DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; ECSTATICAL AND PROPHETICAL
PHENOMENA.
Mean, narrow, ignorant, inexperienced they were, as much as was
possible for them to be. Their simplicity of mind was extreme; their
credulity had no bounds. But they had one quality; they loved their
Master to madness. The remembrance of Jesus, the only moving power of
their life, had possessed them constantly and entirely; and it was
clear that they existed only on account of Him who, during two or
three years, had so completely attached and seduced them to Himself.
The safety of minds of a secondary class, who are unable to love God
directly--that is, to discover the truth, create the beautiful, and do
what is right of themselves--is the loving of some one in whom there
shines forth a reflection of the true, the beautiful, and the good.
The majority of mankind require a graduated worship. The multitude of
worshippers pant for a mediator between themselves and God.
When an individual has succeeded in gathering around his person, by
a highly elevated moral tie, a number of other individuals, and then
dies, it invariably happens that the survivors, who were perhaps up to
that time often divided amongst themselves by rivalries and differences
of opinion, become bound together by a mutual and fast friendship.
A thousand cherished images of the past, which they regret, form a
common treasure to them. One way of loving a dead person is to love
those with whom we have known him to associate. We court their society
that we may recall to our minds the times which are no more. A profound
saying of Jesus[4.1] is then discovered to be true to the letter: "The
dead one is present in the midst of those who are united again by his
memory."
The affection which the disciples entertained for each other during
the lifetime of Jesus, was thus increased tenfold after his death.
They formed a little society, very retired, and they lived exclusively
within themselves. The number of them at Jerusalem was one hundred and
twenty.[4.2] Their piety was active, and as yet, completely restrained
by the forms of Jewish religionism. The temple was their chief place
of worship.[4.3] No doubt, they labored for their living; but manual
labor occupied but a small place in the Jewish economy. Every Jew
had a trade, and this trade implied no lack of learning or of gentle
breeding. With us in our day, our material needs are so difficult to
satisfy, that a man who lives by manual labor is obliged to work twelve
or fifteen hours a day; the man of leisure alone can apply himself
to intellectual pursuits; the acquisition of learning is a rare and
expensive matter. But in these old societies, of which the East of
our own day furnishes some idea; in those climates where nature is so
lavish for man's wants, and exacts so little in return--the life of a
laborer left plenty of leisure. A sort of method of common instruction
rendered every man well up in the prevailing ideas. Food and raiment
sufficed;[4.4] a few hours of moderate labor were enough to provide
them. The remaining portion of the time was devoted to day-dreaming
and to the indulgence of passionate love. The latter had, in the minds
of these people, attained to a degree altogether inconceivable by us.
The Jews of that period[4.5] appear to us as if possessed, each one
obeying like a blind machine the idea which had taken possession of him.
The prevailing idea in the Christian community at the time of which
we are treating, and when the apparitions had ceased, was the coming
of the Holy Spirit. They expected to receive Him under the form of a
mysterious breath, which passed over the assembly. Many pretended that
this was the breath of Jesus Himself. Every inward consolation, every
courageous movement, every outburst of enthusiasm, every feeling of
lively and pleasant gaiety, which they experienced without knowing
its origin, was the work of the Spirit. These worthy consciences
referred, as ever, to an outward cause the exquisite feelings which
were springing up in them. It was especially in their assemblies that
these varied phenomena of illumination were produced. When they were
all assembled together and were awaiting in silence the heavenly
inspiration, whatever murmur or noise arose was thought to be the
coming of the Spirit. In the early times, it was the apparitions of
Jesus which were thus produced. Now, there was a change in the course
of their ideas. It was the Divine breath[4.6] which was breathed over
the little church and filled it with heavenly emanations. These beliefs
were strengthened by notions drawn from the Old Testament. The Spirit
of prophecy is represented in the Hebrew books as a breathing which
penetrates and lifts up the subject of it. In the beautiful vision
of Elijah,[4.7] God passes by under the form of a light wind, which
produces a gentle rustling sound. This ancient imagery had handed
down to later epochs systems of belief very similar to those of the
spiritualists of our own time. In the Ascension of Isaiah[4.8] the
coming of the Spirit is accomplished by a certain crashing at the
doors.[4.9] Later on, they always regarded this coming in the light
of another baptism--that is to say, the "baptism of the Spirit,"
far superior to that of John.[4.10] The hallucinations of bodily
touch being very frequent amongst persons so nervous and so excited
as they were, the least current of air, accompanied by a shuddering
in the midst of the silence, was considered as the passage of the
Spirit. One thought that he felt it; very soon all perceived it;[4.11]
and the enthusiasm was communicated from neighbor to neighbor. The
correspondence of these phenomena with those which are found to exist
amongst the visionaries of every age is easily demonstrated. They are
produced daily, partly under the influence of the reading the book of
the Acts of the Apostles, in the English and American sects of Quakers,
Jumpers, Shakers, Irvingites;[4.12] amongst the Mormons,[4.13] and in
the camp meetings and revivals of America;[4.14] we have seen them
reproduced amongst ourselves in the sect called the Spiritualists. But
an immense difference should be observed between aberrations, without
capacity or future results, and the illusions which have accompanied
the establishment of a new code of religion for the human race.
