Enough has been already said of Speaking with Tongues to make any thing at this time a needless repetition. Enough also, appears to me to exist, to make this subject one well worthy of attentive examination, instead of being hastily rejected as false.

CHAPTER V.

A TRIAL OF THE

OBJECTIONS URGED AGAINST THE

GIFTS WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE RE-APPEARED IN THE CHURCH.

"To the law, and to the testimony."-Is. viii. 20.

IN discussing any subject on which a diversity of opinion exists, it becomes us to weigh the arguments on either side of it before we proceed to draw a final conclusion. Accordingly I pur pose to devote this chapter to the examination in detail of those objections, or arguments, which have been commonly urged against the genuineness of these spiritual manifestations.

1. It is objected by some, and the objection has been pronounced conclusive,* That none had

*The following extract is from the "Record" newspaper of December 8, 1831. The article from which it is made is a review of a part of Dr. Whateley's Essays on some of the difficulties in the writings of St. Paul.

"Dr. Whateley teaches that the extraordinary operations of the Spirit were intended only to serve a temporary purpose, and when that purpose was accomplished were withdrawn. He supposes that they were withdrawn gradually, in proportion as the struc

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the power of communicating these gifts but the Apostles, which they did by the laying on of hands.

This objection appears chiefly to rest on the account which is given, in the Acts of the Apostles, of the city of Samaria receiving the Gospel, and, after that, the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit by the laying on of the Apostles' hands. (Acts, viii. 14-17.) Before we enquire whether the conclusion be sound which has been drawn from this, and possibly some other cases, it will be well to examine the several instances which are recorded of this gift of the Holy Ghost being bestowed.

The first and most remarkable case is that of the day of Pentecost. (Acts, ii. 1-4.) Enough has before been said upon that subject to show that, if we only allow the history its plain meaning, all the disciples present, viz. the 120, were partakers of the gift, for "they were all with one accord in one place," (v. 1.) " And they were all

ture, of which they were the temporary support, gradually acquired consistency.' As the power of working miracles was conferred by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles, and it does not appear that they conferred upon any other the privilege of communicating this power, 'the result must have been that when all the Apostles had terminated their course on earth, all the channels must have been stopped through which this stream had hitherto flowed; and as the last generation dropped off, one by one, of such as had been thus gifted, this extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit gradually became extinct.'

"This view of the matter appears to dispose of the most plausible argument that we have seen in defence of modern miracles."

filled with the Holy Ghost." (v. 4.) The first instance with which we meet of the laying on of the Apostles' hands is in the account of the deacons being set apart to their peculiar work and office in the Church. (Acts, vi. 6.) But, that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were conveyed on that occasion appears extremely doubtful, from what is said of St. Stephen before the Apostles' hands had been laid upon him. "And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," (Acts, vi. 5.) and, having enumerated the other deacons, it is added, "Whom they set before the Apostles: and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them." (v. 6.) Where we may remark that the same terms are used as in describing the spiritual qualifications of Barnabas, "for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." (Acts, xi. 24.) He was an Apostle, as St. Luke informs us, (Acts, xiv. 14.) and therefore possessed of these gifts. The next case is that, of which we have spoken above, of Samaria receiving the word of God, in which the Holy Ghost was given by the laying on of the Apostles' hands. (Acts, viii. 14—18.) Cornelius and his friends are the next persons spoken of as receiving the gift. A reference to the account of this transaction will show that, though Peter was sent to "speak unto him," in other words to preach Jesus Christ, yet the Holy Ghost was given without any laying on of

the Apostles' hands; for "while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost; for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God." (Acts, x. 44-46.) An object, similar to that which induced the Apostles at Jerusalem to send down Peter and John to Samaria, seems to have actuated the Church in sending Barnabas to Antioch, though we read in the history of nothing more than an exhortation which he addressed to them, "that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord." Nothing, therefore, can be concluded on this subject, either one way or the other, from the account of this transaction. (Acts, xi. 19-24.) In the thirteenth chapter an instance of the laying on of hands is recorded, but not for that purpose, Barnabas and Saul, persons already so gifted, being the subjects of this ordinance. The next and, I believe, the last case recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, for I would not intentionally omit any, is that of Paul at Ephesus, in which the Holy Ghost was given by the laying on of that Apostle's hands. (Acts, xix. 1-6.) That part of the Acts of the Apostles to which we have referred contains a partial history of the Church of Christ between the years A. D. 33, and