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I. THE DESIRE FOR SPIRITUAL GIFTS IS LEGITIMATE AND PRAISEWORTHY.

1. We must not rest content even with the possession of love. We must seek qualification for making that love effective. Inactive love is both suspicious and useless. If we have a true love for men, we shall seek to be helpful to them, especially in their spiritual life, and to this end we shall seek all possible means for conveying to them the knowledge of the love of God and. the truth as it is in Jesus. Spiritual endowments will aid us in this. The miraculous gifts in tile early Church were bestowed with this object in view; and so are modern gifts.

2. Spiritual gifts are to be most earnestly sought. Whilst pointing out abuses to which gifts in the early Church were liable, Paul nevertheless commends these gifts as worthy of the keenest desire, for if rightly used they were productive of the most valuable results. So now, in every way, we should seek qualifications for the service of Christ in the world. Some of these must be natural to us, but not a few may be acquired; and by diligence the small gift may be made great. Prayer, study, earnestness, are channels through which spiritual endowment and spiritual power ever tend to flow. Not to desire spiritual endowment is to show that we are unspiritual and lazy. A master desire of our soul should be to be equipped for service. God can do this thing for us. He can sharpen the bluntest instrument, and give strength to the weakest.

II. WHAT GIFTS WE SHOULD MOST EARNESTLY DESIRE. Not

(1) the most brilliant,

(2) the most remarkable,

(3) the most rare,

(4) the most praised,

(5) the most mysterious,

(6) those which are only enough to serve our own ends and supply our own needs; but

(7) the most useful (ver. 19).

To win applause or to excite wonder is but the poorest of poor ends to attain. We should long to effect something for others. To lay out ourselves for ourselves is not to serve our fellows or our Master at all. That which startles most may be least valuable; that which calls forth most remark may be most barren. The apostle had to rebuke the childish Corinthians who were captivated by the strange gift of speaking in foreign languages - a gift most precious when foreigners speaking these languages were addressed, but valueless when they were absent. Yet the Corinthians, forgetting that the gift was bestowed for its special usefulness, exercised the gift and gloried in it when its usefulness was impossible! Here were selfishness and pride conjoined to supernatural endowment! What penetrating power has evil! It seems to touch everything, even the holiest, most God like things, that man touches! Here is the touchstone which tries our work - Is it truly useful?

III. MARKS OF USEFUL GIFTS.

1. Plainness. We want to make men understand Divine truths; we should then assuredly use "great plainness of speech." Our speech should be "easy to be understood" (ver. 9). What a mass of preaching and praying has been lost because it was too ornate, or high flown, or expressed in incomprehensible language! The ability to speak so that no one can understand us is a gift which should be earnestly desired by fools only. Some men are so profound that they are quite unfathomable, even to themselves. They dig the well so deep that they drown themselves in it. Possibly some avoid plainness intentionally, because they want no one to perceive the poverty of the portion which they are dealing out. They place nothing in many wrappers, with the fond expectation that it may pass for something amongst the ignorant. But such trickery is unworthy of the servants of the Most High, and would be called knavery if it were practised by a pedlar. The Romish Church is greatly censurable for continuing the use of Latin in her services, which is a "tongue unknown" of the people.

2. Clearness. No mean endowment is required so as to speak with lucidity upon scriptural topics. We need to think clearly ourselves. Hearers often do not understand because preachers do not. We may expect to be useful according to the measure in which we make clear to others Divine truths; and we must never forget how peculiarly prone men are to misapprehend these. A clear statement is like a piece of music played correctly; an involved and obscure one is like music in which the notes are all jumbled together without reference to order or time. Both may have exactly the same notes, but what a contrast!

3. Force. Like the sound of the trumpet when well blown (ver. 8). Life and vigour are needed in our utterances. We mast not weaken the message which we deliver. If we would lead men heavenwards there must be power in our appeals. Our aim should be, not to tickle men, but to incite them. Force may be quiet; often is. But there is much quietness in which them is no force, Noise is not force, but earnestness and passion are generally its accompaniments.

4. Certainty. The trumpet blast which directs must not waver. A halting, uncertain testimony is generally worse than useless. Some are so "gifted" that they are certain of nothing. One should not desire such gifts. Notwithstanding all boast about them, they carry much more folly than wisdom, and the devil's hand is more manifest in them than God's. We have truth - which is not an uncertain thing; one of the most precious and most useful gifts is a certain grasp upon that which is of the very essence of certainty. - H.

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KJV: Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

WEB: Follow after love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.