Spiritual Gifts
The gift of prophecy was manifested in the church during the
Jewish dispensation. If it disappeared for a few centuries, on account
of the corrupt state of the church towards the close of that dispensation,
it re-appeared at its close to usher in the Messiah. Zachariah, the father
of John the Baptist, “was filled with the holy spirit, and prophesied.”
Simeon, a just and devout man who was “waiting for the consolation
of Israel,” came by the spirit into the temple, and prophesied of Jesus
as “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel;” And Anna
a prophetess “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in
Jerusalem.” And there was no greater prophet than John, who was
chosen of God to introduce to Israel “the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world.”
The Christian age commenced with the out-pouring of the Spirit,
and a great variety of spiritual gifts was manifested among the believ-
ers; and these were so abundant that Paul could say to the Corinthian
church, “the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit
withal.” To every man in the Church, not to every man in the world, as
many have applied it.
Since the great apostasy these gifts have rarely been manifested;
and this is probably the reason why professed Christians generally
[6]
believe that they were limited to the period of the primitive church.
But is it not on account of the errors and unbelief of the church that
the gifts have ceased? And when the people of God shall attain to
primitive faith and practice, as they certainly will by the proclamation
of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will not “the latter
rain” again develop the gifts? Reasoning from analogy we should
expect it. Notwithstanding the apostasies of the Jewish age, it opened
and closed with special manifestations of the spirit of God. And it
is unreasonable to suppose that the Christian age, the light of which,
compared with the former dispensation, is as the light of the sun to
the feeble rays of the moon, should commence in glory and close in
obscurity. And since a special work of the spirit was necessary to
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