Spirit Manifestations

.. and ..
"The Gift of Tongues"
BY
Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.B., LL.D.
Author of "Daniel in the Critic's Den;"
"The Hebrews Epistle;" "The Silence of God;"
"The Gospel and Its Ministry," etc.

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS
Neptune, New Jersey
Printed in the United States
of America
 Spirit Manifestations
and

"The Gift of Tongues"

By the late SIR ROBERT ANDERSON, K.C.B., LL.D.

T
HE days we live in are intensely solemn. The
stupid materialism of the science of yesterday
has been exploded by the facts of spiritualism,
vouched for by some of our leading scientists of
today. And the blind infidelity of the past has thus
given place to a craving to get into touch with the real-
ities of the unseen world.
This morbid influence has invaded the sphere of re-
ligious thought and life, and spiritual Christians, even,
are being corrupted by it. It creates a tendency to make
the great facts and truths of the divine revelation of
Christianity subordinate to subjective spiritual manifesta-
tions, and to the emotions and experiences which such
manifestations are fitted to produce. Among the many
phases of this movement none is more striking than that
of which the distinctive characteristic is what is termed
"the gift of tongues." In many lands, our own included,
there are coteries of earnest Christians who are revelling
in the enjoyment of this "gift." Under the compelling
4 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

influence of an entirely preter-human power, men and

women are inspired to utter thoughts which are not their
own, in a language of which they are ignorant. The
facts are indisputable, and the only question open to us
is as to their significance.
The first inquiry which will suggest itself to the
thoughtful is whether any light upon this subject can be
derived from the history of similar religious movements
in the past. And we shall find what we seek in events
recorded by men whom those of us who are getting on
in life count as our contemporaries.
The beginning of the third decade of the nineteenth
century was a time of religious revival. In some places
the movement was characterized by the study of the
Bible with increased earnestness and intelligence; in
others by united prayer for manifest tokens of the pres-
ence and power of the Holy Spirit. A movement of this
latter type centred round the picturesque personality of
Edward Irving. At twenty-seven years of age this bril-
liantly gifted man became assistant minister in the great
Dr. Chalmers' Glasgow parish. Seven years later he
was called to the principal Church of Scotland pulpit in
London. His preaching took London by storm. His
popularity was phenomenal beyond all precedent. The
cultured classes of the metropolis thronged his church.
But popularity did not quench his spirituality; and when
tidings reached him of spiritual manifestations among
Christians in the West of Scotland, he was filled with
longings for like "Pentecostal" blessing in his own con-
gregation. He was surrounded by many God-fearing and
earnestly devoted men and women who shared these
aspirations, and meetings for prayer were frequent and
prolonged. The burden of their cry was for a renewal
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 5
of the Pentecostal gifts. Ere long one and another among
them became suddenly endued with a supernatural
power, under which they uttered spirit-given words, some-
times in an unknown dialect, but usually in their native
tongue.
The following are extracts from a narrative penned at
the time by one who took a very leading part in the
movement:

"At this period I was, by professional arrangements,

called up to London, and had a strong desire to attend the
prayer-meetings which were then privately held by those
who spoke in the power, and those who sought for the
gifts. Having obtained an introduction, I attended; my
mind fully convinced that the power was of God, and pre-
pared to listen to the utterances. After one or two breth-
ren had read and prayed, Mr. T. was made to speak two
or three words very distinctly, and with an energy and
depth of tone which seemed to me extraordinary, and it
fell upon me as a supernatural utterance, which I ascribes
to the power of God; the words were in a tongue I did not
understand. In a few minutes Miss E. C. broke out in an
utterance in English, which, as to matter and manner, ana
the influence it had upon me, I at once bowed to as the
utterance of the Spirit of God. Those who have heard the
powerful and commanding utterance need no description;
but they who have not, may conceive what an unnatural
and unaccustomed tone of voice, an intense and rivetting
power of expression—with the declaration of a cutting
rebuke to all who were present, and applicable to my own
state of mind in particular—would effect upon me, and
upon others who were come together, expecting to hear
the voice of the Spirit of God. In the midst of the feel-
ings of awe and reverence which this produced, I was
myself seized upon by the power; and in much struggling
against it was made to cry out, and myself to give forth
a confession of my own sin in the matter, for which we
were rebuked; and afterwards to utter a prophecy that
6 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

the messengers of the Lord should go forth, publishing to

the ends of the earth, in the mighty power of God, the
testimony of the near coming of the Lord Jesus. . . .
"From this period, for the space of five months, I had
no utterances in public; though when engaged alone in
private prayer, the power would come upon me, and cause
me to pray with strong crying and tears for the state of
the Church. On one occasion, about a month after I re-
ceived the power, whilst in my study, endeavouring to lift
up my soul to God in prayer, my mind was so filled with
worldly concerns that my thoughts were wandering to
them continually. Again and again I began to pray, and
before a minute had passed I found my thoughts had wan-
dered from my prayer back into the world. I was much
distressed at this temptation, and sat down, lifting up a
short ejaculation to God for deliverance; when suddenly
the power came down upon me, and I found myself lifted
up in soul to God, my wandering thoughts at once rivet-
ted, and calmness of mind given me. By a constraint I
cannot describe I was made to speak—at the same time
shrinking from utterance, and yet rejoicing in it. The
utterance was a prayer that the Lord would have mercy
upon me and deliver me from fleshly weakness, and would
graciously bestow upon me the gifts of His Spirit, 'the
gift of wisdom, the gift of knowledge, the gift of faith,
the working of miracles, the gift of healing, the gift of
prophecy, the gift of tongues, and the interpretation of
tongues; and that He would open my mouth and give me
strength to declare His glory.' This prayer, short almost
as I have now penned it, was forced from me by the con-
straint of the power which acted upon me; and the utter-
ance was so loud that I put my handkerchief to my mouth
to stop the sound, that I might not alarm the house. When
I had reached the last word I have written, the power died
off me, and I was left just as before, save in amazement
at what had passed, and filled with thankfulness to God
for His great love so manifested to me. With the power
there came upon me a strong conviction—`This is the
Spirit of God; what you are now praying is of the
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 7
Spirit of God, and must, therefore, be the mind of God,
and what you are asking will surely be given to you.' "

