Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation upon thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." This is spoken as a painful part of the punishment inflicted, that they should be under, in this sense, a new or unknown tongue. It told them, in the plainest language, that they should be in captivity to a strange nation, and be deprived of the common medium of mutual communication in one tongue.'

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I do not think,' said Mrs. Milbanke, that this is the part adduced by Paul.'

'Not precisely, or singly; but, as I said, it is by comparison of scripture that we come to the most satisfactory elucidation. The Spirit must interpret the Spirit. But we will turn to Isaiah xxviii. 11. which is the precise passage the Apostle advances. We have the clue in the words-" Yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord." Here again we must take the context, and we shall find it to be a threatened punishment (I might say the threatened punishment, the time being come of which Moses forewarned) for the crimes of Ephraim, and especially for that greatest of sins-a rejection of the counsels of the Most High. They neither learnt knowledge, nor understood doctrine, notwithstanding the precept upon precept, the line upon line, the here a little and there a little. "For with stammer

ing lips and another tongue shall he speak to this people." O what a falling off from privileges, for a people to whom the Lord had shown his mercy, and revealed his grace; showing them the Rest, where the weary might rest, and the refreshing, yet they would not hear. It is an awful passage, and one that ought to make a serious impression on us, of the heinousness of that sin of refusing the rest and refreshing, so beautifully offered to us in the words of Christ himself, Matt. ii. 28. "Come unto meand ye shall find rest unto your souls;" and moreover, that the very words which are a savour of life may become a savour of death unto death, as in this portion, "that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." You see it is a passage expressive of wrath little less than that of Babel: "Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men!"

'It is then manifestly a judgment of anger, when the Lord puts a people into the situation of being to each other barbarians; and thus the Apostle used an argument, which would be very conclusive to the Corinthians, that through the misuse of their gift, they should make themselves each to each a barbarian!

It is also evident that St. Paul means to put these two dispositions in opposition, the more closely to show the proper intentions of the gift of tongues, and to make the Corinthians ashamed of introducing confusion, in the place of peace and order, and also to mark how it was frustrating the grace of God. "In the law it is written With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet, for all that, will they not hear me, saith the

Lord.'" The judgment itself not awakening them to the precept on precept, nor to the rest and refreshing.'

I could not help interrupting Henry, by remarking that it was one of the most fearful signs of irreconcilable anger, when the edifying message of grace was withdrawn from any people; it was the frowning aspect of being given over to a reprobate mind-the letting Ephraim alone; " yet for all this will they not hear me, saith the Lord!”

"

Henry bowed, as assenting; but continuing his own elucidation, he said, 'Is it not then easy to understand what is meant by the comment of the Apostle, "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not; a sign of wrath-a sign that as they have refused to hearken, so God will cease to plead with them; a sign that as they despised their privileges, so God will withdraw them? And was not such a conclusion sufficient to prove that tongues, not only without charity, but without intelligible application, was

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sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal;" or if the love of the soul were there, it could not be expressed, by one who was as a barbarian to them that heard? And if we read the verses 26-28, we shall see this is the sum,-either let the tongue be used to edifying, or be kept silent in the church, speaking only to himself and to God; the object being, as it is expressed in verse 31, that all may learn and all may be COMFORTED; and we may therefore once more adopt the Apostle's words, used in the outpouring of the Spirit, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." Like the commissioned angel, Rev. xiv. 6. " Having the everlasting

gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him."'

'Now then,' I said, 'will you not see, Mrs. Milbanke, that still new tongues, or unknown tongues, or strange tongues, do not mean an unheard-of tongue, or tongue not belonging to any nation or any people in all the world? And thus even proper tongues possessed are not to be Babeled, if I may so speak ; and assuredly, for my own part I should have no desire to be thus marked, like those with whom the Lord was angry, when he smote them with an unknown tongue. It is very different from that manifestation of favour and grace,-the being endued with powers from on high, to prophesy, and comfort, and preach repentance and remission of sins in the name of Jesus.'

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We ought also to observe,' Mrs. Reynolds said, 'that the nations from far, whose tongue should not be understood—the men of other tongues and other lips, were not the people of God, but the scourge whom God used as his sword of vengeance, as the records of history amply testify (see Jer. v. 15); and surely no child of God would desire to be assimilated with them, or to be held under a delusion that this were a token of being chosen vessels unto the Lord! He might learn more charity from Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 1; and from Darius, Dan. vi. 25.'

How watchful we ought to be,' I remarked, ' against the devices of an evil spirit, who, taking advantage of the high-wrought imaginations of men, or of the fervency of a misguided zeal, or of the

latent pride of the human heart, which so often, under the show of renouncing self, is deceived to the false estimation of its talent being a peculiar manifestation from above. The tongue is a terrible member to be employed, without the Holy Spirit, in such great pretensions;—a deadly evil! In nothing, I conceive, would Satan more rejoice, than in so contriving his devices, as to allure the minds of men to believe they came from the Lord, and by tincturing his temptations with the expressions of revelation, to give them the tone of angels' tongues, even when kindled by himself, “ set on fire of hell.”’

"The gates of hell shall not prevail,” Henry answered quick. 'The Lord can pluck the brand from the burning. But the elect ought to be alive to the gracious privilege of appeal to Him who can keep them from all evil, and make the beams of divine light disperse all the darkness of delusion, so that it be impossible that they shall be deceived. "Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments."'

'You made a remark,' I said, 'a little while ago, that the Bible itself, in its various translations into the tongues of nations, might be said to speak in a new tongue; and this applies to the subject in question very materially, as one of blessing.' And I could not help immediately making this application to the shameful practice of the Roman Catholic priesthood, in the imposition on their people, of withholding the free use of the Bible, under a pretext of a right in themselves, to forbid or allow it at their discretion; with the specious representation that it is not a book to be put into the hands of the people; or only partial portions, very sparingly