There has never been a time when the gifts of the Holy Spirit completely ceased to function in the Church of Jesus Christ. History undeniably refutes the claim that it has.

Read the below chapter from Stanley Frodhsam’s book, With Signs Following, as that chapter gives many examples from history of the continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In Northwest Ohio, my (Chet Swearingen) ancestors were severely persecuted by denominational churches as those churches opposed the reviving work of the Holy Spirit at the turn of the last century. Now that Pentecostalism (Charismatic) has gone mainstream, it is common to find churches that once embraced those doctrines, now being embarrassed with aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

Pentecostal Outpourings in History

From the book: With Signs Following by Stanley H. Frodsham

There are some who state that all miracles, including the speaking with tongues, ceased with the Apostles, this, however, is not the case. During the past nineteen centuries, in times when spiritual life ran high, the Holy Spirit has been received just as at Pentecost, with the accompanying manifestation of the speaking in tongues.

Chrysostum, who lived during a part of the fourth and fifth centuries, wrote: “Whoever was baptized in the apostolic days, he straightway spake with tongues, for since on their coming over from idols, without any clear knowledge or training in the ancient Scriptures, they at once received the Spirit; not that they saw the Spirit, for He is invisible, but God’s grace bestowed some sensible proof of His energy, and one straightway spake in the Persian language, another in the Roman, another in the Indian, another in some other tongue, and this made manifest to them that were without that it was the Spirit in the very person speaking. Wherefore the apostle calls it ‘the manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every man to profit withal.’” [1 Corinthians 12:7]

Irenaeus, who was born in Asia Minor in A. D. 115 and who died in Lyons, France, in A. D. 202, who was a scholar of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John, states in his Adv. Haer VI, page 6, “We have many brethren in the churches having prophetical gifts and by the Spirit speaking in all kinds of languages.”

Dean Farrar in his book “Darkness to Dawn” in which he states: “Even to the minutest allusions and particulars I have contemporary authority,” refers to the persecuted Christians in Rome singing and speaking in unknown tongues.

Tertullian, who lived in the second century, speaks of the spiritual gifts, including the gift of tongues, as being still manifest among the Montanists to whom he belonged.  

Augustine wrote in the fourth century, “We still do what the apostles did when they laid hands on the Samaritans and called down the Holy Spirit on them in the laying on of hands. It is expected that converts should speak with new tongues.”

Even in the “dark ages” God gave some gracious revivals. From the twelfth to the fifteenth century there were revivals in Southern Europe in which many spoke in other tongues. Foremost among these revivalists were the Waldenses and Albigenses.

The Encyclopedia Britannica states that the glossolalia (or speaking in tongues) “recurs in Christian revivals of every age, e.g., among the mendicant friars of the thirteenth century, among the Jansenists and early Quakers, and persecuted Protestants of the Cevennes, and the Irvingites” (Vol. 27, pages 9 and 10, 11^th edition).

In the history of the Christian church by Phillip Schaff, Vol. 1 page 237 of the edition of 1882, He shows that the phenomenon of speaking in tongues reappeared from time to time in seasons of religious revival, “as among the Camisards and the prophets of the Cevennes in France, among the early Quakers and Methodist, the Readers (followers of Lasare) in Sweden In 1841-1843, in the Irish revivals of 1859, and especially in the ‘Catholic Apostolic Church,’ commonly called Irvingites, from 1831 to 1833, and even to this day.” In this church history it speaks of Vincent Ferrer who died in 1419, “Spondamus and many others say, this saint was honored with the gift of tongues.” This work also tells of Francis Xavier, who died in 1552, that he “is said to have made himself understood by the Hindus without knowing their language.” The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of him preaching in tongues unknown to him.  Xaviar was a truly converted man and a most remarkable missionary.

In a German church history, Souer’s History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, page 406, the following words are found: “Dr. Martin Luther was a prophet, evangelist, speaker in tongues, and interpreter, in one person, endowed with all the gifts of the Spirit.”

