Speaking With “Tongues” by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 10, 1908

Speaking With “Tongues”

By W. A. S.

WHEN the apostles on the day of Pentecost spoke with other tongues, the people of various nationalities who listened said: “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”

It was not merely an exhibition of something strange and wonderful. The most wonderful part of it all was the message of “the wonderful works of God.”

Neither did the apostles lay any stress whatever on the unusual manifestation of the gift of tongues. Their burden was not to publish their own gifts, but to publish the message that God had given them. That was the one burden,—to declare the wonderful works of God and the truth for that time. The method was but incidental. The thing itself is the preaching of the gospel.

Nor do we read in the New Testament that, as the apostles went out in their work, they were able to speak without effort any language. Paul and his associates who had the fluent use of the Greek tongue were commissioned to the lands where Greek was current. And so, very likely, was it with others. However that may be, the essential thing was the preaching of the message given them.

The craving for the strange and the unusual, to the neglect of the common and practical, has led to a fanatical movement in our time, aiming at securing the gift of other tongues. Those who have made this the end to be sought have advertised much. But after all the years of excitement and talk, no one seems to be able to cite any practical use which the movement has been. The genuine gifts of the Spirit are always for service. The strange or wonderful in the manifestation of the gift is but to call attention—not to the gift, but to the message. On the other hand the spurious and false gifts are ever attracting attention to the peculiar and unusual in the manifestation itself.

In mission fields we have seen no results whatever from this movement that has risen in this country and caused so much stir among lovers of the eccentric. A missionary in China, S. C. Todd, has been looking up the experiences of some

who have ventured into mission fields on the strength of this movement. He writes to the Baptist Argus:—

I have been asked about a certain Mr. McIntosh. Notwithstanding his statements that he expected to preach at once to the people, he has been wholly unable to do so. He must not only have an interpreter in preaching, but also in the simplest affairs of every-day life. From the day of his arrival in China until now, neither he nor his wife has been able to speak a single sentence in Chinese. I do not speak from rumor, but from personal knowledge, and the personal admission of failure by Mr. McIntosh himself.

As to Japan. While there I met a party of about a dozen missionaries who had come out from the State of Washington, on the Pacific Coast. I visited them in their home and attended one of their services. They, too, expected to speak at once to the people, but on reaching Japan they were powerless to do so. They admitted to me their inability, and I saw it with my own eyes.

As to India. You remember that Rev. A. G. Garr and wife went there, also expecting to speak to the people in this supernatural way. But did they? They have left India and are now in Hongkong. I have attended two of their services. Mr. Garr, in reply to a personal question of mine as to whether either he or his wife had been able to talk in the native language of India, said that they had been unable to do so.

Again, two ladies came on from the Japan party to Hongkong because they felt they had the gift of the “Hongkong dialect.” I have seen them, inquired of their power to talk in Chinese, and they, too, were unable to speak.

It is by no means unthinkable that God should enable men to speak to-day with other tongues; but it will be when it is to his glory and when the message itself will have the attention of those that hear, rather than the messenger or his peculiar gift. And the Lord does not work miracles to save his children a little study and hard work.

In apostolic days the gift of tongues was evidently sought after by those who were not using the speech they had to any very good purpose; and the apostle Paul said: “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding.”

Even spiritual gifts may be perverted and abused, and the way prepared for the spurious and fanatical. For a time one of our workers abroad, a native of the field in which he labored, was considerably agitated over this movement in America and the idea of speaking with tongues. He had one or two languages that he could use, and the people to whom he can speak in those languages are in dense darkness. But he had little success in presenting the message in the languages he knew, while his attention was diverted and his labors weakened, by this fanatical movement. The greatest gift of all is the gift of teaching sinners the way of life, so that they come to the obedience of the truth. If one can not do that in one language, of what benefit would a dozen languages be?

The Lord will work in unusual ways, just as he may see that it will redound to his glory; but through it all the most wonderful thing will be the message that is borne in these last days to prepare men for the judgment. W. A. S.