St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-01-18

shoulder, and she stops at once.
whereas, If girl is praying in the
spirit l cannot stop her, no matter
no" Sharply I speak to her or shake
her."
The Wonderful Gift of Tongues.
My hearing is peculiar" continued
Ramabai, lin that I can understand
most clearly when there Is loud
noise "a well-known characteristic Of
the partially deaf and move among
the girls, listening to them. have
heard girls who know no English make
beautiful prayers in English. l have
heard others pray in Greek and He.
brew and Sanskrit and others in Ian
guages that none of us understands.
One Of the girls was praying in this
very room (the room of one Of the
English staff a few nights ago, and
although in her studies she has not
gone beyond the second book, she
prayed SO freely and clearly and beau
tifully in English that the other teach
ers, hearing, wondered who could be
praying, since they did not distinguish
the voice" YES" spoke up the occu-
pant of the room, land she prayed by
name for cousin Of mine whom !
had forgotten, and of whom I had
never once thought since coming to
India"
When asked why, In Ramabai's
opinion, tongues that served no useful
purpose being incomprehensible to
everybody should be given, whereas
the gift of tongues on the day of Pen
tecost was so that every person in
the story in his own speech, she re-
piled, Il, too, wondered about that.
But it has been shown to me that it
is to rebuke unbelief in the gift of
tongues, she herself has been given
the gift
All these wonders I have set down
impartially, as phenomena of great
interest to all who give thought to re-
ligious or psychic themes. Neither
Ramabai, nor the native teacher who
led the meeting which / described, is
an emotionalist, so far as | could per-
ceive. Both, in fact, are persons Of
more than ordinary reserve, culture
and discernment, nor can / explain
the relation between what is happen
ing at Mukti and the revivals that are
being reported from various parts Of
India, most of them characterized by
astonishing confessions of sin, on the
part of Christians and by prolonged
and even agonized prayer, with pro-
nounced physical emotion.
Making Presbyterians Dance.
There has been pronounced phys
ical side to the demonstrations, as
found at Kedgaon. Entire audiences
have shaken as if smitten with palsy,
strong men have fallen headlong to
the ground. Even lepers have been
made to dance. Leaping, shouting,
rolling on the floor, beating the air
and dancing, have been common. Con-
corning dancing, Bishop Warne said,
Personally, / have not seen much of
the dancing; that is reported as most
ly having taken place in Presbyterian
churches!" 1t is fact that the dig
nified Presbyterians, even the Scotch
church missions, have been foremost
in these revival experiences.
The revival has continued in various
parts of the empire for more than a
year; I have reports from Lucknow,
Allahabad, Adansol, Moradabad, Bare
"a
Methodists baptized 1900 new con-
verts during the year, besides the
notable result of having secured more
than 800 new candidates for the min
istry.
Dramatic in the extreme have been
the confessions of sin, and restitution
therefore, and the reconciliations be.
tween enemies.
Everywhere there is agreement that
the lives of the people have been mark.
edly altered for the better. 1.-THE
revival" says one, has given India
new sense of sim" The spontaneous
composition of hymns has been
curious feature of some meetings;
Bishop Warne thinks that there will
be a new hymnology in the vernacu-
lar as an outcome of this revival
While columns more could be writ
ten concerning incidents of this re-
vival, there is only room here to add
that it must not be assumed that all
of India is being stirred by these
events. Many churches and missions
are strangers to them, and the Euro
pean population of the country as
whole know nothing about them. Yet
1t is the conviction Of those who claim
to have received the Pentecostal bap-
tism that all of India is to be swept
by a fire of religious revival. Some
even say that they have been given
direct supernatural assurance of this
fact.
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
NO LIVING IN THE PRESENT.
Devotion to Business Precludes All
Nonsense Like That.