The Gift of Tongues by E. H. WILBUR

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 30, 1908

The Gift of Tongues

By E. H. WILBUR

E. H. WILBUR

IN THE REVIEW OF AUGUST 1, 1907, mention is made of a movement in the United States where persons are said to have the “gift of tongues.” Recently I learned that one of their representatives has arrived in Canton from America, and that some of the missionaries who ought to be studying the language or carrying on their regular work, are attending these meetings hoping to receive “new light.” During our stay of nearly five years in China, we have known of a few missionaries who declined to employ language teachers, claiming that if the Lord wanted them to speak the Chinese language, he would give them the gift of tongues. Such a course, instead of being an evidence of faith, is really putting themselves in a position where Satan can plant the seeds of doubt in their hearts. They try the Lord to see whether he will grant their request or not, and failing to receive the coveted gift, they lose faith in his Word. Some of these, after several years of waiting and hardship, have made complete failure and gone to their homes in discouragement.

Seven years ago, while visiting friends in one of the Middle States, I told a pastor, with whom I had been acquainted for several years, that I desired to go to China as a missionary. Knowing that I believed in the perpetuity of spiritual gifts, he said to me, “When the Lord gives you the gift of tongues, then it will be time enough for you to go to China.” This pastor has now been sleeping in the grave for over six years. The Lord opened the way for us to come to China. Upon our arrival here, we at once took up the study of the language, and are still at it. The Lord has blessed our efforts, and we are now able to speak to this people in their own tongue, in such a way as to be understood, and to read the Scriptures to them from the Chinese Bible. For this we praise the Lord.

The first reports that came to us from the meetings in Canton (we are now living in Kongmoon, forty-five miles away) were to the effect that they were having a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost. While it was admitted that the newly arrived American preacher had to have his sermons interpreted into Chinese, yet it was said that some Chinese children who had never studied English were empowered to speak in that language. This would surely not be very edifying to a Chinese congregation, who could not understand what was said, and quite unlike the day of Pentecost, when they all heard in their own tongue.

The latest advices from Canton are that the more intelligent native Christians declare that it is a fraud, and the work of hypnotism, while some of the direct fruit of the meetings is nervous prostration in a few cases, where women were kept in exciting meetings for hours and days at a time. As in America, the claim was made here that unless you have the “gift of tongues,” you have not received the Holy Spirit.

But no one should be deceived by these last-day delusions. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

*Kongmoon, via Hongkong, China.