“Lord, give me grace
To take the lowest place:
Nor even desire,
Unless it be thy will, to go up higher.
“Except by grace,
I fail of lowest place;
Except desire
Sit lowest it aims awry to go up higher.”
St. Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ. He had his own body in his incarnation. Now his body is the whole great company of his people, all who love him, trust him, and are faithfully following him. Every believer is a member of this body, and has some function to fill in it. St. Paul uses the human body and its members in a very effective way in illustration of important spiritual truth. “As the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.” “Ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.” The body is not one member, but many.” All that any Christian can be is one of the members of Christ’s body. He is not everything. The hand is not the body. The eye is not the body. The lungs are not the body. The most that any believer can be is a hand, a foot, an eye, an ear.
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