These events occurred in 1831. In the following Jan-

uary he again visited the metropolis. Could a dozen
Christians of any class be induced today to attend a
prayer-meeting at 6.30 a.m. on a winter morning? But
scores of city merchants and professional men were then
meeting daily at that hour to plead for Pentecostal bless-
ings. At one of these meetings, the morning after his
arrival in London, Mr. Irving called on him to read and
pray. And he tells that, while he was reading Malachi
4:

"The power came upon me, and I was made to read in

the power. My voice raised far beyond its natural pitch,
with constrained repetitions of parts, and with the same
inward uplifting which at the presence of the power I had
always before experienced. When I knelt down to pray,
I was carried out to pray in the power for the presence
and blessing of God in the midst of the church; in all
this I had great joy and peace, without any of the strug-
glings which had attended my former utterances in
power."

He next describes an evening spent at a friend's house

with Mr. Irving and others of the coterie. He says:

"After prayer, Mrs. J. C. was made to testify that now

was the time of the great struggle and power of Satan in
the midst of us; that now we must take to ourselves the
whole armour of God and stand up against him; for he
was coming in like a flood upon the Church, and fearful
was his power. The pastor observed that this utterance
taught us our duty, as standing in the Church to wrestle
against the enemy; and whilst he was going on to ask
some question, the power fell upon me, and I was made to
8 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
speak; and for two hours or upwards, with very little in-
terval, the power continued upon me, and I gave forth
what we all regarded as prophecies concerning the Church
and the nation. . . . These prophecies were mingled with
others most glorious and gracious, as they appeared to us
—declaring the Spirit should be abundantly poured forth,
and a faithful and mighty people should be gathered in
this land. . . .
"The power which then rested on me was far more
mighty than before, laying down my mind and body in
perfect obedience, and carrying me on without confusion
or excitement. Excitement there might appear to a by-
stander, but to myself it was calmness and peace. Every
former visitation of the power had been very brief; but
now it continued, and seemed to rest upon me all the eve-
ning. The things I was made to utter flashed in upon my
mind without forethought, without expectation, and with-
out any plan or arrangement; all was the work of tHe
moment, and I was as the passive instrument of the power
which used me."

After narrating a number of similar experiences, he

remarks:

"To those who have been used to watch over the work-
ings of their own minds, and who have never been visited
with any power beyond the mere vagaries of excitement,
it may seem inexplicable how persons can be brought to
surrender their own judgment, and act upon an impulse,
or under a power working in them, without daring to
question that power. The process is, however, very sim-
ple, and the reasons supporting it are very plausible, and
—the premises admitted—perfectly logical. My own case
may be an example; accustomed to try the powers and
weaknesses of my own mind in public and in private; in
business and in religious meetings; in speaking and in
prayer; in reasoning and in exposition; I found, on a sud-
den, in the midst of my accustomed course, a power com-
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 9
ing upon me which was altogether new—an unnatural,
and in many cases a most appalling utterance given to us
—matters uttered by me in this power of which I had
never thought, and many of which I did not understand
until long after they were uttered—an enlarged compre-
hension and clearness of view given to me on points which
were really the truth of God (though mingled with many
things which I have since seen not to be truth, but which
then had the form of truth)—great setting out of Christ,
great joy and freedom in prayer, and seemingly great
nearness of communion with God, in the midst of the
workings of the power; the course of the power quite
contrary to the course of excitement. It was manifest to
me that the power was supernatural; it was therefore a
spirit. It seemed to me to bear witness to Christ, and to
work the fruits of the Spirit of God. The conclusion was
inevitable, that it was the Spirit of God; and if so the
deduction was immediate, that it ought in all things to be
obeyed. If I understood not the words I was made to
utter, it was consistent with the idea of the utterances of
the Spirit, that deep and mysterious things should be
spoken. If I were commanded to do a thing of which I
saw not the use, was I to dare to pause upon God's com-
mand? If, indeed, the things were clearly contrary to
God's truth, it would have been clear God had not spoken
it; but if it was a thing indifferent, surely (I reasoned)
God is to be obeyed. If anyone is once persuaded that the
Spirit of God speaks in him by any particular mode or
communication, it will henceforth be his study only to
discern that he does not mistake his own feelings or im-
pulses for that communication; for, when the communica-
tion is decided to be from God; faithfulness to God steps
in, and all the faith and love and simple reliance on God,
which the Christian through faith possesses, will be en-
listed to perform the command. Awful, therefore, is the
mistake, if a seducing spirit is entertained as the Holy
Spirit of Jehovah. The more devoted the Christian
seduced, the more implicit the obedience to the seducing
spirit."
10 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

