To another discerning of spirits. It appears, especially from the epistles of the apostle John, that pretenders to inspi- ration were numerous in the apostolic age. He therefore exhorts his readers, " to try the spirits, whether they be of God ; for many false prophets are gone out into the world," 1 John 4, 1. It was therefore of importance to have a class of men with the gift of discernment, who could determine whether a man was really inspired, or spoke only from the im- pulse of his own mind, or from the dictation of some evil spirit. In 14, 29, reference is made to the exercise of this gift. Com- pare also 1 Thess. 5, 20. 21.
To another divers hiyids of tongues. That is, the ability to speak in languages previously unknown to the speakers. The nature of this gift is determined by the account given in Acts 2, 4-11, where it is said, the apostles spoke "T\dth otiier tongues as the Sjnrit gave them utterance ; " and people of all the neighbouring nations asked with astonishment, " Are not aU these that speak Galileans ? And how hear we every man in our o^^ti tongue wherein we were born ? " It is im- possible to deny that the miracle recorded in Acts consisted in enabling the apostles to speak in languages which they had never learnt. Unless, therefore, it be assumed that the gift of which Paul here speaks was something of an entirely differ- ent nature, its character is put beyond dispute. The identity of the two, however, is proved from the sameness of the terms by which they are described. In Mark 16, 17, it was prom- ised that the disciples should speak " with new tongues." In Acts 2, 4, it is said they spoke " with other 'tongues." In Acts 10, 46, and 19, 6, it is said of those on whom the Holy Ghost came, that " they spake with tongues." It can hardly be doubted that all these forms of expression are to be under- stood in the same sense ; that to speak " with tongues " in Acts 10, 46, means the same thing as speaking "with other tongues," in Acts 2, 4, and that this again means the same as speaking "with new tongues," as promised in Mark 16, 17. If the meaning of the j^hrase is thus historically and philolo- gically determined for Acts and Mark, it must also be deter- mined for the Epistle to the Corinthians. If tongues means languages in the former, it must have the same meaning in the latter. We have thus two arguments in favour of the old in- terpretation of this passage. First, that the facts narrated in Acts necessitate the interpretation of the phrase " to speak with other tongues " to mean to speak with foreign languages.