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   From: .robert@mu.way   
      
   TONGUES FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY   
      
   With the birth of Reformation, the Catholic Church no longer asserts iron   
   rule among the Church world. The instances of tongues becomes more and more   
   frequent, beginning with Matin Luther. In a German work, Sourer’s History   
   of the Christian Church” it is stated that, Dr. Martin Luther was a   
   prophet, evangelist, speaker in tongues, and interpreter, in one person,   
   endowed with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”(11)   
      
   “Soon following Luther came the French sect known as the Jansenists. This   
   group arose in the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent and was   
   subjected to persecution following the issuance in 1705 of a bill condemning   
   them. After persecution began, speaking in tongues was reported among this   
   group.”(12)   
      
   Another group in France that exercised the use of tongues were known as the   
   Cevennes. Among them in a revival of religious enthusiasm occurred similar to   
   that of the Jansenists. Newman in “A Manual of Church History” tells us   
   that:   
      
   Respecting the physical manifestations, there is little discrepancy between   
   the accounts of friend and foe. The persons affected were men and women, the   
   old and the young, Very many were children, boys and girls of nine or ten   
   years of age. They were sprung from the people for the most part unable to   
   read or write, and speaking in everyday life the patios of the province with   
   which alone they were conversant. Such persons would suddenly fall backward,   
   and, while extended at full length on the ground, undergo strange and   
   apparently involuntary contortions; their chests would seem to heave, their   
   stomachs inflate. On coming gradually out of this condition, they appeared   
   instantly to regain the power of speech…. From the mouths of those that   
   were little more than babes came texts of Scripture, and discourses in good   
   and intelligible French such as they never used in their conscious hours.(13)   
      
   Some of the French prophets emigrated to England and made converts there,   
   with tongues being a part of the British revival also.   
      
   In this same period of time the Encyclopedia Britannica tells of tongues   
   “among the converts of Wesley and Whitefield.” John Wesley once wrote a   
   protest against a Dr. Middleton who wrote “after the Apostolic time, there   
   is not, in all history, one instance…of any person who had even exercised   
   that gift (tongues).” Wesley replied, “Sir, your memory fails you again,   
   it has been heard more than once no further off than the valleys of   
   Dauphiny.”(14)   
      
   The atmosphere of the revivals that followed the Wesleyan movement was one of   
   informality, spiritual fervor, and religious enthusiasm. Crying out with   
   groans and sobs in prayer, shouting and uttering of “unintelligible   
   sounds” were common of this early period.”(15)   
      
   Another movement that displayed Pentecostal characteristics developed in   
   England during the seventeenth century. They were called the Society of   
   Friends or Quakers. W.C. Braithwaite, in “The Message and Mission of   
   Quakerism,” quotes from Burrough’s preface to Great Mystery:   
      
   “While waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did for many hours   
   together, we received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us, and our   
   hearts were glad and our tongues loosed and our mouth opened, and we spake   
   with new tongues as the Lord gave us utterance, and as His Spirit led us,   
   which was poured down upon us, on sons and daughters, and the glory of the   
   Father was revealed. And then began we to sing praise to the Lord God   
   Almighty and to the Lamb forever “(16)   
      
   The Quakers were followed in the eighteenth century by a group that surpassed   
   them in religious emotionalism. These were called the Shakers. The roots of   
   the group extend back to both Quakers and the Cevennes, the early leaders   
   having been Quakers who accepted the teaching of the Cevennes when they   
   emigrated to England. Their conduct of worship was much like Pentecostlism in   
   nature:   
      
   Some who attended confessed their sins aloud, crying for mercy; some went   
   into a trance-like state in which they saw visions and received prophecies of   
   Christ’s imminent second coming. Others shouted and danced for joy because   
   they believed that the day was at hand for wars to cease and God’s kingdom   
   on earth to begin.”(17)   
      
   Along with other spiritual gifts, speaking in tongues was prominent among the   
   Shakers.   
      
   Of all the groups mentioned during the Reformation, none has received as much   
   notice as the Irvingites, a sect which developed in Great Britian about 1825.   
   Edward Irving, a popular Presberterian minister in London played an important   
   role in the movement. When several demonstrations of religious enthusiasm   
   occurred in his services, he encouraged them, believing they were of divine   
   origin.   
      
   “The Gift of Tongues” was soon to follow and became a part of his   
   services. A strong faction formed against Irving and his followers and   
   ultimately they were turned away from the Presbertarian Church, The result   
   was the formation of the Catholic Apostolic Church, often called   
   “Irvingites” because of the leadership of Edward Irving. This body wrote   
   a “tongues” tenet in its theology.”   
      
   Coming over to America, we find another religious sect called the Church of   
   Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church,   
   founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. The seventh article of faith of the   
   Latter-Day Saints states that they “believe” in the gift of tongues,   
   prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.”   
   Herber Grant, the Seventh President of the Church, commented on this article   
   of faith:   
      
   Now, we have had many men who have had the gift of tongues, out in the world,   
   preach this gospel in a language of which they had no knowledge….   
      
   Unless the gift of tongues and the interpretation thereof are enjoyed by the   
   Saints in our day, then we are lacking one of the evidences of the true   
   faith.(19)   
      
   Back in England, the report of tongues began to appear in the wake of the   
   preaching campaigns of Dwight L. Moody. Dr. R. Boyd, who was a very close   
   friend of the famous evangelist writes concerning one instance:   
      
   When I got to the rooms of the Young Men’s Christian Association in   
   Victoria Hall, London, I found the meeting on fire: The young men were   
   speaking in tongues, prophesying. What on earth did it mean? Only that Moody   
   had been addressing them that afternoon:”(20)   
      
   As the nineteenth century come to a close, space limits me from listing all   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)