" Then he begins again
one of his marvelous lists of the great things of the day, and
exposes them one by one. He runs over the things that men thought
were going to last, and shows that they are all fleeting, temporary,
passing away.
"Whether there be PROPHECIES, they shall be done away." It was the
mother's ambition for her boy in those days that he should become
a prophet. For hundreds of years God had never spoken by means
of any prophet, and at that time the prophet was greater than the
king. Men waited wistfully for another messenger to come, and hung
upon his lips when he appeared, as upon the very voice of God. Paul
says, "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail." The Bible
is full of prophecies. One by one they have "failed"; that is,
having been fulfilled, their work is finished; they have nothing
more to do now in the world except to feed a devout man's faith.
Then Paul talks about TONGUES. That was another thing that was
greatly coveted. "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease."
As we all know, many, many centuries have passed since tongues
have been known in this world. They have ceased. Take it in any
sense you like. Take it, for illustration merely, as languages in
general--a sense which was not in Paul's mind at all, and which
though it cannot give us the specific lesson, will point the
general truth.
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