Tongues

The “gift of tongues” is the divinelyimparted knowledge of a variety of languages. The apostles had this gift, and were able to speak the languages of all the peoples to whom they were sent. We read in Scripture (Acts 2:6) that when the apostles spoke to the people of many nations, “every man heard them speak in his own tongue.” This was rather that they spoke in the various languages than that, speaking their own language,they were understood by all. For their own language could not,without illusion, sound differently in different ears.

The gift of tongues is not so great a gift (that is, agratuitous grace) as that of prophecy. For prophetic knowledge comes by divine enlightenment. Now, it is more excellent to have knowledge than to have words to express knowledge. And prophecy is likely to be more powerful than the gift of tongues in its effect upon souls. The gift of tongues seems, sometimes, to have stirred up more astonishment than conviction.