Amongst all these "descents of the Spirit," which appear to have been
by no means infrequent, there was one which left a deep impression on
the nascent Church.[4.15] One day when they were assembled together a
thunder-storm arose. A violent wind burst the windows open--the sky
seemed on fire. Thunder-storms in those countries are accompanied
by wonderful illuminations; the atmosphere is furrowed, as it were,
on every side with garbes of flame. Whether the electric fluid had
penetrated into the very chamber itself, or whether a dazzling flash
of lightning had suddenly illuminated all their faces, they were
convinced that the Spirit had entered, and that he was poured out upon
the head of each one of them under the form of tongues of fire.[4.16]
It was a prevalent opinion in the theurgic schools of Syria that the
communication of the Spirit was produced by a divine fire, and under
the form of a mysterious glimmering.[4.17] It was believed to have been
present at the display of all the wonders of Mount Sinai,[4.18] at a
manifestation analogous to those of former times. The baptism of the
Spirit hence became also a baptism of fire. The baptism of the Spirit
and of fire was opposed to and greatly preferred to that of water, the
only form with which John had been acquainted.[4.19] The baptism of
fire was only produced on rare occasions; only the apostles and the
disciples of the first guest-chamber were supposed to have received it.
But the idea that the Spirit was poured forth upon them under the form
of strokes of flame resembling burning tongues originated a series of
singular ideas, which took firm hold of the imaginations of the period.
The tongue of an inspired man was supposed to have received a sort of
sacrament. It was pretended that many prophets before their mission
had been stammerers;[4.20] that the angel of God had passed a coal
over their lips, which purified them and conferred on them the gift of
eloquence.[4.21] In his prophetic utterances the man was supposed not
to speak at all about himself.[4.22] His tongue was looked upon merely
as the organ of the Divinity who inspired it. These tongues of fire
appeared a very striking symbol. The disciples were convinced that God
desired to make it known that on the apostles also he had conferred
his most precious gifts of eloquence and inspiration. But they did not
stop there; Jerusalem was, like most of the great cities of the East,
a city where many languages were spoken. The diversity of tongues was
one of the difficulties which they there discovered in the way of the
propagation of a universal form of faith. Besides, one of the things
which most alarmed the apostles at their very entry on a ministry
destined to embrace the world, was the number of languages which were
spoken in it; they were constantly inquiring how they could learn so
many dialects. "The gift of tongues" became thenceforth a marvellous
privilege. They believed that the preaching of the gospel would relieve
them from the obstacle which the difference of idioms had raised. They
pretended that, under certain solemn circumstances, those present had
heard, each in his own language, the gospel preached by the apostles;
in other words, that the apostolic promise was delivered to each one
of the hearers.{4.23} At other times, this conception was entertained
in a somewhat different shape. They ascribed to the apostles the gift
of acquiring, by divine illumination, every language spoken, and of
speaking those languages at will.{4.24}
There was in this a liberal conception; they wished it should
have no language peculiar to itself, that it should be capable of
translation into every language, and that the translation should be
of the same standard value as the original. Such was not the opinion
of orthodox Judaism. The Hebrew was "the holy language" to the Jew
of Jerusalem, and no version could be compared to it. Translations
of the Bible were in little esteem; so long as the Hebrew text was
scrupulously guarded in the translations, changes and modifications
of expression were tolerated. The Jews of Egypt and Hellenists of
Palestine, indeed, practised a more tolerant system, and habitually
perused the Greek translations of the Bible.{4.25} But the first plan
of the Christians was even broader; according to their idea, the word
of God has no language peculiar to it; it is free, unfettered by any
idiomatic peculiarity; it is delivered to all spontaneously and without
interpretation. The facility with which Christianity became detached
from the Semitic dialect which Jesus had spoken, the liberty which
it at first accorded to every nation of forming its own liturgy, and
its own versions of the Bible in the vernacular, favored this sort of
emancipation of languages. It was generally admitted that the Messiah
would gather into one, all languages as well as all peoples.[4.26]
Common usage and the promiscuousness of the languages was the first
grand step towards this grand era of universal pacification.
