Article  XXIV

ON SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION IN SUCH A TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTANDETH^[1]

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.

IF there is one corruption confirmed by the Roman Church at the Council of Trent which is against reason, the teaching of the New Testament and the practice of the Primitive Church, it is the use in worship of a language not understood by the people.  A common tongue is the great medium of realizing the advantages of public worship, the concerted approach to God of His people in intelligible service of praise and prayer, and the spiritual comfort and strength which comes from hearing together the history of our redemption and its meaning expounded.  Agreement in our petitions, which Jesus teaches is so important, is obtained by voicing them together in the meetings of His followers: ‘If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shalt ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.’^[2]  Speaking with tongues (glossolalia) was a familiar form of the Spirit’s manifestation in the early Church, and he who had this gift might indeed speak to God and edify himself; but unless his utterances were interpreted in language known to all, they contributed nothing to the benefit of Christian assemblies; spiritual support and enlightenment could only come from intelligent worship.  St. Paul did not rate the use of tongues highly: ‘Greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the Church may receive edifying’.^[3]  ‘I thank God’, the Apostle continues, ‘I speak with tongues more than you all: howbeit in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue’.^[4]