obscure. "According as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." 6. You must approach Him as David did — and this implies faith — when he prayed: "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.". We will first speak, as the most obvious case, of the bestowal of God's grace in the position and opportunities afforded by rank, wealth, and influence among men. I do not mean that we are to be idle and indifferent, but we need not be noisy. 1. The thing is to go round — a perpetual interchange of blessings and gifts, a mutual well-doing, a generous commerce of souls, supplying each other's lack out of each other's abundance from the highest to the lowest, and from the lowest to the highest. (1) This satisfaction doth not only just accompany a charitable action, but it is permanent, and endures as long as our lives. Zollikofer. And a word on mere wealth, considered as a stewardship. But there is another side to all this; the poor, the illiterate, the weak, the obscure may also truly minister in many ways to the world's enrichment and blessing. They are temporal; they have had a beginning, they shall have an end. When an apostle says, "Have fervent charity among yourselves," it is plain that it would be a cruel mockery to command men to attain it if they could do nothing towards the attainment. )Personal ChristlinessHomilist.1. "According as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." So a Christian heart may be enshrined in such meagre and unworthy human qualities that they detract from the recognition the grace of Christ ought to receive, the impression it should make. THE PEERLESS EXCELLENCE OF LOVE AS A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. 4. Like those other two features of our religious character — faith and works — which act and react upon each other, so that in proportion to the strength of our faith will be the number and excellency of our works, so in proportion to our spiritual watchfulness will be our prayerfulness. Charity covers over our sins in the sight of God, because charity is to sin what water is to fire — it puts it out. It is not meant for self-gratification, least of all for personal parade. This love is a Divine virtue. The man of sagacity is not always good in action: he wants an energetic coadjutor. Men may be so situated that a foible will be less excusable in them than a vice in others. If all men were equally gifted, the intercourse of life would become drearily monotonous. Our corrupt selfishness makes us dull of sight, coldhearted, and ungrateful. Prone, however, to be misled by his senses, he feels the necessity of incessant watchfulness. THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF THE BESTOWAL OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS ON THE CHURCH. Hence it becomes his duty to be ever vigilant over his own spirit, to examine candidly the actual habit of his mind; to watch diligently lest he act inconsistently with his professed principles; lest the world exert an undue influence over his heart; lest self-delusion put him off his guard. But when I look again at that word "as," another thought occurs to me. CONSIDER AGAIN HOW DIFFERENT THE WANTS OF MANKIND AND HOW VARIOUS THEIR SUFFERINGS, AND THENCE JUDGE IN WHAT A VARIETY OF WAYS ONE MAY SERVE AND BE USEFUL TO ANOTHER. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." Do we always remember this theory of life? It is incredible the moral power that is lying dormant in the Church. We have forgotten its manifoldness. THE NATURE OF THE THING HERE SPOKEN OF MINISTRY — SERVICE. And Peter here enjoins Christians to be "above all things fervent in their love.". A. Peter writes that we are to love deeply.  This is an interesting adjective.  It is interesting to think that this verb would even need any kind of added intensity.  It is interesting to consider what the alternative to deep love might be.  What might shallow love look like.  This of course was not written in English it was written in Greek, and anytime we are focusing on one word it is interesting and illuminating to consider various translations.  Deep love is translated in the King James Version as fervent love.  Deep or fervent…intense persisting love can be contrasted with shallow or inconstant love.  Sometimes love is that way isn’t it.  Love might burn hot and fast.  It may be here one moment and gone the next especially when the challenges and difficulties of life come to meet us.  Love that endures has qualities.  A house that can withstand a storm does so because of the quality of the material that gives it strength.  And the love that is deep and abiding is so because it is of a certain type.  This is the type of love we want to have.  It is the love that finds its pattern in the maker of Love. 1 Peter 2:9. And this will appear yet more evidently if we consider, in the first place, from whence St. Peter quotes this proverbial expression; and in the next, if we attend to the general object of this Epistle. II. On some the Divine bounty seems to pour itself in torrents, while to others it comes in very slender rills, or apparently in drops only. See 1 Peter 2:9 (printed above under question #4) Our Christian calling is further described as the calling to “display the virtues of him who called you.” That is to say, by the grace of God we are called to live a Christ-like life and in so doing we will be reflecting and exhibiting the very virtues of God Himself. It was to be some thing very unlike cold propriety. It is a mirror, because it does not drink them up, but flings them back. The individual trees of a forest do not need much from one another; they grow the better, perhaps, for growing in a brotherhood; they shelter each other, they benefit by a certain neighbourhood and reciprocity, but they are not absolutely essential to one another; if there were but one oak tree in England it would grow pretty much as it does today in the forests of oak. This procures credit while we live, as a good name and memory when we die.6. CHAPTER 4. Here are wants of the body — food, raiment, lodging, health, strength; there wants of the mind — information, knowledge, wisdom, virtue, inward peace, pleasure, hope, content. This is the position here set forth; but how miserably its obligation is responded to. First, then, we must remark that these words are quoted by St. Peter from the Book of Proverbs. The wrong-doer is reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, hut with all long-suffering (1 Timothy 4:2). 