The point presented in these verses appears to be that the Church is not really edified, save as the teachings presented to it appeal to the understanding. "Everything for use, and everything in its place, is a rule, the apostle is saying, that holds in spiritual gifts and exercises, as in everything else. If you speak with tongues, let it not be as only making strange noises, but let some one interpret, that the tongues may edify, and not be sounds without a meaning. It will not do for Christians to be more unmeaning and idle in spiritual gifts than even things without life themselves, the pipes, and harps, and trumpets, and drums of music; for these, when they give a sound, give it with distinctions that have a meaning and a power, else they are nought to us. Are voices and tongues to be less intelligent and significant than tubes of unconscious horn or metal?" (H. Bushnell, D.D.). Inquire:

1. How far it is true that all influences bearing upon the edification of the Church must appeal to the understanding. So far as edification includes right views of truth and right feelings about truth, the fitting acceptance of a Divine revelation, and the worthy expression of the principles declared in that revelation, the appeal must be to the mind.

2. Under what limitations must this statement be set. John Howe ('Works,' vol. 2 p. 75) says, "Nor do I believe it can ever be proved that God never doth immediately testify his own special love to holy souls, without the intervention of some part of his eternal Word, made use of as a present instrument to that purpose, or that he always doth it in a way of methodical reasoning therefrom." God usually works through the understanding, but he may use influences which bear at once upon heart and emotion. It must be observed, however, that such influences are but of temporary benefit, if they are not duly supported by intellectual considerations and mentally established principles.

3. Argue from these points the value and importance of an adequately educated and fully cultured ministry; showing, and efficiently illustrating, the relations of such an instructive ministry to

(1) family piety,

(2) liberal apprehensions of revealed truth,

(3) social intercourse of Christian people, and

(4) sober Christian activities. - R.T.

1. It does not follow that because the voice has no meaning for you that therefore it has no meaning for others. I heard some splendid music the other clay, and a friend exclaimed, "What tenderness, what pathos is in it." John Stuart Mill said that the first meaning of Wordsworth's poetry was a new birth to him; he felt himself a better man. Maurice often talked in an unknown tongue once; people understand him now. You may read a chapter of Christian experience and it may be in an unknown tongue to you.

2. But the difficulty will be to reduce what you have seen and heard into intelligible speech that will edify others. A young person is asked to sing, and she dashes at once into a French or German song. What affectation it is when there are troops of English songs with the sweet pathos of English traditions in them. There are artists a great deal more silly. Their chief pride is that they don't edify. Many words might be spoken in praise of the noble address from the chair of the British Association; but I give the highest praise when I say you can understand it. The best part of your creed is what you can put into a little child's mouth. If you want to know what the essence of the gospel is, take a little boy of eight between your knees and tell him the gospel, and what you can make him understand is its pith and essence.

3. There are many voices in the world, and our business is to try to discover their significance. There are voices which are transitory, which speak to one generation and then cease. They startle one, and then are heard no more, like the rousing proclamation of some half-forgotten truth or a wail of consternation at the spiritual condition of England. But some voices speak on for age and age, and uninterruptedly.

I. THE VOICE OF THE MATERIAL CREATION. For its scientific or philosophical signification. You must listen to the scientific report of the year. What is its spiritual signification? What is there to be converted into fuel that can feed our faith and enlarge our hope? The material world is the revelation of the Divine intellect and heart. What do we find in this material creation that sends a message to our spiritual nature which may be converted into fuel for our faith? I think it is this: You can always calculate upon God. God has always known His own mind. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Think of the value of that in your religious life. The first instinct of your religious life is to have unchanging things. We have said hard things about Nature. We have called her blind and pitiless. There can be not the slightest divergence from her path. Every heart in this creation may break, but the earth will still go on. But there is another side to that. You can calculate always upon God, He will never disappoint you. All of our life would break out into panic if there were any disorganisation of the laws of nature of which we complain sometimes. The farmer knows that the seasons will come round, and the mariner goes out to sea without fear. If you care to meet God this morning, there can be no doubt as to where to meet Him. There is a certainty with regard to God and our souls which we cannot have with regard to anything else. Take any promise in His Word. " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He has never moved away from that. If you put your life and the lives of your children in God's path every morning, you may be perfectly sure that He will pass that way. The Church oftentime feels that the paralysis is creeping over her and that she can do nothing. You are not content with things as they are. You want a re-vi-val, a re-consecration, a re-awakening, a fresh joy in the gospel of Christ, and a fresh equipment for service. We can have it without any uncertainty; we have as a Church only to place ourselves in God's way. We have only to get out of the things He hates, to redouble our energies in the Sunday school, and among the erring. I have seen, when the heavens said there was a great shower coming, the housewife put out every vessel to catch the rain. You must range every faculty you possess at God's disposal. Be ready! God will not disappoint you. If the channels are doubled the rain is sure to come.

