PAUL has much to say about spiritual gifts. In the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians he presents a lengthy dissertation on the subject. Starting by expressing the desire that man shall not be ignorant in regard to them, he goes on to say: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." Then he names some of these various gifts, such as wisdom, faith, healing, prophesying, and so on, all given by the same Spirit, but expressed according to the will of God where and in the way each is necessary.
Paul further likens the possessions of any of these gifts to the individual offices of the different members of the human body,—as the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot,—and concludes by showing that each is necessary to every other, since all help to constitute the entire body, declaring finally, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." To the Christian Scientist this is very illuminating, and when understood it tends to bring a great sense of freedom in both thought and action.
The trend of human education has sometimes seemed to be away from individual expression. Men have sometimes believed they should fashion their lives after the pattern of their fellows. They have formulated their actions according to the manner considered by others to be correct, and have even measured their own sense of happiness by what they have believed to be the standard accepted as desirable by their neighbors. They have looked at their own concerns, their own circumstances, their own affairs, duties, actions, privileges, only through their neighbors' eyes, approving or disapproving themselves accordingly.
