"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." — Acts 2:3.

The visible tongue of fire that sat upon each of the hundred and twenty in the upper room, was but the outward badge of an inward reality, for the next verse says that they all spoke "with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." The tongue is the most complete and powerful organ of expression with which the soul is armed. It is the chief organ through which the heart and mind reveal their contents and communicate themselves. Every form of thought, every mode of reason, every shape of passion, every emotion of pain or joy, all alike reveal themselves through the tongue. The tongue is related to the soul somewhat as Jesus is related to the Godhead. Jesus is called the Word of God. He is the mouthpiece of the infinite mind and will — the tongue from which the infinite heart speaks itself forth to all creatures. In like manner man's tongue is the logos of the soul, through which the soul reveals itself to others. It is the chief weapon of evil in the world, communicating sin, arousing sin in others, and setting " on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." It is the chief organ of good — preeminently the instrument of the gospel.

There have been two great epochs in the history of the human tongue; one of cursing and one of transfiguration. In Genesis, eleventh chapter and seventh verse, God said, " Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." That event and this one in the second chapter of Acts stand related to each other as the frigid and torrid zones of moral character: with the tower builders the Holy Spirit was utterly rejected; with the Pentecostal company the Spirit was cordially and fully received. In both instances we see miracles wrought on the tongue, but in both instances the reason for and the conditions of the miracle lay behind the tongue in the depths of the heart; and the same things practically occur to-day. When people's hearts utterly reject the Divine Spirit, it is still true that upon moral and religious questions such persons speak rashly, ignorantly, incoherently, contradictorily; all their talk on religion is but a babble of nonsense and a confusion of language. And it is still true that when the heart is purified and filled with the Spirit, the tongue will speak with wonderful accuracy and unity upon religious subjects, even though the person be untutored; out of a heart full of light and love there will come forth a speech that is not contradictory, but in perfect agreement with itself and with the Word of God. So that the two great miracles of Babel and Pentecost are still perpetuated. The reason why there are so many divergent teachings in religion, and contradictory theologies, is because they proceed from the darkness of indwelling sin. If the hearts of all religious teachers were perfectly sanctified from native depravity, and filled with the Holy Ghost, it would unify their tongues, so that, in the language of Paul, they would all speak the same things on matters of essential truth; the babbling theologies would be swept away, the scattered dialects of religious truth would come into agreement, and instead of each one speaking according to the tongue of old Adam, they would all speak with another tongue as the truth is in Christ Jesus.

This tongue of fire in all its essential power is designed to be the normal state of the Church during the Spirit's dispensation, and is essential to the vital purpose of true religion. Let us notice how this tongue of fire is related to God, to our fellow men, and to ourselves.

1. The tongue of fire is related to God as the chief instrument of glorifying the work of Jesus, and proclaiming His wondrous work in the soul. It is the office of the Christian tongue to be a witness for God; a simple, straightforward, unbiased witness to the work or works that God has wrought in the soul. This does not imply that its office is always to make a set speech or take the place of a teacher, or to attempt explaining the philosophy and processes of the work of grace, for in that case the tongue would be glorifying the mental powers of self more than the simple power of grace; nor is it in all cases the office of the tongue of fire to formally preach or expound Scripture. Not all of the hundred and twenty became teachers, for the Holy Ghost selected those who should teach; but all were witnesses of the marvelous facts that had transpired in their consciousness. It was only the work of God which they magnified on that occasion: there was no allusion to the mere works of man. There is nothing in creation that can so glorify God as the human tongue anointed of the Holy Ghost. The tongue of formalists, Pharisees, and backsliders, invariably glorify self in a disguised manner, and if their religious talk be accurately reported, you will find very little mention of the saving power of Jesus. But the tongue of fire reports the supernatural; it tells of conscious pardon, or regeneration, of conscious cleansing from indwelling sin, of the destruction of vicious appetites; it reports the incoming of perfect peace where all was storm and disorder; it reports the incoming of light and discernment utterly beyond the natural mind; it proclaims in one and the same breath the utter weakness of self and the imparted strength from God; it minifies self and magnifies grace; it glorifies not only the work of God, but the highest work, — that kind of work which other people fail to see or appreciate.

The highest and finest work which God is carrying on is in human hearts. God's work in nature is great and marvelous, and many are the poets and philosophers who have swept their harps in praise of the wonders of external creation. God's work in judgment is sublime and terrible, and the artist has joined with the prophet in defining these judgments. But higher than all the works of external nature, higher than all the works of judgment, is the work of salvation in the soul. The transforming of a sinner into a saint; melting down the rugged mountains of sin in the heart, and turning it into a garden of Eden, where the fruit of the Spirit blooms and grows, — this is a work that none can see or know so well as those who experience it; and this work is reported by the tongue of testimony. "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." "My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." "While I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue."

The tongue of fire glorifies the blood of Jesus, and praises God's work on the cross above all His works in nature or law. It is evident that God's saving work is His highest work; therefore the tongue of fire has a theme more honoring to God then otherwise all the tongues of men or angels could have.