Moreover, the gift of languages very soon underwent a considerable
variation, and resulted in very extraordinary effects. Ecstasy and
prophecy were the fruits of mental excitement. At these moments of
ecstasy, the faithful, possessed by the Spirit, uttered inarticulate
and incoherent sounds, which were mistaken for the words of a foreign
language, and which they innocently attempted to interpret.[4.27] At
other times they supposed that the ecstatically possessed was giving
utterance to new and hitherto unknown languages,[4.28] which were not
even the languages of the angels.[4.29]
These extravagant scenes, which were the fruitful cause of abuse, only
became habitual at a later period;[4.30] but it is probable that they
were produced from the earliest years of Christianity. The visions of
the ancient prophets had often been accompanied by phenomena of nervous
excitement.[4.31] The dithyrambic state amongst the Greeks abounded in
occurrences of the same kind; the Pythia seemed to give a preference
to the use of foreign or obsolete words, which were called, as also
in the apostolic phenomena, glosses.[4.32] Many of the pass-words of
primitive Christianity, which are precisely bi-linguistic, or formed
by anagrams, such as _Abba, Father_, and _Anathema Maranatha_,[4.33]
took their origin perhaps from these fantastic paroxysms, intermingled
with sighs[4.34] from stifled gradus, from ejaculations, prayers, and
sudden transports which were interpreted as prophecies. It was like
some vague harmony of the soul, thrilling in indistinct sounds, and
which the hearers of it desired to transform into determined shapes
and words,[4.35] or rather like spiritual prayers addressed to God
in a language understood by God alone, and which God knows how to
interpret.[4.36] The individual in a state of ecstasy understood,
in fact, nothing of what he uttered, and had no cognizance of it
whatever.[4.37] His eager listeners ascribed to his incoherent
syllables the thoughts which occurred to them at the time. Each
one referred to his own dialect, and artlessly strove to explain
the unintelligible sounds by what little knowledge of languages he
possessed. They were always more or less successful, because the
auditor interpolated within these broken accents the thoughts of
his own breast. The history of fanatical sects is rich in facts of
this description. The preachers of Cévennes displayed many instances
of "glossology,"[4.38] but the most remarkable fact is that of the
"readers" of Sweden,[4.39] about the years 1841-1843. Involuntary
enunciations, devoid of sense in the minds of those who uttered them,
and accompanied by convulsions and fainting-fits, were, for a long time
daily practised by the members of this little sect. This phenomenon
became quite contagious, and a considerable popular movement became
blended with it. Amongst the Irvingites, the phenomenon of tongues is
produced with features which reproduce, in the most remarkable manner,
the most striking of the stories of the "_Acts_" and of St. Paul.[4.40]
Our own age has witnessed fantastic scenes of the same nature, which
need not to be recounted here; for it is always unjust to compare the
credulity of a grand religious movement with the credulity which is
caused only by dulness of intellect.
