(Continued from page 13.)

In Portland, Ore., another brother went with me to the Burnside Street Mission. What we saw and heard beggars description. The excitement was nerve-racking. As many as a dozen prayed- rather screamed-at one time. "Tongues" were much in evidence, and here there were interpreters too. A man rose and muttered some incoherent syllables, speaking about half a minute. A woman rose, and in a high-keyed voice fairly shrieked, "Glory to God! I have the interpretation. The brother says, Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, I am Jesus the crucified. I speak to you, my children. You must give up the world; you must be free from the carnal mind; you must get your baptism; there's only a little time; I am coming soon! " and so on for nearly five minutes; till we were led to wonder at the amazing condensation of a " tongue " that could express in half a minute what took ten times as long to interpret. At the close there was an ''altar-service," or ''upper-room service," as some designated it, which was a perfect bedlam. We could scarcely believe such scenes were possible outside of a lunatic asylum ; and even there the keepers would not permit such goings-on.

Almost at our feet a man fell over on his back, writhing and foaming as in an epileptic fit. I suggested getting him out of the close, hot room, or at least getting water, or calling for a doctor or a policeman. " Keep your hands off God's ark," some one shouted:"This is the Holy Ghost." For forty minutes, by the clock, he writhed there on the floor, and at last fell back limp and lay as though dead. Then a "worker" jumped on his breast, put his mouth to the unconscious man's nose, and cried, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost!" and blew powerfully into the nostrils. This was repeated over and over-a most disgusting spectacle. Finally the man opened his eyes, rose, and sat quietly on a chair, weary and with no apparent result.

Several spoke with us. We asked especially how such a scene compared with the word, " God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." They grew heated and angry. A colored man shouted, "You are making the confusion; you hinder the Spirit; you are possessed by a devil." And so the wretched farce went on till we left it, sick at heart to think that such things could be in a land of Bibles.

I was told afterwards of seven persons sent to insane asylums from that mission; and I saw and conversed with a bald-headed girl of about seventeen, who had contracted brain-fever through the unnatural excitement, and had lost her hair in her illness.

To tell of other meetings visited would be needless. The details are wearisome, and the general tenor always the same. After having seen and heard, I can only say if there be a spirit working, as seems to me evident, it is not " the spirit of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7), which is one of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit of God.

As for the "tongues," I have heard perhaps threescore persons speak under the " power," and I never heard anything more connected than I have given above. The tongues of the Bible were definite languages in which men heard the gospel in the speech to which they had been accustomed from birth. I have failed to find anything like this among any branch of the " Pentecostal" people. It is true they claim isolated instances of the kind, but even though they could openly produce them, that would not prove the movement to be of God. The same claim was made by the " Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit" in the Black Forest of Germany in mediaeval times, as they roamed about in Adamic nudity and indulged every unholy passion. " Tongues " have from the first been found among the Mormons, and spiritualists of all ages have peeped and muttered (Isa. 8:19) when under some strange control. Therefore such phenomena in no wise prove the working of the Holy Spirit. It is rather the confession made as to our Lord Jesus Christ that will let us know the source of all these strange happenings.

As to this, I wrote to various editors connected with the movement to ascertain their views. In each case I put this question :"What does the spirit now working among you reveal as to the true nature of our Lord Jesus Christ ? " And, in answer, I discovered a startling thing. This movement is apparently everywhere based upon a false declaration as to Christ.

A Mr. Dunham, then of Chicago, now of Los Angeles, sent me a marked copy of his publication. It gave an account of -a message professedly given by revelation, which I regret to have lost, but the gist of which I distinctly recall. This was the teaching :Jesus before His anointing was a man who had no more power than others. At His baptism, the Christ, which is the divine Spirit, took possession of Him, and He could then accomplish His mission! The application went on, that if a holy man like Jesus needed the anointing with this Christ-Spirit, how much more do we, etc.

A paper from a Mr. Argue, of Winnipeg, contained a similar statement made under "the power."