Statements of this kind are discounted by anyone who

is inclined to scepticism, especially if he knows much of
human nature, and, I must add, of religious revivals. But
their significance will be appreciated by all who were
acquainted with their author, the late Mr. Robert Baxter.
Ecclesiastically he was not Scotch, but Anglican, and at
this time he was a "High Churchman." He had been in
the habit of teaching the poor in the parish where he
lived. But, he tells us, he habitually refrained from
praying at such meetings, "conceiving that the privilege
of leading in public prayer belonged alone to the ordain-
ed minister." I enjoyed his acquaintance for many
years, and often met him in Christian work. I had heard
of his connection with Irvingism, but his "Narrative of
Facts"* never came into my hands till a few weeks ago.
The man, as I knew him, was a typical English Parlia-
mentary lawyer, reserved, slow of speech, and noted for
soundness of judgment. And as I here read of his pour-
ing out a torrent of unpremeditated words, sometimes for
two hours at a stretch, and of his cramming a handker-
chief into his mouth at private prayer, lest his "inspired"
bellowings should disturb the household, my distress and
amazement are unbounded that anyone could suppose
that the spirit which energized him was Divine.
I must here add yet one more extract from his book
descriptive of his Sunday services during this period:

"The power came upon me in an exhortation to the

people to lay aside their books, and bow themselves before
the Lord, to worship Him in spirit and in truth; that the
Lord was at hand; and as a witness to His people, God

* Published in 1833 (Jas. Nisbet & Co.; 155 pages),

and long out of print.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 11

was now sending forth a ministry, not ministering in the

flesh, but in the Spirit, who should teach and minister in
the utterance of the Spirit, and, in due time, be endowed
with all the mighty power of the Spirit. After some fur-
ther opening the people were called to pray, and, kneeling
down, the power of utterance continued with me for about
an hour, in prayer and intercession for the Church and
nation, King, ministers, and people; for the outpouring of
the Spirit, the change of heart and life, and the exalta-
tion of God in the earth. As the power ceased, I stayed,
and while they sang, I went into the vestry to fetch a
Bible. Here I was wholly impotent, and appeared to my-
self as though I had no strength to exhort the people.
My sister, under the nervous excitement of anxiety, was
seized with an hysterical fit. All my confidence in God
seemed for the moment to desert me, and I felt as though
my mouth was shut for ever. It was, however, but a
moment; the power came down again upon me, and I reaa
with great power the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, and
preached in the power for upwards of an hour; after
which I dismissed the people with the customary benedic-
tion.
"In the afternoon service I took the same course, and
the power was with me in prayer and preaching as in the
morning. . . . I have been much confounded by the fact
occurring in this instance, as also in most others of the
public testimonies on preaching; that Christ was preached
in such power, and with such clearness, and the exhorta-
tions to repentance so energetic and arousing, that it is
hard to believe the person delivering it could be under the
delusion of Satan. Yet so it was, and the fact stands be-
fore us as a proof the most fearful errors may be pro-
pounded under the guise of greater light and zeal for
God's truth. 'As an angel of light' is an array of truth,
as well as holiness and love, which nevertheless Satan is
permitted to put on, to accomplish and sustain his de-
lusions. It is yet more mysterious, and yet not less true,
that the truth so spoken was carried to the hearts of
several who, on this day, heard it, and these services were
made the means of awakening them, so far as the change
12 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
of conduct and earnest longing after Christ from that day
forward can be an evidence of it."

"As an angel of light." These words recur as a refrain

throughout the "Narrative." Many a one will exclaim:
"How could a movement which denounces the devil and
all his works, and which promotes piety and honors
Christ be Satanic?" But this ignores the solemn warning
of our Divine Lord, "They shall deceive, if it were pos-
sible, the very elect." A moment's thought might satisfy
us that the false could never deceive the elect if it did not
simulate all the characteristics of the true—honor paid to
Christ, a high tone of spirituality, and a beautiful code
of morals.
The very existence of the devil is a subject for jesting
with men of the world; and the devil of "the Christian
religion" has but little in common with the Satan of
Scripture. And yet it is from Scripture alone that we
can learn anything about his personality. The mentions
of him in the Old Testament are few, but they are as
significant as they are explicit. From the first page of
Holy Writ to the last he is presented to us as "the de-
ceiver." The story of the Eden Fall is generally mis-
read. Eve was "thoroughly deceived."* She was "be-
guiled" into accepting what he put before her, because
it seemed to be in the line of God's purpose. She had
misunderstood the words of the Divine command and
warning by taking them literally. The "tree of knowl-
edge" was given to enable man to raise himself to a
higher plane of being; and God would never damn His
children for doing that which their own reason told them

