After more testimony, more “speaking,” and much enthusiasm, the Saints separated. My sister was talking with a young-lady friend, and regretting that no one present had been able to interpret; and I stood by, but did not join in the conversation. Suddenly the young lady turned to me and said: “Sister Fanny, do you not see in all this, more and more, the convincing power of God?”
Rather hesitatingly I replied, “Yes, I think I do.”
“Think! sister?” said she, with warmth. “Oh, yes, I see by your looks that you are only half convinced; your faith is not strong enough yet; but remember, whatsoever is of doubt is sin!”
“But,” I answered, “I do not see clearly what good we receive from these manifestations when no one can understand them.”
“That is your want of faith—nothing else; you have the evidence of the truth before you, and you see how these miraculous powers build up the belief of God’s people; and yet you doubt. To doubt is sin: whatsoever is not of faith is sin. You must pray and strive, sister, to be strengthened against temptation.”
All this was not very logical, and it certainly did not help to dispel my doubts. But twice in the course of a few short sentences, she had used a certain expression which, though trifling in itself, was recalled to my mind very forcibly before many days had passed.
This was my first experience of speaking in tongues.
But there were every-day matters of much more real importance to me than those strange speculations which had recently employed so much of my time and attention. It was now necessary that I should either return to France and fulfil my engagement with Monsieur D—— or else resolve, once and for ever, to renounce all those ties which had become so dear to me.
Meanwhile, religious theories were not the only influences brought to bear upon my mind.