All with One Accord (Donald Gee) - Deal Pentecostal Church

Do Pentecostal meetings of an emotional type tend to attract
the mentally unstable? The question is an interesting one. I
am fairly sure that no religious group has any monopoly of
this problem, but churches of a severely formalistic type of
service, with emphasis upon coldly intellectual preaching, and
little opportunity for self-expression in public among
members of the congregation, possess scanty appeal to a
large segment of the mentally unbalanced.
The public exercise of the gift of tongues is very definitely
connected in the Bible with the use of "the understanding
also" by the one who speaks with tongues. "Tongues" are a
perfectly lawful outlet for deep emotion in the spirit, but
they are not to be a substitute for more intelligible forms
of prayer and praise. The gift of tongues is not associated
with the mentally weak. Prophesying also can easily verge
upon that which is mentally unbalanced. It usually has done
so in heathen religions. Here we tread on very delicate
ground. Sufficient to point out that the Bible is emphatic that
prophesyings have to be judged, and the churches are never
called upon to accept as inspired all the extravagant
outpourings of fevered brains that imagine themselves
inspired. The practical portions of the epistles and the calm
wisdom of the "wholesome words" of our Lord Jesus Christ
are a healthy antidote for emotional and visionary extremes. A
true Pentecost involves a lot of very practical holiness. Our
Lord left those whom He delivered in their "right mind."
They became conspicuous for their peace and sanity.
To imagine that to be "Pentecostal" is to live abnormally in a
realm of constant religious excitement is far from the truth.
Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord are bound
to be times of much deep and holy emotion, but such pure
emotion leaves the soul strengthened in every way to serve
39