*1 Timothy 2: 14. In the Revised reading the word is

in the intensified form. It occurs in again in 2 Corinthians
11: 3.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 13

must be right. Such was Satan's teaching; and it is pre-

cisely what is preached in numberless "Christian" pulpits
today. The devil did not attack the morals of our first
parents, but he undermined and corrupted their faith.
So was it also in his dealings with Job. His effort was
to estrange the patriarch from God by making him
doubt the Divine goodness. The Lord's words in Luke
22: 31 seem to throw light on this mysterious narrative.
The R. V. marginal reading gives it, "Satan hath obtain-
ed you by asking;" and Dean Alford's gloss is, "Hath
obtained you—his desire is granted." The disciples were
to be given over to the Evil One to be tempted and sifted,
just as Job had been; but the Lord's intercession and
grace protected and restored them.
Certain other Old Testament passages might also
deserve notice, such as Zechariah 3, where Satan sought
to hinder the services of the high priest. But suffice it
here to emphasize that in every case the sphere of his
temptations was not morals, but what is popularly called
"religion."
When we turn to the New Testament I would claim
prominence for the eighth chapter of John. "Ye are of
your father the devil," was the Lord's scathing reply to
the Jews when, in rejecting His teaching, they fell back
upon that figment of apostates, the Fatherhood of God.
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your
father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from
the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because
truth is not in him. When he speaketh the lie, he speak-
eth of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it"
( John 8: 44).
"A murderer from the beginning." The beginning of
what? Not of his own existence; for he was created in
14 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

perfectness and beauty. Nor of the existence of man;

for, before the Eden Fall, he had already dragged down
others in his ruin. His being a murderer connects itself
immediately with the truth which he refused, and the lie
of which he is the father. These words of our Divine
Lord give us a glimpse into a past eternity, when, to the
heavenly intelligences, the great mystery of God* was first
made known—the purpose of the ages, that a Firstborn
was to be revealed, and that "in all things He might have
the pre-eminence" (Col. 1: 18).
The greatest of these heavenly beings, whom we now
known as Satan, claimed that place, and, rebelling against
the Divine counsels, he set himself from that hour to
thwart them. Therefore it was that he compassed the
ruin of our race.t But it is in the temptation of Christ
that he and his lie are fully manifested. He claimed to
meet the Lord on more than equal terms. Not one
Christian in a thousand realizes the significance of the
narrative. Having "led Him up," and given Him that
mysterious vision of the kingdoms of the world, the Devil
said unto Him, "To Thee will I give all this authority
and the glory of them; for it bath been delivered unto
me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou there-
fore wilt worship me it shall all be Thine" (Luke 4: 6, 7,
R. V.).
This was not the raving of profanity or madness. It

"The mystery of God, even Christ" (Colossians 2: 2,

R. V.) .
fAnd in view of the promise to Eve, he may possibly
have thought that either Cain or Abel was his rival, and
so he won Cain over to his side and compassed the death
of Abel.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 15

was the bold assertion of a disputed right. Satan claims

to be the Firstborn, the rightful Heir of creation, the true
Messiah; and as such he claims the homage of mankind.
Men dream of a Devil with horns and hoofs, an obscene
monster who tempts the depraved to acts of atrocity or
shame; but the Satan of Holy Writ "fashions himself
into an angel of light," and "his ministers fashion them-
selves as ministers of righteousness" (2 Cor. 11: 14, 15,
R. V.). Do angels of light or ministers of righteousness
corrupt men's morals, or incite them to commit acts of
vice or crime?*
Such is the Satan of Scripture, a very different being
from the mythical Devil of Christendom, who though
omnipresent—for he is always at the side of every man
and woman and child of all the fifteen hundred millions
of mankind—devotes his powers to making children
naughty and grown-up people vicious. The Satan with
whom we have to do is "the old serpent" of Eden, "the
Power of Darkness" of the betrayal and crucifixion of
the Son of God—that awful being whose divinely given
title is "the god of this world;" not the instigator of its
vices and its crimes, but the controller of its religion.
Through ignorance of all this, people are deluded into
assuming that any man who displays "spiritual power,"
and is "a minister of righteousness," must be a minister
of Christ.
In these solemn days when the Christian dispensation
is drawing to a close, and "the professing church" is
drifting to its predicted doom, Satan is preparing the way

*These paragraphs about the Devil are based on the

chapter upon the subject in The Silence of God, and Chap-
ter 13 of The Way, same author.
 16 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
for the supreme delusion of a travesty of the Incarnation.
For "the Man of Sin" will be energized by him "with
all power and signs and lying wonders" to personate the
Christ of God, and thus to command the worship of man-
kind. What wonder is it then if he feigns to honor
Christ, and bears testimony to His Advent!*
In common with Christians generally, Mr. Baxter at-
tributes all spiritual power to either God or Satan. De-
mons are altogether ignored. But the Gospels testify to
the activity of demons during the ministry of Christ on
earth; and the Epistles warn us of a renewal of demoni-
acal activity in the "latter times," before His return. "All
Scripture is God-breathed;" but it would seem that some-
times the revelation was made with special definiteness,
and this particular warning is prefaced by the words,
"The Spirit saith expressly." And it relates not to any
new development of moral evil in the world, but to a
new apostasy in the professing Church, a cult promoted
by "seducing spirits" of a highly sensitive spirituality,
and a more fastidious morality than Christianity itself
will sanction (1 Timothy 4).
The Gospel narrative indicates that some demons were
base and filthy spirits that exercised a brutalizing in-
fluence upon their victims. But the Lord plainly indi-
cated that these were a class apart ("This kind," Mark
9: 29). They were all "unclean spirits," but in Jewish
use the word akathartos connoted spiritual defilement.
That it did not imply moral pollution is proved by the
fact that demoniacs were allowed to frequent the syna-
gogues. And the crowning proof is the fact that the
I
* As to this, by all means see Dean Alford's note on
Matthew 12: 43-45.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 17