II. THE VOICES IN YOUR OWN SOULS. These are of two kinds. There are the imperative voices. Then there are the pathetic voices. George Eliot said, "See if the sigh does not discover Him who touched the heart into a sigh." What a chapter it would be if every one in this congregation were this morning to write out one of his sorest needs. We need a living God, we need the grasp of His hand, we need heaven! We want to be forgiven; we want home. We have loved and lost. And oh, the unspeakable blessedness of the voice of our need in prayer. I have cried, "Father, I am sad, I am lonely." And a voice has come into my soul, saying, "Fear not; I am with thee." You may pile the scepticism of the world then, but it takes nothing of this from me. And this is the significance of our need. I have read a very wonderful book, written by a man who sums up the arguments in this way: there is as much to be said for the existence of God as there is to be said against it, and vice versa. If this were so it is enough for me. If the arguments for or against the existence of God were so equally balanced, my necessities and needs would weigh the balance down.

(Morlais Jones.)

I. LANGUAGE IS DESIGNED AS THE VEHICLE OF THOUGHT.

1. Many languages.

2. All significant.

II. LANGUAGE CEASES TO BE THE MEDIUM OF THOUGHT WHEN NOT UNDERSTOOD. There is —

1. No instruction.

2. No sympathy of mind.

3. No edification.

III. PLAINNESS SHOULD THEREFORE BE STUDIED —

1. As the most excellent of gifts.

2. For the benefit of the Church. With much prayer.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

Consider —

1. Language as the vehicle of thought.

2. Its extraordinary variety.

3. The cause.

4. Its effect upon the condition of mankind — social and moral.

5. Its gradual alleviation.

6. Its final removal.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

There is no power of love so hard to get and keep, writes Elihu Burritt, as a kind voice. A kind hand is dead and dumb. It may be rough in flesh and blood, yet do the work of a soft heart, and do it with a soft touch. But there is no one thing which love so much needs as a sweet voice, to tell what it means and feels; and it is hard to get and keep in the right tone. One must start in youth, and be on the watch night and day, at work and at play, to get and keep a voice which shall speak at all times the thoughts of a kind heart. It is often in youth that one gets a voice or tone which is sharp, and it sticks to him through life, and it stirs up ill-will, and falls like a drop of gall upon the sweet joys of home. Watch the voice day by day as a pearl of great price, for it will be worth more to you in the days to come than the best pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice is to the heart what light is to the eye. It is a light which sings as well as shines.

Corinthians, PaulCorinthBarbarian, Clear, Foreign, Foreigner, Grasp, However, Language, Meaning, Merely, Particular, Power, Saying, Seem, Sense, Someone, Speaker, Speaketh, Speaking, Speaks, Strange, Talking, Tongue, Voice1. Prophecy is commended,
2. and preferred before speaking in tongues,
6. by a comparison drawn from musical instruments.
12. Both must be referred to edification,
22. as to their true and proper end.
26. The true use of each is taught,
27. and the abuse rebuked.
34. Women in the churches.