5. Here is the want of advice, there of support; here of courage, there of prudence; here of means and implements of trade, there of abilities for it; here of understanding, there of alacrity and application; here of moderation, there of patience; here of modesty and diffidence, there of self-importance and confidence. We glorify God, whenever we act under the influence of religious principle, from a sense of Christian duty, prompted by the example and Spirit of Jesus, and guided by His commands; by a sincere regard to Him as our Maker, our Preserver, our Witness, and our Judge.(J. Act on the firm faith that every earnest prayer is heard, and then you will receive insight enough to trace the coming answer. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Here is a profound, collected, there a comprehensive and excursive; here a quick but volatile, there a slow but solid understanding. It is idle to say that you can do nothing, for if you are a Christian you have received something — the gift." No doubt that is sometimes true. THAT THESE ORACLES OF GOD ARE ACCESSIBLE TO US, AND MAY BE CONSULTED BY US, IN THE DIVERSITIES AND PERPLEXITIES OF OUR CONDITION. CONSIDER LASTLY, HOW MANIFOLD AND DIFFERENT THE METHODS IN WHICH YE MAY SERVE YOUR BRETHREN, IN WHICH YE MAY DO THEM ALL THE GOOD THAT YE ARE ABLE. It is called "manifold," because God's gifts are so various in kind and in degree. Who can overestimate the value of such an one as a centre of influence for good? 3. This chapter directs us … In them the light must first sink in before it can ray out. It has a way of seeing the good in people rather than the bad: "Charity thinketh no evil" (1 Corinthians 13:5). By and by, walking in the conscientiousness of refusing to retaliate when he feels tempted, he will cease to wish it; doing good and heaping kindness on those who injure him he will learn to love them. 2. The sunshine must fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hillside, lighting up the grey stones with a passing gleam, but as it does on some cloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates with fire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour are brightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst its mists. But where love is, there joy and peace, fellowship and sympathy and material helpfulness, will assuredly prevail. It is unfortunate when a Christian man is not also a man among men, able to hold his own place, and make for himself a higher. If we are living in the fulness of God, then the promise of Jesus Christ shall be fulfilled in our case — "Out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water." THE TRUE IDEA OF HUMAN LIFE. But the lancing is done with exquisite tenderness. It offers reflection and commentary drawing upon the wealth of wisdom found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Now you that hear should certainly agree in this too. But, besides being intelligent and humble, prayer must be offered in faith. Everybody knows of Livingstone, of Bishop Hannington, of Paten, of Calvert; but the sublime enterprise conducted by these heroes would be impossible if it were not for the self-denying work of labouring men, farm servants, domestic servants, little children who give and collect coppers through the land and through the year. ", 3. (2) This is true in a much higher sense since the Word has become Incarnate, and through His Incarnation reconciled us to God. Here is a profound, collected, there a comprehensive and excursive; here a quick but volatile, there a slow but solid understanding. It has been so in providence, wherein the sustaining grace of God has been revealing itself through successive ages of activity. It avoids giving occasion for sin. If prayer be the soul's strength, the heart's repose, the world's antidote, the devil's dread, why is it that we pray, not only so languidly, but so little? II. There is a picture of one of those strongest man contests.  You know the contests where these extremely muscular men perform contests to see who can toss huge tires the farthest.  Who can pull a truck a certain distance.  I recently saw a poster with one of these men was pulling a truck, but the caption read this is me trying to get the blanket from my wife.  Sin covers a multitude of sins.  You know there are a number of different ways we might think about covering-up for sin.  One can read this passage and come to the idea that Peter is suggesting that somehow acts of love can compensate or make up for a wide range of sinful behavior.  In fact one way we even use the term cover…is in the compound word a cover-up.  We rightly feel the injustice of such an action.  When some perpetrator is able to have their misdeeds unreported and a victim’s sufferings goes without recognition.  One aspect of being a victim is that one is treated without respect.  One’s rights of personhood are violated.  It seems that covering-up the sinful actions of another is furthering of this kind of moral injury. It must be lanced or it cannot be cured. The first word, Apokalypsis (revelation), gives this book its title. It is the richest land and the highest gifts that, being cultivated, will yield the best return. One has ingenuity, an extensive, strong turn for invention; the other has judgment and dexterity in execution. Another historian, a foreigner, has written the history of the same times, with an intellect as piercing to discover the very first germ of error, but with a calm, large heart, which saw the good out of which the error sprung, and loved to dwell upon it, delighting to trace the lineaments of God, and discern His Spirit working where another could see only the spirit of the devil. III. It is the greatest gift. And that we may be useful and not hurtful, it is our duty to ascertain what our gift is; and not to attempt what lies beyond our province, and so mar instead of making or mending. 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