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THE TALENTS OF THE SPIRIT
73

the Church nearly destroyed herself among intelligent people by her opposition to science in the interest of Moses. The twentieth century bids fair to be the age of psychical discovery; and yet many are anxious that the Church should once again throw herself in opposition to the new knowledge which is coming in—a science which shows promise already of working an even greater and better revolution in thought than that of Darwin. S. Paul's advice, and that of S. John, to test the spirits and to discriminate, would, I conclude, be best followed to-day by our becoming active members of the Society for Psychical Research.[1]

The next in the list is 'Kinds of Tongues' which is perhaps best called by the distinctive name of Glossolaly. This was a psychic manifestation, quite common and familiar among the ancients. It died out rapidly in the Early Church; but it has appeared since in movements of great spiritual vigour, such as that of the Friars in the thirteenth century, the Jansenists at one period, the early Quakers, the persecuted Protestants of the Cevennes, the converts of Wesley and Whitfield, and the Irvingites, among which last it was perhaps artificially stimulated by the study of this Epistle. S. Paul spoke

  1. Those who wish to give that serious study to psychical research which has hitherto been so little given in the Churches could not do better than begin by reading Professor Bergson's address to the Society.