p. 166 | SPIRITUAL GIFTS by Rev. Wm. Reddy

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1861

SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

By Rev. Wm. Reddy

THERE is a tendency among men at this day to depreciate or deny the supernatural in religion, and to account for all the phenomena of religious manifestation on natural and scientific principles. Hence, remarkable power or fluency in speaking is oratory or elocution, either natural or acquired; deep solicitude for sinners, amounting to a “travail” of souls, is the result of mistaken views of the danger of sinners or of a sympathetic nature; deep religious joy, amounting to ecstasy, expressed by shouting, crying or laughing, and especially by falling down, is the result of “nervousness,” or excitement of the animal passions. The effect of prayer, of what the apostle calls the “fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man,” that is sympathetic, or the effect of the workings of imagination.

If the sick are restored in answer to prayer, it is because just then the disease had reached a crisis, though the fact may not have been known at the moment. And this tendency is spreading in the Church. The tales told us by our fathers of the “mighty works” that were witnessed in the days of Abbott, Wooster, and Wesley, were the offspring of credulity, or of superstition. And even the miracles of the New Testament, they might all be accounted for on natural principles, if the laws of the material universe were better understood. Perhaps the time will come yet, in the developments of the future, that all these will be made plain. But if they be admitted to be supernatural, they were confined to the days of the apostles, and the supernatural has ceased from the Church, especially all things of a tangible or sensible nature. These are the days of science, of intelligence and refinement. “The former days were not better than these,”—even when those

mighty works were wrought, when devils were subject to Christians through the name of Jesus.

So says an unbelieving, skeptical world; so say merely philosophical, metaphysical, psychological, formal, fashionable professors of religion. But what saith the Scriptures? Let us look at the doctrine of spiritual gifts, especially as St. Paul says, “Now, concerning spiritual gifts, I would not have you ignorant.”

The apostle says, “There is a diversity of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” See 1 Cor. xii, 4–7. Then follows an enumeration of some of those gifts: “The word of wisdom,” “the word of knowledge,” “faith,” “gifts of healing,” “prophecy,” “discerning of spirits,” &c. Now mark, these are all supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Not natural endowments, not acquirements merely. And these are divided by the Spirit to every man severally as HE wills. Verse 11.

Then there is the gift of “utterance.” The apostles spake “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Pray for me, says Paul, that “utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Eph. vi, 19. “Praying for us that God would open a door of utterance.” Col. iv, 3. Now, though the Spirit divides these severally to every man (each member of Christ's body) as he wills, yet he teaches us to covet the best gifts earnestly, and the church is called upon to pray that their ministers, as also themselves, may be endowed with these gifts.

It will not do to say that these gifts were restricted in their bestowment to the apostles and early Christians. All will allow that what Paul says of “charity” or love, “the more excellent way,” in 1 Cor. xiii, applies to Christians in all subsequent time, and yet he immediately exhorts to covet earnestly the best gifts. The truth is, the church needs these gifts at this day, to battle against error in its various forms. She needs them to preserve in her own mind the idea of the spiritual, the supernatural. She needs them as ornaments to supersede her jewelry. Let her covet earnestly these gifts, and there would be less covetousness of worldly riches and honor, less covetousness of worldly display. Take, for example, the gift of “faith.” 1 Cor. xii, 9. By faith here, the apostle evidently intends something more than justifying or sanctifying faith. He speaks of faith as a special endowment—an extraordinary power of believing against great difficulties and overcoming them—of removing mountains—of casting out devils—of securing mighty results.

“A faith that will not shrink, Though pressed by every foe, That will not tremble on the brink Of any earthly woe.”

“That laughs at seeming impossibilities, and cries it must be done.”

See the instances of the power of this faith, as cited by Paul, Heb. xi, 32–35. These instances, to be sure, are cited from the Old Testament, but if such power of faith was enjoyed by the ancient worthies, how much more may the church now covet it, seeing Christ has “ascended on high,” and led captivity captive, and received gifts for men!

There are mighty Jerichos to be taken in these days, with their triple walls of error, prejudice, and unbelief. And these walls cannot be battered down by logic, nor sealed by rhetoric, nor undermined by philosophy; they must be leveled by faith. Logic, rhetoric and philosophy have their part to act, but they must all be subordinate to, and employed by faith, or they are powerless.

We need the gift of utterance in a more eminent degree, not merely the use of language, but the utterance of truth in the Spirit, so that words shall be shot out of the mouth of the speaker like the balls from a well-charged ordnance—the Spirit being the propelling force. What was that power that clothed the preaching of Abbott, and other early Methodist preachers? Was it not a special endowment?

We should covet the gift of prophecy. It is a New Testament endowment. See the quotation of Peter from Joel on the day of Pentecost: “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy in the last days,” saith God.—Northern Christian Advocate, 1855.