The gift of the Spirit of God is to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the privilege of every one to receive it. Nay, more, it is his duty; for it is the only means by which he is fitted to witness for Christ, the only bond by which he is united to Christ, his living Head. The word which He spoke to His disciples in that Jerusalem upper chamber, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” was for every one of His disciples from that time forward. “For the promise [of the Spirit] is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” So also the gifts (plural) of the Spirit, or spiritual gifts, are for the whole church; but just what gift or gifts any one may possess it is not for him to choose. He should “covet [or desire] earnestly the best gifts,” but the Spirit divides these gifts among the members of Christ’s body, the church, “severally as He will.” But He divides to “every one;” for the manifestation “is given to every man to profit withal.” 1 Cor. 12:11, 7. We have before considered the gifts of apostleship and prophecy. We have seen that God designed that they should exist in the church throughout the Christian age. If crowded out of the church by sin, we have God’s prophecy and promise that they will be restored to prepare a people for Christ’s coming But these gifts will not stand alone. That church found “waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ” will “come behind in no gift.” 1 Cor. 1:7. Every gift will be strengthened and complemented by every other gift. A hand is more complete with its mate. Both hands are more complete with their corresponding feet. The eyes and ears are more complete and efficient to be vitally and normally connected with hands and feet and arms and legs. And as every member of the human body is perfected and complemented by every other member, so every member and gift in the normal church of Christ is complete only when all the gifts are present. The church of Jesus Christ at His coming will be complete, every whit whole. To apostles and prophets succeed, “thirdly, teachers.” 1 Cor. 12:28. This gift, this office, in the Christian church is well known in name. But the teachers of God are not those taught in mere worldly science, in the curriculum of some theological seminary, whose name is adorned, as Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon phrases it, with “semilunar fardels;” God’s teachers are those taught of God, as was Jesus Christ. We would not decry or depreciate education—good, broad, pure education; but we insist that the one true education is that which recognizes God and His Spirit as the beginning and ending, the center and circumference, of all true teaching. The true teacher teaches God. He is a character builder, a divine trainer, even as the gift is a divine gift. Jesus Christ was the great Teacher. He taught in the fulness of the Spirit. Paul was a great scholar. He was brought up at the feet of a famous Jewish teacher, Gamaliel. But he declares, “What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.” Paul had the gift of teaching: “Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle ( . . . ), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity;” and he taught “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” 1 Tim. 2:11; 1 Cor. 2:13. Teaching; it is a precious gift of God, to enlighten the ignorant. Wherefore let him that teacheth wait on teaching; but let him know that he is teaching the oracles of God. The world needs more teachers—those taught of God, those who know the work given of God, who know the science which they teach, and who are engaged in “warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may [at the final examination] present every man, perfect in Christ Jesus.” The true teacher will be a minister of God’s gracious gifts of knowledge. We may know that the teacher is of God if he follows the line marked out by the grace of God. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:11–14. This is what the grace of God teaches. This is what the true teacher of God will teach.