1 Corinthians 14:1-20

     5775   abuse

1 Corinthians 14:1-33

     1444   revelation, NT
     5110   Paul, teaching of

1 Corinthians 14:2-23

     5193   tongue

1 Corinthians 14:10-11

     5374   languages

1 Corinthians 14:11-12

     5191   thought

1 Corinthians xiv, 20
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. It would be going a great deal too far to say, that they who fulfilled the latter part of this command, were sure also to fulfil the former; that they who were men in understanding, were, therefore, likely to be children in malice. But the converse holds good, with remarkable certainty, that they who are children in understanding, are proportionally apt to be men in malice: that is, in proportion …
Thomas Arnold—The Christian Life

Gunsaulus -- the Bible Vs. Infidelity
Frank Wakely Gunsaulus was born at Chesterville, Ohio, in 1856. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1875. For some years he was pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago, and since 1899 pastor of Central Church, Chicago. He is also president of the Armour Institute of Technology. He is a fascinating speaker, having a clear, resonant voice, and a dignified presence. His mind is a storehouse of the best literature, and his English style is noteworthy for its purity and richness. He is the author …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10

Here is the Sum of My Examination Before Justice Keelin, Justice Chester, Justice Blundale, Justice Beecher, Justice Snagg, Etc.
After I had lain in prison above seven weeks, the quarter-sessions were to be kept in Bedford, for the county thereof, unto which I was to be brought; and when my jailor had set me before those justices, there was a bill of indictment preferred against me. The extent thereof was as followeth: That John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, being a person of such and such conditions, he hath (since such a time) devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service, …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

The Substance of Some Discourse had Between the Clerk of the Peace and Myself; when He came to Admonish Me, According to the Tenor of that Law, by which I was in Prison.
When I had lain in prison other twelve weeks, and now not knowing what they intended to do with me, upon the third of April 1661, comes Mr Cobb unto me (as he told me), being sent by the justices to admonish me; and demand of me submittance to the church of England, etc. The extent of our discourse was as followeth. Cobb. When he was come into the house he sent for me out of my chamber; who, when I was come unto him, he said, Neighbour Bunyan, how do you do? Bun. I thank you, Sir, said I, very …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Things to be Meditated on as Thou Goest to the Church.
1. That thou art going to the court of the Lord, and to speak with the great God by prayer; and to hear his majesty speak unto thee by his word; and to receive his blessing on thy soul, and thy honest labour, in the six days past. 2. Say with thyself by the way--"As the hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God: When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Miracle of Tongues.
"If any man speak in an (unknown) tongue, . . . let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him speak to himself, and to God."-- 1 Cor. xiv. 27, 28. The third sign following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit consisted in extraordinary sounds that proceeded from the lips of the apostles--sounds foreign to the Aramaic tongue, never before heard from their lips. These sounds affected the multitude in different ways: some called them babblings of inebriated men; others heard in them the great …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Second Wall.
The second wall is even more tottering and weak: that they alone pretend to be considered masters of the Scriptures; although they learn nothing of them all their life, they assume authority, and juggle before us with impudent words, saying that the Pope cannot err in matters of faith, whether he be evil or good; albeit they cannot prove it by a single letter. That is why the canon law contains so many heretical and unchristian, nay, unnatural laws; but of these we need not speak now. For whereas …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

Luther's First Preface.
To the "Geystliche Gsangbuechlin, Erstlich zu Wittenberg, und volgend durch Peter schoeffern getruckt, im jar m. d. xxv. Autore Ioanne Walthero." That it is good, and pleasing to God, for us to sing spiritual songs is, I think, a truth whereof no Christian can be ignorant; since not only the example of the prophets and kings of the Old Testament (who praised God with singing and music, poesy and all kind of stringed instruments) but also the like practice of all Christendom from the beginning, …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—The Hymns of Martin Luther

Women are not Permitted to Speak at the Time of the Divine Liturgy...
Women are not permitted to speak at the time of the Divine Liturgy; but, according to the word of Paul the Apostle, "let them be silent. For it is not permitted to them to speak, but to be in subjection, as the law also saith. But if they wish to learn anything let them ask their own husbands at home." Notes. Ancient Epitome of Canon LXX. Women are not permitted to speak in church. "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak," is the passage referred …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Eighteenth Day for Peace
WHAT TO PRAY.--For Peace "I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplication be made for kings and all that are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour."--1 TIM. ii"He maketh wars to cease to the end of the earth."--PS. xlvi. 9. What a terrible sight!--the military armaments in which the nations find their pride. What a terrible thought!--the evil passions that may at any moment bring …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms.
1. Beware of singing divine psalms for an ordinary recreation, as do men of impure spirits, who sing holy psalms intermingled with profane ballads: They are God's word: take them not in thy mouth in vain. 2. Remember to sing David's psalms with David's spirit (Matt. xxii. 43.) 3. Practise St. Paul's rule--"I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the understanding also." (1 Cor. xiv. 15.) 4. As you sing uncover your heads (1 Cor. xi. 4), and behave yourselves in comely reverence as in the …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