From the "Apostolic Faith," now before me, from which I already have taken two cullings, I also take the following:" If Jesus Christ needed the anointing of God to do the work that he was called to do, surely we must be anointed from on high to do the work God has called us to do,"-and with them the anointing is to be able to speak with tongues.

Now here is a threefold cord. Does my reader realize the seriousness of it ? Here is plain, open blasphemy, yet so expressed that the ignorant read it without apprehending its meaning. An old gnostic heresy is here revived, and it is clearly a lying spirit who is propagating it, and attesting it with "all deceivableness of unrighteousness," "with signs and lying wonders."

Baldly stated, this is the doctrine :Jesus was a man _a holy man, but only a man. He was called to do a great work, but He could not do it till He received the divine Spirit to control His human spirit. When baptized in water the Christ was identified with the divine Spirit descending upon Him. Now for the first time He had the Holy Spirit. Now He could do the work He was called to do.

The same error is set forth in " Christian Science "-falsely so-called-and is prominent in the whole " New Thought " movement.

But the word of God teaches us that the Lord Jesus was the eternal Son who in grace became man. He was God the Son from all eternity. The Son of God, the Eternal Word, became flesh, was born of a pure virgin by the direct power of the Holy Spirit-was a Man of an entirely different order to every other. His anointing was not as adding anything to Him, but marking Him out as the Messiah (the Anointed), as inducting Him into His threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King. It was the Father's attestation of delight in His beloved Son. In His humiliation, as the One come in the form of a servant, the Lord Jesus did all things in the power of the Holy Spirit; but this is in no wise to say He could not do thus and so until passing through certain experiences.

The system now before us lowers the dignity of the Son of God to exalt self-righteous men who glory in their fancied supernatural powers.

And now I revert again to what I have before touched on. The spirit working in this movement habitually and continuously neglects to own Jesus as Lord and God as Father. I have just read carefully through, three times, the twenty-third number of "The Apostolic Faith." It is a four-page sheet of about average newspaper size. It contains twenty columns of closely-printed matter – testimonies, sermons, attempted exegesis and warnings. In all its twenty columns Jesus is never used with the title Lord, though it is used scores of times alone. Throughout it is "Jesus," "Jesus Christ," "Christ" and "Christ Jesus." Not once are the scriptural terms "Lord Jesus," " Lord Jesus Christ," " Christ Jesus our Lord," or any other similar ones used. And this in the organ of what credits itself with being the greatest work of the Spirit of God on earth today. Again:in these twenty columns I find the word "God " used several hundred times, and " God Almighty," "Almighty God," occurring again and again; but "Father"-the Name our Lord Jesus came to reveal, and which we cry by the Spirit-not once.* *I refer to their usage. Once Matt. 28:19 is quoted, and once 1 John 2:15,16. Also John 13:14 is used containing the word Lord ; and so several times they speak of doing the Lord's will, etc. But my point is they never call Jesus "Lord," nor call God Father."*

And this from people who profess to be born of God and to have the Spirit of adoption!

Unhesitatingly I say, the spirit that is working in this movement does not say "Lord Jesus," and does not cry "Abba Father." What spirit, think you, can this be ? I do not doubt but that individuals among them confess both, but I have never heard them; and what I have been concerned about is what is characteristic of the whole system. It is especially when speaking under the mysterious power that one notes the utter absence of the confession that Jesus is Lord, and the cry of the Spirit "Abba," Father.

I need not dwell on other marked incongruities, such as the in subject and Scripture-defying attitude usurped by women in these meetings. Alas, that is so prevalent to-day as to be scarcely noticeable any more, though it is a serious enough sign of the times, and shows where the Church is rapidly drifting. But I beseech any who are becoming entangled with this unpentecostal imposture to try the spirits by the only safe test-a true confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh. The spirit energizing the so-called "apostolic faith" people has declared that Jesus came in flesh, but that Christ was the Spirit that anointed Him at His baptism. Is more needed to show the source of these manifestations?
H. A. I.