What this distinction was it is now impossible accurately to determine. As I have already observed, it probably had reference to a higher and lower class of miracles; those which were in the proper sense evidential; and those which might in various degrees have resembled the act mentioned by St. James, the anointing a sick man with oil in the name of the Lord, the offering fervent prayer for his recovery, and the gradual cure of his complaint. Such would belong to a lower class of miracles to which I have elsewhere alluded, as rather fitted to procure a favourable attention to the missionary than for evidential purposes. Be the distinction what it may, and even supposing that St. Paul and the Corinthians were under a delusion as to their supernatural character, it is plain that some real difference, which was clearly distinguishable, must have existed in the outward manifestations. This is a fact of very considerable importance, as it proves that both the Apostle and the Corinthians were in a state of mind in which they were capable of exercising a clear discrimination between these gifts, which is the last thing of which visionary and credulous enthusiasts ever think. 6. These gifts were likewise clearly separate in respect to the subject‐ matter on which they operated. The Apostle and the Corinthians supposed that they communicated a supernatural illumination of some kind; but the illumination conferred by one might leave the possessor completely in the dark with respect to the special subject‐matter of the other. This is definitely affirmed with respect to the gift of tongues, and interpretation. A person might possess the former and yet be altogether destitute of the latter. There can be no doubt that the same analogy ran through them all. This is affirmed when St. Paul asserts that all these gifts were the work of one and the same Spirit _dividing to every man severally as he will_ (1 Cor. xii), and is implied by the comparison which he institutes between them and the members of the human body and their respective functions. Thus: the power of seeing furnishes no information in matters of sound; nor the latter on the perceptions we derive through the sense of smell. Equally functional were these gifts, each being confined to its own proper subject‐matter. If the idea was that the possessor had an inspiration, as far as respects the subject‐matter of his gift, it conferred on him no supernatural knowledge on matters outside its special function. Thus a man who had the gift of tongues might remain perfectly ignorant of the interpretation of them, if he had not the latter gift. One who possessed the power of discerning of spirits might have been destitute of the power of working miracles. One who had the gift of prophecy might have had no illumination with respect to that special knowledge which was conferred by the gift of wisdom. The inspiration which was supposed to be conferred by them, conferred no general