The Babel of Tongues

It is not every town that can boast of such a religious commotion as Bethany had during the next three weeks. Rumors of a strange people floated in from Piketon and Shenandoah, rumors of a strange doctrine, a new religion—a really strenuous religion that had left the old conventional churches high and dry in their formality. The members of the band who were holding the meeting could speak in “tongues”—“unknown tongues” at that. And the demonstrations were wonderful. Then the news came that they were coming to Bethany.

They came. There was a band of six—two ministers, their wives, and two helpers. They rented the empty store building owned by Mayor Hempstead and began. The scenes enacted at the meeting were well-nigh indescribable. Robert Davis attended one night, two weeks after the meeting had begun. He said to Mary when he got home, “Mary, I never saw such demonstrations in all my life before. Would you believe it if I should tell you that I stood in front of the front row of seats, about ten feet from the platform, and that I could not hear a word that those on the platform were singing? It is a fact. The altar extended between the seats and platform, and the seekers and those talking to them were making such a noise that the singing could no longer be heard.

“Why did they make so much noise?” asked Mary.

“I do not know,” replied Robert, “they seemed very much in earnest. Let me tell you something more. I saw young women jiggle and jerk all over until their hair was all thrown down, and their clothing disarranged. Two or three men were running about on the platform as if they were mad, others danced more gracefully. One or two were bellowing. There were noises that were indescribable, screeches, howls, yells, and several gibbering syllables that no one understood. Some were shaking all over, some were lying prone and stiff, some were falling down into various attitudes. Why, Mary, it was simply awful. You would never dream of sane people doing such things.”

Next morning Kate Newby came over. She came in dancing and talking in the “unknown tongue.”

“Oh, I have got it, I have got it,” she exclaimed.

“You have got what?” asked Robert.

“I have got the Holy Ghost, I have the ‘tongues,’ hallelujah!” shouted Kate.

“What has it done for you?” asked Mary.

“Oh, I have got it, I’ve got it!” was all the reply Kate would make.

“Did you make a complete consecration to God? Did you seek Him for the cleansing power? Were you brought near to Him? Was your heart brought very humble and yielding to God? Tell me how you prayed and what your faith took in,” said Robert.

“I have got it, I have got it,” was all Kate could say about her new experience. She seemed to be very happy, yet she looked as if she were in a tremendous strain, and lines were drawn in her face which denoted care and anxiety.

“My dear, did you come to the Lord for more of His grace?” asked Mary. “If so, we have a sure promise, but what is this ‘tongues’ that you have received?”

“That is proof that I have the Holy Ghost,” said Kate. “Don’t you know that the apostles spoke in tongues?” But Kate did not know the theology of the new religion very well.

Robert Davis was determined to know the theological basis of the new outburst, if it had any; so he went to see the ministers and asked them for their doctrinal belief.

“Very well, sir, sit down,” replied one of the ministers.

“The first Scripture text is a prediction by Christ: ‘They shall speak with new tongues.’* (Mark 16:17) The second is where the prophecy was fulfilled: ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.’* (Acts 2:4) Next, in Acts 10:46: ‘For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.’

“Now the doctrine is this: everybody must speak in tongues as the evidence of having received the Holy Spirit. This is the evidence. Do you have the Holy Ghost? If so, then you have spoken in tongues.”

“But,” said Robert, “why should one manifestation of the Spirit be any more of a witness than another manifestation?”

“Oh, you have got to get the ‘tongues,’ ” replied the preacher. “Come tonight and seek the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah!”

But Robert noticed a peculiar accent to this “hallelujah,” and also that everyone present seemed to be moved by one dominating, overwhelming spirit or power. Among these people there seemed to be more seeking for something to exhilarate them than seeking the face of God for more grace and love. There was an amazing brazenness about most of those who had the “tongues,” an air of superiority, a sort of spiritual pride that disgusted him. When he attempted to reason with them he found them unreasonably impervious to argument or logic. He finally concluded that the doctrine was based on a false claim, a misconception of Scripture.

“No wonder,” he said to Mary when he got home, “that these people have gone far beyond the line of reasonableness, when one considers that law of physics which says that the reaction goes about as far as the action. The truth is, Mary, many churches have become so formal and dead that the cry of mankind is for life, freedom, spiritual power, spiritual joy, spiritual victory. No wonder the pendulum has swung over to the other extreme. The right place is in the middle, between these two extremes. I believe we should go over and see Kate Newby.”

Kate Newby had yielded herself fully to the new religious idea. Kate was emotional. When a girl she was easily mesmerized, and always took everything that was going, diseases and all. However, she was a good woman, and true, and conscientious. During the week after she got her new experience she had dreams and visions, spoke in tongues, read the Bible, shouted at every meeting, danced, and became a willing worker.

Along toward the end of the week she began to feel depressed. A stray thought or two forced its way into her excited brain as to the propriety of some of the demonstrations going on. There were some extremes which her soul could not approve. She began to pray earnestly for divine guidance. She remembered her excursion into the wilds of false religion, into the Christian Science delusion.

Kate was somewhat in this frame of mind when Robert Davis and Mary went over to visit her. At once she asked Robert what he thought of the “tongues.”

“Kate,” answered Robert, “if the Bible says that speaking in a tongue is the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit it is plain that all should have that evidence. But listen, Kate, are you ready to believe that for all these years, yes for centuries back, God’s children have not had the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Can you believe that D. L. Moody and John Wesley and George Whitefield and men like them did not have the spirit?”

“Why, I never thought of that, Robert,” said Kate, “it does not look reasonable, does it?”

“Let us note, Kate,” he continued, “that the Bible nowhere says or intimates that speaking in tongues is the essential evidence of the reception of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues is a gift of the Spirit. Paul asks, ‘Do all speak with tongues?’* (1 Corinthians 12:30) The inference is plain that he did not think they did. These gifts are distributed to advantage, being given to every man as God wills (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). The idea that speaking in tongues is the essential evidence of the reception of the Holy Spirit is chiefly responsible for the fanatical extremism that these folks exhibit. Why, Kate Newby, you know that this is not New Testament Christianity, this wild, riotous, noisy thing! It cannot be.

“You see, when one decides that he must speak in tongues as the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s baptism, he becomes so eager to do so that he often receives a mental or spiritual deception which he considers the real evidence of the Holy Spirit baptism.”

“I am beginning to see the deception of it,” said Kate. “Yesterday, I believe the good Spirit of God was talking to me. I felt that something was wrong. While I professed to be very happy, still there was a feeling that I was not right alter all. But I thrust the thought aside as not coming from God and held on. But, honestly, I am not happy. I did not consecrate. I just fell in with the spirit of the meeting and got the ‘tongues’ in a few moments. I doubt if God had any connection with it at all.”

The next day the town marshal was called to the home of Mrs. Jane Smith. She had embraced the new religion and was losing her mind. The new teaching had so upset her that her weak mind could not stand the strain. She was taken to the asylum, where she remains to this day.

When Kate Newby heard of this she became more convinced that there was something wrong with the theory and she thoroughly renounced it.

The “tongues” meeting left Bethany in the worst spiritual condition that town had ever been in. Families were torn apart, many persons became skeptics, and there were debates, and arguments, and violent clashes almost daily.

It remained in this condition until the time when Evangelist Monteith began his second revival the next year.