2. The tongue of fire is related to our fellow men. It is the divinely ordained instrument of convincing them of the reality of God's work in the soul, and of their need of it. The most essential thing in saving men is to convince them to the heart that God can work in them salvation from sin, and show them their need of it; and this is the sphere of power that is given to the witnessing believer. The witnessing tongue is God's chief method of saving the world, and nothing can be a substitute for it. The work of teaching, arguing, and the persuasive appeals to reason, however needful, can never be a substitute for the witnessing tongue of fire. There is a place for reasoning and theological instruction, but that is keeping on the level with the natural mind, and using of your human armor, and no amount of it of itself will make men feel in their hearts the divine reality of saving grace. But a clear, truthful testimony to an inward work of God is a trumpet blast to the conscience of the hearer; it puts you on a divine vantage ground, and they have no weapon to parry that sword of the Spirit.

When we speak from the plane of our natural faculties, we are on a level with men, and they can resist with the same implements; but when we are conscious of a divine deliverance from guilt and sin, and we speak out of that supernatural experience, we are speaking from an elevated position, we are speaking in the Spirit, and such testimony is the Spirit's chosen weapon to pierce the heart of the unsaved and lead them to Christ. Nor can a silent life of perfect propriety and outward decorum form a substitute for the witnessing tongue of fire. The cant phrase so often heard, that we are to live holiness and say nothing about it, is a lie that Satan has palmed off on a backslidden Church, right in the face of hundreds of Scriptures to the contrary. A dumb Christian is a dead Christian. Were it possible to live a sort of angelic life without testimony, it would be robbing God of His due, and taking all the glory to self, for every one would credit you with making yourself angelic; and unless you report the miracle of grace wrought in your soul, how would the world know where you got your virtues from? Jesus said, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." The Pentecostal baptism was preeminently designed to make witnesses: "Ye shall receive power;. . . ye shall be witnesses unto me."

The word "martyr" means a witness; and since the world began God's people have been persecuted and slain, not for living holy, but for testimony. The reason why Satan hates testimony with such perfect hatred, and the reason he stirs up the ungodly world and cold, carnal professors to hate it so, is because it is the greatest agency for tearing down his kingdom and spreading the salvation of Jesus. Every innuendo, every slur, every objection to Christian testimony, to relating what God has done in the heart, is either directly or indirectly from the devil. Abel was slain while he talked with Cain in the field; that is, while he testified to salvation by faith. Christ was crucified, not for living holy, but because He testified He was the Son of God. St. John was banished to Patmos, not because he lived a saintly life, but "for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ."

In the early days of Christianity, and in the great revival under Wesley, and in the modern revival of sanctification, it has been and is testimony to personal experience which has been the most powerful factor in spreading the kingdom of God.

3. The tongue of fire sustains an intimate and essential relation with our own life and experience. In seeking the Lord, when the soul utters itself in vocal prayer it soon breaks the chains that bind it. The soul is so constituted that it needs to express itself in speech. Testifying to our experience wonderfully strengthens and girds the soul, by publicly committing us to the truth we have espoused. It is the means by which we cut the shore lines, and launch boldly upon a life of faith; it develops moral vertebrae, and enables us to take a firm stand, which is a wonderful factor in religion. Trying to live an experience which we are not willing to confess is the very essence of moral cowardice; it destroys the spinal column of the soul; it makes us timid, easily frightened, excessively conservative, and turns us into miserable jelly-fish sort of Christians, which is the very cause of the modern Church producing a mass of soft, vague sentimentalism, instead of the sturdy Christianity of the Pentecost. For our own self-preservation we need to run our flag to the masthead, take a bold stand, and by our testimony commit ourselves thoroughly to Scriptural holiness, with all its concomitants.

Again, by a clear, definite testimony we please God, and receive in return from Him wonderful effusions of His Spirit. The Holy Ghost is ever poured upon the brave and true witness. In multitudes of cases believers have stepped out by naked faith on the promise for cleansing, and while testifying to their faith, have been filled unutterably with the Spirit of God. Furthermore, it is true that testimony in some form or other constitutes the larger part of Christian life. The stale adage of "living it" without talking it, is an absolute contradiction. The greater part of every life is in the speech. How do we know anger or gentleness, benevolence or hatred, piety or wickedness, except through the tongue? Persons often say they were led to Christ by some pious mother or friend, not so much by what they talked as by what they lived; but such persons do not speak accurately. How could they have felt a mother's kindness or love except through the mother's words and tones of the voice? If Christians were dumb, how could their meek and patient tempers be distinguished from the tempers of the oxen or dumb brutes around us? So far as the mere living of holiness is concerned, apart from all intelligent expression in language, we might say that the cows in the pasture live as holy as any saints. To repudiate Christian testimony is to do away with the largest part of the soul's life, so far as the expression of that life is concerned.

Finally, Christian testimony is the natural ventilator of the heart. It prevents the fires of holy love from choking. The heart is so constituted that its affections are maintained and enlarged by being expressed. Just as a fire will die unless it has a draught of air passing through it, so the fire of grace in the heart will die unless ventilated in speech. The thoughts in the mind are never perfect until shaped in some form of expression. This great law is understood by poets, philosophers, and artists. What a calamity to the Christian world that the professed children of light are not as wise in their generation as the children of this world! How many thousands have lost the experience of heart purity by failing to give God the glory in definite testimony to His work? "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness [or holiness] and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

The heart and tongue are so intimately connected, that the faith of the one and the testimony of the other are like the two wings to a bird; deprived of either, the soul beats itself helplessly against the ground, unable to rise into those broad, bright regions which God has so amply provided for its freedom and flight. He who attempts to testify with his mouth what is not in the heart, will be but a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, and he who attempts to live in the heart what he refuses to confess with his mouth will soon have nothing to live.