August 27

And there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God which worketh all in all. - 1 Corinthians 12:6.

IF we take a comprehensive view of the whole human family, we shall find existing among them numberless and striking differences. They differ in their country, their condition, their complexion, in their stature, in their speech, in their apparel, and in their manners. Yet there is also a great resemblance among them. They all walk erect; they all reach maturity by degrees; they all eat, and drink, and sleep; they all decay and die. And we should observe that the things in which they agree are far more important than those in which they differ. The resemblance regards what is essential in human nature. The variety is what is accidental only. That which makes us rich or poor, European or African, is far inferior to that which constitutes us men.

This may be considered an image of the Church of God. Let Christians differ in their opinions, in their speculations, in their discipline, in their various religious usages, in their forms and ceremonies-these are only the dress of religion; the body is essentially the same. God has promised “I will give them one heart and one way.” And he has ever since been fulfilling this in every age of the world.

Under every dispensation and in every grade of society, his people have been the same; their wants the same; their dependence the same; their tastes the same; and their principles the same. Hence the prayers and praises of those who lived very remote from us, both as to time and place, furnish mediums for the expression of our own desires and complaint. Whatever differences may characterise them, they can all adopt as their own the language of David, when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me;” or the language of Jeremiah, when he says, “Heal me, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; or the language of Nehemiah, when he says, “Remember me, O my God, for good.”