Now and then these strange phenomena were produced outside. The
extatics, at the very moment when under the influence of their
extravagant fantasies, had the hardihood to go out and display
themselves to the crowd. They were taken for persons who were
intoxicated.[4.41] However sober-minded in point of mysticism, Jesus
had more than once presented in his own person the ordinary phenomena
of the extatic state.[4.42] The disciples, during three or four years,
were possessed with these ideas. The prophesyings were frequent, and
were regarded as a gift analogous to that of tongues.[4.43] Prayer,
mingled with convulsions, with harmonized modulations, with mystic
sighs, with lyrical enthusiasm, with songs of thanksgiving,[4.44] was
a daily exercise among them. A rich vein of "canticles," of "Psalms,"
and of "Hymns," copied from those of the Old Testament was thus
discovered to be open to them.[4.45] Sometimes the lips and the heart
were in mutual accord; sometimes the spirit sang alone, accompanied
by grace in the inner man.[4.46] Any language which did not afford
the new sensations which were being produced, they suffered to become
an indistinct stammering, at once sublime and puerile; or that which
they could denominate "the Christian language" was wafted aloud in
an embryo state. Christianity, not finding in the ancient tongues a
weapon appropriate to its needs, has destroyed them. But whilst the
new religion was forming for itself an idiom of its own, ages of
obscure efforts, and so to speak, of squalling, intervened. What is
the characteristic of the style of St. Paul and, in general, that of
the writers of the New Testament, but the stifled, panting, misshapen
improvisation of the "Glossology?" Language failed them. Like the
prophets, they began with the _a_, _a_, _a_ of the infant.[4.47] They
knew not how to speak. The Greek and the Semitic tongues equally
betrayed them. Thus arose that frightful violence which the new
Christianity inflicted upon language. They would call it a stammering
of the mouth, by which the sounds are stifled and confused, and wind
up with a pantomime confused indeed, but nevertheless wonderfully
expressive.
All this was very far from the intention of Jesus; but to those whose
minds were imbued with a belief in the supernatural, these phenomena
were of the utmost importance. The gift of tongues, in particular, was
considered as an essential sign of the new religion, and, as it were, a
proof of its verity.[4.48] In every case it resulted in great fruits of
edification. Many pagans were in this manner converted.[4.49]
Up to the third century, the "Glossology" manifested itself in a manner
analogous to that which St. Paul describes, and was considered in the
light of a permanent miracle.[4.50] Some of the sublimest words of
Christianity have originated in these incoherent sighings. The general
effect was touching and penetrating. This fashion of joining together
their inspirations and delivering them over to the community for
interpretation was enough to establish amongst the faithful a profound
bond of confraternity. Like all mystics, the new sectaries led lives
of fasting and austerity.[4.51] Like the majority of Orientals, they
ate little, which fact contributed to maintain their excited state.
The sobriety of the Syrian, caused by physical weakness, kept him in
a constant state of fever and nervous susceptibility. Such great and
protracted intellectual efforts as ours are impossible under such a
regimen; but this cerebral and muscular debility is productive, without
apparent cause, of lively alternations of sadness and joy, which bring
the soul into continual communion with God. Thus that which they called
"godly sorrow"[4.52] passed for a heavenly gift. All the teachings of
the Fathers respecting the spiritual life, such as John Chinaticus, as
Basil, as Nilus, as Arsenius--all the secrets of the grand art of the
inward life, one of the most glorious creations of Christianity--were
germinating in that strange state of mind which possessed, in their
months of extatic watchfulness, those illustrious ancestors of all
"the men of longings." Their moral state was strange; they lived
in the supernatural. They acted only on the authority of visions;
dreams and the most insignificant circumstances appeared to them to
be admonitions from Heaven.[4.53] Under the name of gifts of the Holy
Spirit were concealed also the rarest and most exquisite emanations of
the soul--love, piety, respectful fear, objectless sighings, sudden
languor, and spontaneous tenderness. All the good that is engendered
in man, without man having any part in it, was attributed to a
breathing from on high. Tears were often taken for a celestial favor.
This charming gift, the privilege only of very good and pure souls,
was repeated with an infinity of sweetness. We know what influence
delicate natures--above all, women--exercise in the ability to shed
copious tears. It is their style of praying, and assuredly it is the
most holy of prayers. We must come down quite to the Middle Ages,
to that piety watered with tears of St. Bruno, St. Bernard, and St.
Francis of Assisi, in order to discover again the chaste melancholy of
those early days, when they verily sowed in tears that they might reap
with joy. To weep became an act of piety; those who could not preach,
who were ignorant of languages, and unable to work miracles, wept.
Praying, preaching, admonishing they wept;[4.54] it was the advent
of the kingdom of tears. One might have said that their souls were
dissolved, and that they desired, in the absence of a language which
could interpret their sentiments, to display themselves to the world by
a lively and brief expression of their entire inner being.