Writing of the revivals among the Huguenots, Pastor A. A. Boddy states: “When Louis XIV of France in 1685 revoked the Edict of Nantes which had given religious liberty, he strove by dragonades to drive Protestants into the Roman Catholic Church. The Huguenots were led by John Cavalier, a farmer, into inaccessible mountains. Among these persecuted people were those who spoke in tongues. There are records both by enemies and by friends as to their prophetic gifts.

“Prophets came from the Cevennes to Holland, and on to Germany. At that time among the professors and students there was a great receptivity to God’s power. In 1714 they brought the gift of tongues and prophecy to Wetterau, near Frankfurt-on-Main. their leaders were an ejected Wurtemburg pastor named Gruber and a Brother Rock, a saddler. They and their ‘gifted’ followers were called ‘the inspired ones of the Wetterau.’”

in the diary of Thomas Walsh, one of Wesley’s [John Wesley] foremost preachers, March 8, 1750, the record stands: “this morning the Lord gave me language that I knew not of, raising my soul to him in a wonderful manner.”

Mr. O. P. Simmons of Frost Proof, Fla, writing in “A Call to Faith” in November, 1909, states: “While I have been a church member for sixty-two years, I have associated with those who talk in tongues for fifty-two years. In Southern New England, among the Second Adventists, A. D. 1857, I learned that some had for three years previously in their religious worship spoken in what is termed as ‘the unknown tongue.’ From 1824 down to the present time, from Maine to Connecticut, quite a good number of the Adventist people (known as ‘gift Adventists’) have had more or less talking in tongues and also the interpretation of tongues. Some gifted men of their ministry had been thus exercised. The most talking in tongues has been that of Wm. H. Doughty, a minister for over forty years. He was the leader among the Gift Adventists. the writer knew him well. He was a very sweet-spirited, humble Christian, of great power in prayer. He was often called to lay hands on the sick, when some instant faith healings of chronic diseases were the result.”

Miss Maria Gerber, Who spent many years of faithful service in Turkey as a missionary and at one time was head of a large orphanage there, has told us how in the days of her early experience as a Christian She would go along the roads in Switzerland singing for joy, and frequently she would have a song in other tongues. After she was marvelously healed of the Lord she went to New York to receive training as a missionary at the school of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. She could only speak German when she arrived in New York (she came from that part of Switzerland where only German is spoken) but while praying for a sick person the Lord gave her the ability to speak in purest English. She could understand perfectly some of the teachers at the training school in New York but others she could not understand at all. She stated that she could always understand those who spoke under the anointing of the Spirit but she could not understand those who did not speak in the Spirits power, and so she ceased to attend their lectures.

At an international conference held in England in 1885, Mrs. Michael Baxter, the widow of the late Michael Baxter, the author of the well-known book “Forty Future Wonders of Scripture Prophecy,” and the founder of the Christian Herald of London and the Christian Herald of New York, told of being able to preach for thirty-five minutes in German when she was almost entirely unfamiliar with the language. She was well understood and one soul was converted. She stated, “After that He led me to speak almost every day, and often twice a day to hundreds of people, although when I went into a shop I could not make myself understood, nor could I understand the people.”

Some years ago Dr. F. B. Meyer visited Estonia, one of the Baltic provinces of Russia, where he found some simple peasant congregations of Baptists. He wrote to the London “Christian” of the wonderful work of the Holy Ghost that he saw among them. He stated, “It is very remarkable, at a time when the Lutheran church of this land had lost its evangelistic fervor and is inclined to substitute forms an rites for the living power of Christ, that God raised up a devoted nobleman, Baron Uxhull, To preach the gospel in all its simplicity, and is renewing among the peasantry those marvelous manifestations which attended the first preaching of the gospel when God bore witness to the message of salvation ‘With signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost’ [Hebrews 2:4].  To have come across a movement like this is intensely interesting. The gift of tongues is heard quite often in the meetings, especially in the villages, but also in the towns. Here at Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia], the pastor of the Baptist church tells me that they often break out in his meetings. They are most often uttered by young women, less frequently by men. When they are interpreted they are found to mean, ‘Jesus is coming soon; Jesus is near. Be ready; be not idle.’ When they are heard, unbelievers who may be in the audience are greatly awed. A gentleman who was present on one occasion was deeply impressed by the fact that those who spoke were quite ordinary people until they were uplifted as it were by a trance and then they spoke with so much fluency and refinement.’”