From his Entrance on the Ministry in 1815, to his Commission to Reside in Germany in 1820
1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed; and the extracts which follow describe his first offerings in the ministry in a simple and affecting manner. 1 mo. 5.--The subject of the prophet's going down to the potter's house opened so clearly on my mind in meeting this morning that I thought I could almost have publicly …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

The Preacher as a Christian.
In the last lecture I spoke of St. Paul as a Man, showing how remarkable were his endowments and acquirements, and how these told in his apostolic career. But it was not through these that he was what he was. Great as were the gifts bestowed on him by nature and cultivated by education, they were utterly inadequate to produce a character and a career like his. It was what Christianity added to these that made him St. Paul. It is right enough that we should now recognise the importance of his natural …
James Stalker—The Preacher and His Models

Fifteenth Day. The Holy Spirit.
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet: because Jesus was not yet glorified.'--John vii. 39. 'The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.'--John xiv. 26. 'God chose you to salvation in sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.'--2 Thess. ii. 13. (See 1 Pet. i. 2.) It has sometimes been said, that while the Holiness of God stands out more prominently …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral.
1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest--First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the practice of this commandment the keeping of all the other consists; which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Spiritual Gifts.
"But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way show I unto you." --1 Cor. xii. 31 (R.V.). The charismata or spiritual gifts are the divinely ordained means and powers whereby the King enables His Church to perform its task on the earth. The Church has a calling in the world. It is being violently attacked not only by the powers of this world, but much more by the invisible powers of Satan. No rest is allowed. Denying that Christ has conquered, Satan believes that the time …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Meditations to Stir us up to Morning Prayer.
1. If, when thou art about to pray, Satan shall suggest that thy prayers are too long, and that therefore it were better either to omit prayers, or else to cut them shorter, meditate that prayer is thy spiritual sacrifice, wherewith God is well pleased (Heb. xiii. 15, 16;) and therefore it is so displeasing to the devil, and so irksome to the flesh. Bend therefore thy affections (will they, nill they) to so holy an exercise; assuring thyself, that it doth by so much the more please God, by how much …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

That the Unskilful Venture not to Approach an Office of Authority.
No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Holy Spirit Guiding the Believer into a Life as a Son.
The Apostle Paul writes in Rom. viii. 14, R. V., "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." In this passage we see the Holy Spirit taking the conduct of the believer's life. A true Christian life is a personally conducted life, conducted at every turn by a Divine Person. It is the believer's privilege to be absolutely set free from all care and worry and anxiety as to the decisions which we must make at any turn of life. The Holy Spirit undertakes all that responsibility …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Peace
Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I Pet 1:1. Having spoken of the first fruit of sanctification, assurance, I proceed to the second, viz., Peace, Peace be multiplied:' What are the several species or kinds of Peace? Peace, in Scripture, is compared to a river which parts itself into two silver streams. Isa 66:12. I. There is an external peace, and that is, (1.) (Economical, or peace in a family. (2.) Political, or peace in the state. Peace is the nurse of plenty. He maketh peace in thy borders, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Necessity of Regeneration, Argued from the Immutable Constitution of God.
John III. 3. John III. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. WHILE the ministers of Christ are discoursing of such a subject, as I have before me in the course of these Lectures, and particularly in this branch of them which I am now entering upon, we may surely, with the utmost reason, address our hearers in those words of Moses to Israel, in the conclusion of his dying discourse: Set your hearts unto all …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Christian Prayer
Scripture references: Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13; John 17; Matthew 26:41; Mark 11:24,25; Luke 6:12,28; 9:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:17,25; 1 Corinthians 14:13,15; Psalm 19:14; 50:15, Matthew 7:7; 1 Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 3:20,21; John 16:23; 14:14; James 5:16. THE PROVINCE OF PRAYER Definition.--Prayer is the communion of man with God. It is not first of all the means of getting something from God, but the realization of Him in the soul. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

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