It is God, and Christ, the Word of God, who gives words to men, who
puts it into the hearts of men to call certain things by certain
names; and, according to a nation's godliness, and wisdom, and
purity of heart, will be its power of using words discreetly and
reverently. That miracle of the gift of tongues, of which we read
in the New Testament, would have been still most precious and full
of meaning if it had had no other use than this--to teach men from
whom words come. When men found themselves all of a sudden inspired
to talk in foreign languages which they had never learnt, to utter
words of which they themselves did not know the meaning, do you not
see how it must have made them feel that all language is God's
making and God's giving? Do you not see how it must have made them
feel what awful, mysterious things words were, like those cloven
tongues of fire which fell on the apostles? The tongues of fire
signified the difficult foreign languages which they suddenly began
to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance. And where did the
tongues of fire come from? Not out of themselves, not out of the
earth beneath, but down from the heaven above, to signify that it is
not from man, from man's flesh or brain, or the earthly part of him,
that words are bred, but that they come down from Christ the Word of
God, and are breathed into the minds of men by the Spirit of God.
Why do I speak of all this? To make you feel what awful, wonderful
things words are; how, when you want to understand the meaning of a
word, you must set to work with reverence and godly fear--not in
self-conceit and prejudice, taking the word to mean just what suits
your own notions of things, but trying humbly to find out what the
word really does mean of itself, what God meant it to mean when He
put it into the hearts of wise men to use that word and bring it
into our English language. A man ought to read a newspaper or a