In the year 1889 Daniel Awrey received a remarkable conversion. On the last night of the year he was much exercised to receive a deeper experience from God. He attended a prayer meeting on January 1, 1890, and while praying there the Spirit of God fell upon him and he began to speak in another tongue. This occurred in the city of Delaware, OH. later, he and his wife lived at Benah, Tenn., and here in 1899 about a dozen received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Daniel Awrey preached the gospel all around the world, until he laid down his life in Africa in 1913.

The following testimony appeared in the “Upper room,” a paper published in Los Angeles, Calif. “On April 9, 1898, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed me from all sin: then three days after the heavens were opened unto me and the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape like a dove upon me, with fire, and I began to speak in another tongue as the spirit gave me utterance, magnifying God. At the time I was alone in my room; had been tarrying there for six days, and this had been my most unceasing prayer, ‘Lord, baptize me with the Holy Ghost.’ The fire descended upon me and went through my flesh as ashes go through a sieve. I worship God in Spirit and in truth. I had no utterance except as the Spirit gave it. That night I was taught to look for the soon coming of Jesus. For over six years I was in fellowship with the ‘Brethren,’ but they began to persecute ‘this way’ when the gracious showers from the Lord began to come. And this called forth my testimony straight and clear to them as never before. the result has been that the ‘Brethren’ have set me at naught, forbidding my approach to the Lord’s table, saying that I was unfit to eat and that I was holding forth false doctrine. They said that no one received from the Lord what was given at Pentecost. I testified to seeing the Lord Jesus; they said that He did not appear to anyone now and that therefore I lied! But beloved, none of these things moved me, for I speak that which I do know and I testify that which I have seen. The Lord is using me here; only one other sister stands with me. She also witnessed the Holy Ghost coming up on her like a dove (in July, 1908). She was a French Roman Catholic and was marvelously converted to God twenty-seven years ago and has been speaking fluently in the English language ever since. Her name is Mrs. Harriett Gravelle. the battle of the Lord is on here.     —Martha J. Lewis, London, Ont. Canada.”

Elder Jethro Walthall writes: “A great holiness revival occurred in and around Greenville, S. C. in 1894-1895. A Baptist minister, Robert R. Singleton, was the prominent leader. He was excommunicated from his church and there came such a following that Paris Mountain Holiness Baptist Church was formed, three miles from Greenville. In 1905 there was such a spiritual upheaval in that church that a number spoke in tongues.” Brother Walthall held a meeting among these people in 1911, in which the Spirit of God worked very mightily and many were filled with the Spirit, speaking other tongues. There were remarkable healings and many other manifestations of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. During the progress of this great revival the spiritual tide returned in full force with divers tongues, many visions and other manifestations of the Spirit.

Mr. H. L. Christopher of New Britain, Connecticut, tells us of a remarkable revival that the Lord gave in Oslo, Norway, in 1899, in which many Norwegian people were filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Mrs. Sarah A. Smith, who laid down her life in Egypt in 1918, testified to having received the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues and with interpretation at a meeting in Tennessee in the year 1900. More than forty were baptized in the Spirit at the same time.

It will be seen from what has been written in previous chapters that since the year 1906, the speaking with other tongues has been universal. Since the same significant phenomenon Is occurring in all parts of the earth today as was seen in the days of the “early rain,” as described in the Acts of the Apostles, surely it suggests that we are in the days of the “latter rain,” that “rain” is due before the coming of the Lord. The Apostle James reminds us:

“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” [James 5:7]