5. The Apostle also most carefully points out that a distinction of function existed between these various supernatural endowments. This is a very important consideration. Whether we view them as realities, or as delusions, it is plain that this distinction of function must have pointed to some corresponding facts well known in the Church, at the time when the Epistles were written. The possession of one of them by no means implied that of another, although the subject‐matter upon which they operated was closely akin. Thus the possession of the gift of tongues (whatever it may have been), did not imply the possession of the gift of interpretation. On the contrary, the rules which the Apostle gives for the regulation of those gifts, as well as his statements respecting them, prove that they were a set of distinct manifestations, and were possessed very often by different persons, and that the presence of the one power by no means implied that of the other. This must unquestionably point to the existence of a remarkable phenomenon of some kind. Even if it is supposed that St. Paul and those to whom he wrote were labouring under a delusion, it proves that the Apostle possessed a power of discrimination which is not exhibited by an ordinary enthusiast or fanatic. A distinction which St. Paul affirms to have existed between two of these gifts, viz. between the gifts of healing and of miracles, deserves special attention. That a real distinction existed between them is affirmed three times over in the same chapter. Both of these gifts, according to our present mode of viewing the subject, would be confounded under the designation of a power of working miracles. But it is clear from the Apostle’s statement, that he, and those to whom he wrote, saw an appreciable distinction between them. “To another,” says he, “are given the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles.” “But all these worketh that one and the self‐same Spirit, _dividing to every man severally as he will_.” (1 Cor. xii. 9‐11.) Again, in summing up their relative importance, he says: “thirdly teachers, after that miracles, _then gifts of healing_,” (ver. 28); and again, as qualifying individuals for particular offices: “Are all apostles? are all prophets? _are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing?_” (ver. 29, 30.) Now although we may deny that these phenomena were supernatural in their character, it is plain that there must have been something in existence in this Church corresponding to them, and of which they were the supposed manifestation. The Apostle and those to whom be wrote evidently understood one another.