The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 175

THE MIRACLE OF TONGUES The mightiest operation

ing.

those less powerful. first,

of the

the miracle of tongues in

its

is

seen

in our

then

first,

own

heart:

after that, the less marked Hence on Pentecost there was

the mighty fact of regeneration

manifestations of spiritual power.

in

Holy Spirit same as

precisely the

It is

135

;

perfection

;

later

on in the churches,

weaker measure. Secondly

—There

is

no evidence that the miracle of tongues con-

sisted in the speaking of one of the known languages not previously

acquired. If this had been the case, St. Paul could not have said: "If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful " (i Cor. xiv. 14). The word " unknown " appears

in italics, not being

Moreover, he says that

found in the Greek.

tongues are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not ver. 22. If it had been a question of foreign but

—

ordinary languages, the matter of understanding them could not

depend upon faith, but simply upon the fact whether the language was acquired by study or was one's native tongue. Finally, the notion that these tongues refer to foreign languages

not acquired by study

is

contradicted by St. Paul

:

" I

thank

my

God that I speak with tongues more than ye all." By which he can not mean that he had mastered more languages than others, but that he possessed the gift of tongues in greater degree than other

men.

The following

verse

is

rather speak five words with

evidence

my

:

"

Yet

in the

understanding, that

Church I

may

I

had

teach

others also, than ten thousand words in an (unknown) tongue." According to the other view, this ought to have been " I wish to speak in one language, so that the Church may understand me, rather than in ten or twenty languages which the Church understands not." But the apostle does not say this. He speaks not of many languages in opposition to one, but of five sounds or words against ten thousand words. From this it follows that St. Paul's " I speak vfith. glottal (langfuages or sounds) more than ye all," must :

refer to the miracle of sounds.

For altho

it is

objected very naturally that on Pentecost the

apostles spoke the Arabic, Hebrew,

many Surely

and Parthian tongues besides

others, yet the fact appealed to is not

we

learn from Acts

ii,

proven to be a

fact.

that these Parthians, Elamites, etc.,

received the impression that they were addressed each in his

own

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