APRIL 1, 1907 Friday afternoons and Saturdays. Am doing very nicely and am making expenses, and so feel satisfied to continue. Again thanking you for so kindly remembering me, I am, with much Christian love, Yours in the harvest work, ALBERTA CrosBY,—Colporteur. Dear Brethren:— You will find enclosed my first report. It covers, as you see, somewhat more than half a month, but I hope you will accept it as it is and make allowances for mistakes or omissions, remembering that it is new to me. It shall be ZION’S WATCH TOWER (111-116) my effort to make each report more satisfactory than the last. Your words of instruction and encouragement have, I assure you, been greatly appreciated. It seemed to me that I esteemed the Colporteur work a great blessing and _privilege, but since reading the report in the January 1 TowEE I feel much ashamed and pray the heavenly Father for a like earnest zeal as that shown by the Colporteurs in Jamaica and Costa Rica. May the heavenly Father’s blessing attend all your labor of love in the new year. Your Sister in the Anointed One, ELLEN ZELLER,—Colporteur. . XXVIII ALLEGHENY, PA., APRIL 15, 1907 No. 8 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER AKING WITH TONGUES AS A MODERN RELIGIOUS MANIA 3peaking with tongues has been a feature of recent revival meetings held in various cities of Ohio. As reported in the secular and religious press these manifestations have taken the form of articulate but unintelligible utterances for the most part. In one instance, however, a young woman is reported to have ‘‘babbled for nearly an hour in what is said to be the Greek language,’’ though in her normal condition she disclaimed all knowledge of the ancient tongue. These involuntary utterances appear to be a part of the sign manual of the ‘‘ Apostolic Faith Movement,’’ which we are informed by a writer in The Wesleyan Methodist (Syracuse), ‘‘originated in the Pentecostal experiences of Evangelist Charles F. Parham and colaborers in Topeka, Kans., in A. D. 1900, January 1.’’? At that time a Miss Agnes Ozman, a member of the Bible school previously founded by Mr. Parham, ‘‘received the gift of the holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.’’ On January 3 following ‘‘twelve students were filled with the holy Spirit, and spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, while some in the room were said to have been seen cloven tongues of fire as they appeared on the day of Pentecost.’’ In these events is said to reside the origin of a more or less wide-spread movement frequently referred to as the ‘‘present Pentecost.’’ The adherents of this movement make the claim that ‘‘speaking with tongues’? ig ‘‘the only Bible evidence of the baptism of the holy Spirit.’’ An examination of the manifestations was made by 8. A. Manwell and reported by him in The Wesleyan Methodist (Febtuary 20). He writes as follows: ‘‘Those with whom the writer has talked who claim this gift, say that the spirit takes possession of their vocal organs and uses them ag he wills, while their minds are at rest. They say they are conscious that their vocal organs are being used, but do not know how, nor do they know what they are saying. They have no power to stop speaking when once the spirit possesses them. In the meeting I attended, two women were thus wrought upon. One remained in that condition four or five minutes; the other but a few seconds. The first indication I had of anything out of the ordinary was a low muttering sound without articulation. This muttering lasted but a few seconds, then the voice raised to a more natural tone and volume and it would be hard to imagine how a more rapid succession of sounds could come from the mouth of a human being. For the most part, these sounds appeared to be articulate, but if she spoke a language no one knew it. She herself knew not the meaning of any sound she made. Jn the same series of meetings on another occasion, another lady was similarly possessed, and when it was time to go home her tongue was yet speaking, and instead of taking a street car, as she had formerly done, she walked, not desiring to enter a car with her vocal organs beyond her control. If I remember correctly, her tongue did not cease until she had nearly or quite reached her home. Some are said to have spoken in as many as twelve different languages, but in all this I had no evidence that what they uttered were languages of earth or heaven. That these people were sincere in their belief that the spirit of God was moving them, I have no doubt. They believed they were talking a foreign language.’’ In trying to ‘‘identify’’ this movement Mr. Manwell quotes Isaiah respecting ‘‘the spirits that peep and mutter,’? with this addition: ‘‘To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it ig because there is no light in them.’’ Certain other historic phases of aberrant religious manifestation seem, according to Mr. Manwell, to elassify with the present outbreak. Thus: ‘*History records that during the early part of the last century, the affliction known as the jerks raged with violence. Young men and women were seized with it and fell in convulsions. Wicked men were seized, swearing at every jerk. Some not affected with the regular jerks ran through the woods till exhausted; others crawled on the ground as a religious exercise; while some jumped and some barked for the same reason, and a few spoke in ‘unknown tongues,’ from which facts arose those obscure classes of sectaries derisively known as Jumpers, Barkers and Mutterers. . . . ‘It is also a matter of history that in the early days of the Mormon Church, whole days of ‘speaking meetings’ were devoted to it. We find that the claims made by the Mormons are the same now being made by the ‘Apostolic Faith Movement.’ Mr. Parham says, ‘We truly are in the days of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.’ In an announcement of the ‘origin, purpose and methods of the movement,’ we find the following: ‘Handkerchiefs blest in behalf of the distant sick.’ We do not remember that many people since the days of Paul have dared to go to this extreme. We are forcibly reminded that a few years since a man by the name of Schlatter practised sorceries, blest handkerchiefs, and otherwise played with the credulity of the people, so much so that special railroad trains were run to carry the hundreds of sick to him for healing. That Paul had extraordinary power of this kind we do not doubt, but what promise or intimation have we that such power would be continued? If this one feature of the movement were all, it would be enough to brand it as a counterfeit. ‘“*In these days the devil is working in every possible way to destroy the work of Christ. ‘He comes as an angel of light, deceiving if possible the very elect.’ He counterfeits everything that is good. Many honest souls are being deceived and the work of God is hindered. In the meeting where I made my observations not a sinner was converted to God, and I am eredibly informed that the manifestation of the so-called ‘tongues’ brought no conviction to sinners, but to the contrary, the number thrown into doubt and greater unbelief was greater than those who professed to have the ‘tongues.’ ’’—Literary Digest. LIKENS PROTESTANTISM TO A CERBERUS ‘*Protestantism is a modern kind of Cerberus with 125 heads, all barking discordantly,’’ says the Rev. Charles Edward Stowe, son of the late Harriet Beecher Stowe, and himself a prominent Protestant divine, being pastor of the Central Square Congregational Church at Bridgewater. He is of the opinion that in many respects life was brighter in the so-called ‘‘dark ages’’ than it is today. This condition is due, he says, in part to the many sub-divisions of sects and creeds in religion. He exceedingly regrets the condition of Protestantism in America and England today, there being, according to him, 125 different sects in these countries. ‘‘There is great unrest and hunger among the Protestants of today that refuses to be allayed by critics or aesthetics,’’ he says:— ‘‘There were but few, very few colonists in numbers, and their material wealth was entirely inconsequential; how can we account for the stupendous influence which this tiny commonwealth exerted and still exerts on the history of mankind? ‘There is one, and only one, possible answer to this question. It was their devotion to the invisible, the eternal, the moral order of the universe, the glory of God! They endured, and yet endure, as seeing him who is invisible. All the history of mankind for them centered about his cradle and his cross, and for them there were none of those unusual benefits and privileges which we enjoy in this enlightened age, of being illuminated by the dark wisdom of the blind [3975]
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