Lord Jesus was charged with having a demon, though not

even His most malignant enemies ever accused Him of
moral evil. It was only by prayer that these filthy
spirits could be cast out; whereas pious demons acknowl-
edged Christ, and came out when His disciples com-
manded them to do so in His name.
Indeed, the most mysterious fact about these demons
was their eagerness to acknowledge the Lord and to pay
Him homage. For, we read, "Devils came out of many,
crying out and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God.
And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for
they knew that He was Christ" (Luke 4: 41). It is an
incidental, but most striking proof of His Deity, that
while the Jews rejected Him, and His own disciples halted
in their confession of Him, the demons, under some
strange compulsion, gave this clear, bold testimony to His
divine character and mission. For this was not an iso-
lated incident. We read again that "the unclean spirits,
whensoever they beheld Him, fell down before Him, and
cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God."* And the
record adds, "He charged them much that they should
not make Him known." The Lord refused their homage,
and it is impossible to believe that, at this time, Satan
could have prompted it. Indeed, the facts disprove the
figment that demons are mere puppets of Satan, and that
they act only under his orders. As fallen members of
the heavenly hierarchy, they probably differ from one
another, not only in their capacities, but in their idiosyn-

* Mark 3: 11, R.V. The mystery of it all is immensely

deepened by reference to 1 John 4: 2, 3; and Mr. Baxter
I tells us that it was the seeming failure of the test there
indicated that confirmed Edward Irving and his followers
in their delusion.
18 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
cracies. If the present-day apostasies of "Spiritualism,"
"Christian Science," and "The New Theology," are win-
ning more converts than Christianity, it is because the
demons who inspire them are pure, and in a real sense,
both pious and beneficent.*
The career of H. J. Prince, of the Agapemone, deserves
a passing notice in this connection. There lies before me.
as I write, a statement from the pen of his relative, the
late Mr. A. A. Rees of Sunderland, whom I knew per-
sonally as a man of sound judgment and a true Chris-
tian minister. For five years, at Lampeter College,
Prince and he were "bosom friends." And he adds:
"Nor did I ever see or hear of an individual more
thoroughly devoted to God than he was during that period.
. . . His private life, of which I was a perpetual eye-
witness, was in harmony with what he appeared to be in
public. . . . He was unusually blessed, both in the edifica-
tion of saints and the conversion of sinners, long before
he entered the public ministry. He was a man of prayer
and self-denial; and few were more deeply acquainted
with the Scripture."

He then goes on to speak of Prince's fall. A book he

read about the ministry of the Holy Spirit led him to
give himself up unreservedly to the Spirit's guidance.
From that time his desires deepened to do the will of
God in all things. As he grew in this habit of yielding
absolutely to spiritual guidance, the Bible became less
and less his study, and he ended by neglecting it alto-

*No one but a professional sceptic will doubt that the

spiritualists have real dealings with the unseen world;
but the intelligent Christian will recognize that it is not
the dead who appear to them, but demons who personate
the dead.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 19

gether. Being thus guided in every detail of his daily

life, he no longer needed the Written Word; and the
total abnegation of his own judgment followed. This
complete surrender of mind and will—his entire person-
ality—to what he believed to be the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, left him a prey to the terrible delusions in which
he was at last engulfed. "0 the pity of it, the pity of
it!" The details of the disaster would gratify none save
the prurient and the profane.
It behooves us to profit by these warnings. "Experi-
ence keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no
other." But we are to walk "not as fools, but as wise."
And wisdom consists in "understanding what the will of
the Lord is" (Eph. 5: 15, 17). Divine wisdom alone will
avail us, for we have to do with beings "greater in power
and might" than ourselves.
The only unique element in Irvingism was its personnel.
The leaders were of a very different calibre from the men
who led in earlier movements of a similar kind. Irving
himself, indeed, was lacking in judgment; but the men
who surrounded him—English lawyers, bankers, mer-
chants—were in every way fitted to command confidence.
They were eminent both as men and as Christians. And
yet neither their natural shrewdness nor their spiritual
attainments saved them from becoming the dupes of
"seducing spirits."
We are right in judging the Irvingite movement by
what we see of it today; but the story of its origin is
most solemn, and it is pathetic in the extreme. As we
read of the wonderful meetings in which these great and
good men poured out their hearts in yearning prayer for
Pentecostal blessing; as we read of the deep, deep peace,
and the ecstacy of joy, which they experienced when "the
20 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
power" fell on them, and "great signs and wonders" awed
them—gifts of tongues, gifts of prophecy, gifts of heal-
ing—we share their aspirations, we emulate their faith,
and we long for such experiences. And then, when we
turn the page to find that all these gifts, which seemed
so heavenly, were counterfeits, our first impulse might
well he to forsake the path of discipleship, and to doubt
the faithfulness of God.
But such thoughts as these are evil. It behooves us
rather to turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians, and to
read its concluding exhortations as not one in a hundred
of us has ever read them before.
"Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His
might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the
principalities, against the powers, against the world-
rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up
the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to with-
stand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand"
(Eph. 6: 10-13, R. V.).
To master the baser passions of our nature is com-
monly supposed to be the normal effort of the Christian
life. But these have to do with "flesh and blood," where-
as "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood." "Put
off all these" is the Divine exhortation here. Be done
with them once for all. And thus the ground is cleared,
as it were, for the true conflict of the life of faith. Men
do not need the panoply of God to enable them to lead
a clean and honest life. Esoteric Buddhism, or even "the
New Theology" will avail for that. If men had not this
power, the coming judgment would he an outrage upon
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 21

