infallibility—it was strictly functional and did not extend beyond the limits of the gift. All these points are of the highest importance in an historical point of view. Whether we think that St. Paul and the Corinthians were, or were not, under delusions about this matter, they clearly prove that there must have been phenomena of some kind which were supposed to be the results of the gifts in question; and that the persons who believed that they possessed them exercised a discriminating judgment respecting them. It is no less clear that they did believe that they actually possessed them. Some of them were of such a nature that it is difficult to comprehend how the possessor could be under delusion on the subject. Take for example the power of discerning spirits. Once the possessor had it not. Afterwards he must have believed that he possessed a supernatural insight into the character of others. It is difficult to comprehend how a man’s consciousness could be deceived on a point like this. He must have surely known whether within a definite period of time he had obtained an insight into character, which he did not possess before. Everywhere in the account given us of these gifts we seem to be dealing with facts. The distinctions laid down as existing between them, and the separateness of their functions are truly philosophical, supposing the gifts to have been real, and were the last things which were likely to have occurred to credulous enthusiasts. 7. These gifts admitted of being abused. The possession of them was not sufficient to confer any infallibility in the use of them. This fact is worthy of deep attention, not only as pointing to the reality of the manifestations but to the soundness of the Apostle’s judgment. If these gifts had been mere inventions of a credulous imagination they would have been represented as guarded from the possibility of abuse by the supernatural power in which they originated. Even at the present day it is a very common idea that the gift of inspiration cannot possibly be a functional one which is limited to a definite subject‐matter, but that it must confer a general infallibility. Very different were the views of St. Paul and of the Churches to which he wrote. The Apostle was of opinion that when they had been once conferred, they were subject to the control of the will, and capable of a good or bad use in the same manner as our ordinary faculties. His statement is clear that in this Church they were used in a manner little conducive to edification. In order to suppress this abuse he adopted some stringent rules. No person was to be allowed in the congregation to use the gift of tongues (a gift which he was so far from underrating that he thanked God that he possessed it more largely than any other member of the Church), unless there was some one present who had the gift of interpretation. The gift of prophecy held the second rank in point of importance. Yet from the eagerness of its possessors to