This brings us to the consideration of the opinion that the tongues were new languages in the sense of being ecstatic utterances, inspired and dictated by the Holy Spirit, and of a kind above what the ordinary faculties of the individual could reach.
We may pass by the opinion of Rossteuscher and Thiersch, that these tongues were angel tongues, and that the gift consisted in the privilege of communing with God as the angels do ; for this is. a mere conjecture without any foundation in the statements of the apostle ; the allusion in xiii. L to the tongues of angels' being merely a rheto rical device to heighten the contrast the apostle is instituting. Schulz restricts the tongues to ecstatic utterances of praise to God ; but this is too narrow a view, as is evident from Cor. xiv. 13-17. Ne ander thus describes the state of the speaker with tongues : The soul was immersed in devotion and adoration. Hence prayer, singing God's praise, testifying of the great doings of God, were suited to this state. Such an one prayed in the Spirit ; the higher spiritual and emotional life pre dominated in him, but a development to the under standing was wanting. The consequence was that since out of his peculiar feelings and views he formed a peculiar language for himself, he wanted the faculty of so expressing himself as to be understood by the triass' (zip. Zeit. i. 179). Olshausen adopts substantially the same view, only he differs from Neander in supposing that the speaking of foreign languages was includedin the speaking with tongues. Meyer understands by the 7Niiiacracs XaT.ci:p such devotional utterances in petition, praise, and thanks giving, as were so ecstatic that the action of the person's own understanding was suspended, whilst the tong-ue, ceasing to be the organ of the individual reflection, acted independently of this, as it was moved by the Holy Ghost.' Hence he thinks the term 7Ne3o-cea came to be applied to this gift, the tongne acting as it were independently of the understanding, and for itself. Hence also lie ac counts for the use of the plural 7T.c.ao-o-air AccXEly, and the -yin./ -yXco-cre3p, as in such a case there would doubtless be varieties of utterances, arising from differences of degree, direction, and impulse, in the ecstasy. With this view in the main the
majority appear to concur, and it appears to us to meet all the requirements of the case ; only that with Olshausen we would include the speaking of foreign tongues as among the occasional manifesta tions of this gift. Its essence, however, lay in its being an ecstatic power of speech, the result of the man's being lifted out of himself and made to give utterance in broken, fragmentary, excited out bursts of thoughts and feelings, especially of rap turous devotion, beyond the ordinary range of humanity. Possibly there may be an allusion to such ecstatic devotions in the crrepary,uois ciNaXij.ro‘s of Rom. viii. 26.
viii. ipmvela 7Xwo-o-(1) v. As the ^yXviao-cc tran scended the vo0s, it could be made to convey edi fication to the hearers only as it was explained ; and for this purpose the Holy Spirit gave some persons the faculty of comprehending it, and thereby of giving its meaning to others. This gift sometimes was bestowed on the same person who had the gift of tongues.
8. Such were the gifts of the Spirit enjoyed by the primitive church. They were different and vari ously distributed according to the sovereign will of the giver. But amid all this diversity the church remained one—the indivisible body of Christ per vaded and influenced by the one Spirit of all grace. Hence all these gifts were to be subordinated to the end of edifying the church ; and more than all of them charity was to be sought (i Cor. xii. -31).
9. Literature. —The commentaries on Cor. of Meyer, Olshausen, Billroth, Osiander, and Kling ; De Wette's Excursus on Acts ii. ; Neander, Apostol. Zeitalt. ; Henderson, Lectures on Inspiration ; Bleck in the Studien u. Eritiken for 1829 and 183o ; Wieseler in do. for 1838 ; Schulz in do. for 1839 ; Thiersch, Kirehe Apost. Zeit. ; Rossteu scher, Gabe a'. Sprachen Ap. Zeit. 1850.— W. L. A.
STACHYS (2:7-dxus), an unknown person, from his name apparently a Greek, a disciple at Rome and a friend of Paul (Rom. xvi. 9).