justice. But the path of true discipleship lies across the

battlefield on which the supreme conflict of the ages is
in progress. For God's great purpose is to exalt Christ;
and, as Luther writes, "The devil hath no other business
in hand but this only, to persecute and vex Christ." His
aim is not to degrade men, but to draw them away from
Christ—not to corrupt their morals, but to blind their
minds to the light of the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 4: 4).
And "the day" will declare it that, just as prairie dogs
will drive the straying sheep to the shelter of the fold,
multitudes of the reedemed have fled to the Cross to
escape from temptations to moral evil, while the snares
of false religion have engulfed untold millions of men
in everlasting perdition.
If then the supreme purpose of God is the exaltation
of Christ, "that in all things He may have the pre-
eminence," the startling question suggests itself whether
the disasters which sometimes befall the best of men
when they take up the cult of the Holy Spirit, may not
be due to the fact that this is a departure from the line
of that Divine purpose. The Holy Spirit is "the power
behind the throne." "He shall not speak from Himself,"
the Lord declared ( John 16: 13, R. V.). His mission is
to reveal Christ. In proportion therefore as mind and
heart are fixed on Christ we may count on the Spirit's
presence and power; but if we make the Holy Ghost
Himself the object of our aspirations and our worship,
some false spirit may counterfeit the true, and take us
for a prey.
Nor should we forget the exhortation, "Let the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Those who
turn aside to the cult of the Holy Spirit use the Bible
merely as a book of texts, and the Temptation of our
22 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
Lord might warn us of the subtilty of the Evil One in
handling texts. Charlotte Elizabeth tells how she
escaped from Irvingism. She almost yielded to the over-
whelming spiritual power of the movement, but she shut
herself up and read the New Testament through, from
cover to cover, and thus the spell was broken.
And does Scripture afford any warrant for the expecta-
tion of "a second Pentecost?" Are we not to learn from
the record of God's ways in the past? The Mosaic dis-
pensation, like our own, was ushered in and accredited by
a great display of Divine power in public miracles. But
Israel was never to have a second Sinai; and even the
manna and the cloudy pillar were withdrawn when the
purpose for which they were given had been accomplish-
ed. So also we might expect that the evidential miracles
of Pentecost would cease. And proof of this is full and
clear. The miracles were not given as a bait to attract
the unbeliever, but as a beacon to guide the seeker after
truth. The purpose of them was to prove "that Jesus
was the Christ;" therefore they were intended specially
for those who had the preceding revelation—for those
who had the Scriptures which foretold His coming. They
were the sign for those who knew the countersign.
So long, therefore, as the gospel was being proclaimed
specially to the covenant people, miracles abounded. For
to the covenant people it was, primarily, that Christ
came. "Salvation is of the Jews," the Lord Himself
declared; and again, "I am not sent, but to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel." "Christ was a minister of the
circumcision, for the truth of God, to confirm the prom-
ises made unto the fathers" (Rom. 15: 8). That min-
istry, therefore, had special reference to the Scriptures
which testified of Him, and which it was His mission to
fulfil.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 23

When a woman who has been the object of a husband's

love proves false, and is driven forth an outcast, the
tragedy is but a poor and petty illustration of that
stupendous crisis when the God of Abraham cast away
the people of His choice. The destruction of Jerusalem
was the public fact which proclaimed their rejection, but
the hidden history of the crisis is revealed in the Acts
of the Apostles.
The New Testament is not, as some suppose, a chance
collection of pamphlets. To the spiritually intelligent its
unity is apparent. And not merely the unity of the
whole, but the purpose with which every part of it was
written. And the purpose of the Acts is clear; it bridges
the gulf which separates the records of Messiah's earthly
ministry to the covenant people, from the apostolic writ-
ings addressed to Gentile communities. That book is the
history of the Pentecostal dispensation; and if it were
missing the transition from the Gospels to the Epistles
would be an insoluble mystery.
And it is matter, not of opinion, but of fact, that
whereas Pentecostal gifts and evidential miracles hold a
prominent place in the narrative of the Acts, and in the
teaching of Epistles written during the period historically
covered by the Acts, the later Epistles are silent with
respect to them. The natural inference is that the
miracles and gifts had ceased; and the Epistles of the
Apostle Paul's last imprisonment give proof that this
inference is right. "In nothing am I behind the very
chiefest apostles," he declared, when appealing to the
"signs and wonders and mighty deeds" which were the
outward credentials of his ministry (2 Cor. 12: 11, 12).
For "God wrought special miracles by the hands of
Paul," so that even handkerchiefs carried from his body
 24 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

brought healing to the sick (Acts 19: 11, 12). 'Why

then was it that lie could not heal Epaphroditus when he
lay "sick nigh unto death" by his side at Rome? How
was it that, at a still later date, he had to leave Trophi-
mus lying sick at Miletum?* And a miracle at the Court
of Nero might have shaken the world. Never indeed was
an evidential miracle more needed, if received beliefs and
theories about miracles be true. But miracle there was
none.
If with an open mind we peruse the Acts of the
Apostles, and then turn to 2 Timothy, we shall find
proofs of a tremendous change. When the magistrates
at Philippi thrust the Apostle into the dungeon, a great
earthquake shook the foundation of the prison, heaven
came down to his deliverance, and his persecutors were
brought as suppliants to his feet. But now the days of
earthquakes and "mighty signs and wonders" were past;
and as "a pattern to them that should afterward believe,"
the lonely and despised prisoner in Rome was to learn
the deeper mysteries of the life of faith beneath a silent
heaven.
The closing verses of Mark are often quoted as though
they decided the question here at issue. But even if the
genuineness of these verses were as certain as it is doubt-
ful, the spiritually intelligent would read them in the
light of the Epistles. The use made of them in this
controversy is wholly unwarranted.
And what of the prophecy of Joel? It seems to be a
received canon of interpretation that Scripture never
means what it says; and this perhaps explains how peo-
ple can read the second chapter of Joel and fail to see

