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If this be a true representation, what an honour, what a happiness it is to be a Christian! It is to be joined to the Lord of life and glory, and to be associated with the noblest, the purest, the best of mankind.

I. IN WHAT RESPECTS CHRIST AND HIS MEMBERS ARE ONE. The expression used by the apostle is remarkable: "So also is Christ." He says, "Christ;" yet he means Christ's people; from which it appears that, in the view or the apostle, as in the view of the Lord himself, all who are his are identified with and comprehended in his own Divine personality.

1. This is a fact which is exhibited in various manners and especially by various metaphors, Not only are Christ and his people the Head and the body; they are the Vine and the branches, the Foundation and the stones, the organism and the Soul.

2. The union as spiritual is formed and sustained by faith. There are sacramental symbols of the union, but the real and vital connection is of spirit with spirit, i.e. is of faith. As mutual, it is depicted by the Lord himself, when he says, "I in you, and you in me."

3. The character and the aim of the Head and the members are identical. "As he is, so are we in this world."

II. IN WHAT RESPECTS CHRIST'S MEMBERS ARE SUBORDINATE TO HIM.

1. He is the Giver of the life which his people have in common with him.

2. He is the Source of authority, issuing the commands which govern their activity.

3. He is the Centre of harmony; they who are his revolve around him as planets round the sun; and their orbits resemble one another, because all are drawn by the same attractive force.

4. He confers upon them the glory which is their prerogative - the moral glory which is conferred here and now, and the glory to be revealed hereafter.

III. IN WHAT RESPECTS CHRIST'S MEMBERS ARE RELATED ONE TO ANOTHER. All are "one body."

1. Their dependence upon the one Head is the same. The unity is not simply in the organization; it is in the life.

2. They are bound by Christian law and drawn by Christian impulse to mutual affection and confidence. Love is the law of Christian social life, as in the following chapter is so exquisitely shown.

3. They have each his several service to render to the one Master; the gifts are alike consecrated, the ministrations are alike devoted, to the Divine Lord.

4. They have mutual ability and obligation to help. As in the body each member, each sense, supplies the other's lack of service, so in the Church it is not simply the case that the gifted and the powerful render help to others less favourably endowed, but the feeblest and the most obscure may render some service for which his brethren may have reason to be for ever grateful.

5. In the blessings conferred by the Church upon the world around, each may be said to supply the other's deficiency; and the work of evangelization, in which each performs his proper part, is advanced by the cordial cooperation of all whom Providence has qualified and grace has inclined for the work. - T.

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KJV: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

WEB: For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.