New, because strange to the natural man, because acquired not by nature, but by grace. As the world of old was divided by the confusion of tongues, so by the renewing of our nature, and by the oneness of our speech, shall all be united into one people, having one heart and one seal. This new tongue must be given as the special gift of God to His children, for the tongue can no man tame of himself. This new tongue we have if-
(1) in the midst of adversity we refrain from murmuring, and are able to submit truly to the will of God, rendering Him thanks even in the midst of our sufferings;
(2) we can make full and unreserved confession of our sins to God, without seeking to excuse ourselves in His sight;
(3) we restrain ourselves from the censure of others, and use our tongue for the edification of our brethren. (W. Denton, M. A.)
Disappearance of miraculous powers accounted for
Probably God’s sliding scale-by which supernatural aid increases and decreases inversely according to our strength-may explain how, in the course of time, the supernatural aids of the Church have merged into the more ordinary aids of grace. (R. Glover.)
Christ’s presence in the Church continual
The cooperation of Christ was promised, not for the apostolic age alone, but for all time. The miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were withdrawn, and the third generation, at the latest, buried the last of “The Twelve;” but other men entered into their labours, and the office has been perpetuated by an unbroken lineage, so that those who minister in Christ’s Church today can feel that the voice which sent them forth was but the echo of that which spake on the Galilean hill to the first in the ministerial line. That Presence, which arrested the attention of an unbelieving age by startling manifestations, has been vouchsafed to the Church through all its chequered history in the power of an unseen but undiminished cooperation. In the Church at large it is borne witness to by the influence of Christianity upon the evil spirits of oppression and cruelty, of greed and profligate living. It has shown itself in a thousand ways in the alleviation of sickness and disease, and the tenderer care for the bereft of reason; while in a later age at least, the Pentecostal gift of tongues has been virtually repeated, by the translation of the gospel of glad tidings into well-nigh every spoken language. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