*Phil. 2: 27; 2 Tim. 4: 20. The explanations offered by

the commentators are egregiously unsatisfactory.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 25
that its fulfilment awaits the restoration of Israel. Its
burden from first to last is the land and people of the
covenant, "I will no more make you a reproach among
the nations." "Ye shall know that I am in the midst
of Israel." "And it shall come to pass afterward that I
will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." As it has been
in the past, so will it be then: a new "dispensation" will
be inaugurated by a public display of Divine power upon
earth.
None surely but the superstitious can imagine that the
Lord will thus honor and accredit the professing church
of Christendom at this stage of its deepening apostasy.
"I am about to spew thee out of My mouth" is His
prophetic warning for this present age. And His message
of cheer is, "To him that overcameth will I give." So
has it ever been. In days of apostasy He turns to indi-
vidual faithfulness. And while no one may limit what
He will do in response to faith, a claim to corporate bless-
ing is a denial of the failure, and this shuts out blessing
altogether.
The question here, remember, relates to evidential mir-
acles. A miracle is an event which gives proof of the
operation of some supernatural agency. And Spiritual-
ism and Christian Science can boast of real miracles.
Hence the marvellous advance that these cults are mak-
ing in our day. For what wins to them adherents among
the devout is not the element of imposture which leavens
them, but the spiritual power by which they are seem-
ingly accredited. For owing to the ignorance and error
with which, on these subjects, our minds are saturated
from our very infancy, people assume as a matter of
course that miracles must be Divine.
The amazing Satanic miracles of the Temptation
 26 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

(Matt. 4: 5, 8) ought to kill that error once for all. And

if people will not accept the teaching of Scripture about
Satan, the standard text-books of Christian Science and
the "New Theology" might enlighten them. His tempta-
tions are fitted, not to repel, but to deceive the pure and
upright. As Luther declares, "He setteth forth and
decketh all his words and works with the color of truth
and with the name of God." "He fashions himself as an
angel of light;" and he will leave us everything of Chris-
tianity except only what he knows to be vital.
The ministry of demons is the counterpart of his own.
Scripture will not warrant the suggestion that, having
"the power of death," the devil has also the power of
life. But we need not doubt that if he has the power to
inflict disease, he has the power to heal. And this may
explain the fact that demoniacal miracles are generally
beneficent. Hume admitted that the evidence for certain
Jansenist miracles fully satisfied the tests which he had
applied to the evidence for the Gospel miracles; but yet
he refused to accept them, because, he declared, miracles
are impossible. Such is the stupidity of systematized un-
belief. And this must account for the refusal of "superior
persons" to recognize that miracles occur in our midst
today. Miracles occur, and what concerns us is to guard
against being deluded by them. For they may be the
first droppings of the coming rain-storm of "all signs and
wonders of falsehood."
I would emphatically repel the inference that present-
day miracles are all of this sinister kind.* "But I main-
tain that what may be called evidential miracles have no

*That the miracles of cults which deny the Deity of

Christ and the atonement are in this category I cannot
doubt.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 27

place in this Christian dispensation. Anyone who thinks

out even the simple problem of prayer must understand
how and why the people of God, in the days before
Christ came, craved such proofs of His presence and
power. But in the ministry and death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has openly manifested, not
only His power, but His goodness and love toward man;
and to demand an evidential miracle now is to re-open
questions which have been for ever settled.
"No one may limit what God will do in response to
faith. But we may dogmatically assert that, in view of
the revelation He has given of Himself in Christ, He will
yield nothing to the petulant demands of unbelief."*
And now the difficult and delicate task remains of
forming a judgment upon the "Speaking with Tongues"
revival. In the light of the facts recorded in these pages,
and of the truths to which appeal has been made, there
are certain preliminary conclusions which we can accept
with confidence. As we have seen, neither the enjoyment
of feelings which seem most blessed, nor the possession of
powers which are certainly supernatural, can be taken as
proof of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.
For a Christian is not one who has certain feelings or
experiences, nor even one who believes in the Holy
Ghost; he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
is "the Word of the Truth of the Gospel" which brings
us the knowledge of Christ. Men once saw Him with

* These last sentences are not an after-thought, nor are

they framed to conciliate opposition. They are quoted
from the preface to the later editions of The Silence of
God, a book which treats both of miracles and of the
transitional character of the Pentecostal dispensation.
(Same author).
28 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"

their eyes, and their hands handled Him; but ours is the
blessedness of those who have not seen and yet have be-
lieved. For He is now "within the veil." And if our
anchor is "both sure and steadfast" it is because it
"enters into that which is within the veil." But "God's
Word Written" is our only cable. The craving to get
"within the veil" by means of spiritual gifts and mani-
festations savors of unbelief and not of faith, and may
lead to disaster. Let us take earnest heed to the solemn
warning spoken by the Lord Himself: "Many will say to
Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and
in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from
Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7: 22, 23).
And as we proceed let us again remind ourselves that
the question is not what God can or may do in response
to faith, but what Scripture warrants us to claim from
Him. Are we warranted in claiming "Pentecostal gifts"
today? The special gift which is the boast of this new
"revival" is that of tongues. In the Irvingite movement
"tongues" were not wanting, but they were thrown into
the shade by the higher gift of prophecy. The super-
natural character of the utterances, the fulness and
fervor with which testimony was borne to Christ, and the
peace and joy experienced by those on whom "the power"
fell, seemed clear proof that all was Divine. And yet it
was from beneath. This does not prove that similar
manifestations today are counterfeits, but it is an over-
whelming reason for vigilance and care in testing them.
And the more closely we study the movement in the
light of Scripture, the more will our suspicions of it
deepen.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 29

Its physical phenomena are well fitted to excite dis-

trust. To attribute to mere hysteria the bodily paroxysms
which are common in the prayer-meetings, is perhaps to
take too kindly a view of them. The Holy Spirit, more-
over, does not promote hysteria. And the silent sighings
of the Spirit's intercession*—what have they in common
with the shouts and screams which disturb the neighbors?
But this is only the fringe of the subject: the movement
must be tested and judged in the light of the fourteenth
chapter of 1 Corinthians.
And the following points are definite and clear.
First, spiritual gifts were "distributed;" and the gift
of tongues was bestowed only upon some of the saints,
not upon all.
Secondly, the gift of tongues was inferior to other
gifts, both in dignity and in practical value.
This at once refutes the "theology" of the movement,
which represents the gift of tongues as the hall-mark of
the Holy Spirit's baptism, and as raising those who pos-
sess it to a position of peculiar privilege and glory.
And thirdly, the exercise of Divine spiritual gifts is
entirely under control. It was not for personal gratifica-
tion, nor for mere display that these gifts were bestowed,
but for the edification of the Church. And the apostolic
precepts to guide their use are as practical as the chair-
man of any public meeting could desire! Gifts are to be
subordinated to the purpose for which they are bestowed,
which is the edification of the saints; and decency and
order are to regulate the exercise of them (1 Cor. 14,
26, 40).

*Romans 8: 26. Using the word "groan" in its ordinary

sense, "groanings which cannot be uttered" is a contra-
diction in terms. Our word "sigh" is more apt.
30 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues"
In contrast with this, much that is witnessed in "the
gift of tongues" revival today seems to savor of the
demoniacal possession of heathen cults, which is the veil-
ed reference of the second verse of the chapter.* Such
was undoubtedly the case in the Irvingite movement.
Irving and his devoted band of fellow-Christians were
drawn away by "the cult of the Spirit" from the sim-
plicity of faith in the living and the written Word of
God. The Agapemone movement tells the same tale.
And in lesser degree the story of the Irish revivals points
the same moral. The physical phenomena which marked
the "Ulster revival" of 1859 were generally accepted at
the time as Divine. But some doubted even then, and
in the after-judgment of thoughtful Christians a different
view prevailed. And in the more general and far deeper
revival of the sixties this element disappeared altogether.
That revival has had results more widespread and last-
ing than any similar movement of modern times, and the
secret of its success and power was the prominence given
to "God's Word written." Christ and the Scriptures were
everything. This was possibly a legacy from the move-
ment of thirty years before. In that earlier revival the
difference between the movement on that side of the
channel, and on this, might be epigrammatically ex-
pressed by saying, that while in Britain the Christians
took to prayer and the Scriptures, in Ireland they took
to the Scriptures and prayer. Such is the subtilty of the

* Some of the accounts which reach us remind us of

Isaiah's words about "the wizards that chirp and that
mutter" (Isaiah 8 : 19, R. V.) . This view, moreover, is
confirmed by the judgment of some who have been led by
personal investigation to conclude that the "gifts" are an
entirely sinister element in a movement which is of God.
 Spirit Manifestations and "The Gift of Tongues" 31

Evil One that, in days of revival, if spiritual excitement

be not controlled by sound doctrine, even prayer-meet-
ings may become a peril.
And the "theology" of this "gift of tongues" move-
ment displays ignorance and perversion of Scripture. As
already noticed, it subordinates the great facts and truths
of the Christian revelation to the subjective experiences
of the Christian life. But more than this, in its teaching
about the Holy Spirit it subordinates what was primary
and essential in Pentecost to what was incidental and
altogether secondary. The supreme fact was the fulfil-
ment of "the promise of the Father; " and this was abid-
ing, whereas, the "rushing, mighty wind," the "cloven
tongues," and the distributed "gifts," were but outward
manifestations of His presence; and these were transient.
The main and essential element, moreover, was cor-
porate blessing. The baptism of the Holy Spirit created
the Church—not a Church within the Church, an election
within the election of grace. It was for all. So that
even to the Corinthians, albeit their heresies and sins
called for warning and rebuke, the Apostle wrote, "By
one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body . . . and
have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor.
12: 13).
The coming of the Holy Spirit is now as definitely
matter of faith as the coming of the Son of God; and
while to seek subjective proofs of His baptism as a con-
dition of believing in it may be plausibly described as
"seeking a second Pentecost," it is, in fact, sheer un-
belief. It throws discredit upon that first and only true
Pentecost, and calls in question the fulfilment of "the
promise of the Father."
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