Homilies on First Corinthians

“So also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue, speech easy to be understood, you will be speaking into the air:” i.e., calling to nobody, speaking unto no one. Thus every where he shows its unprofitableness.

4. “But if it be unprofitable, why was it given?” says one. So as to be useful to him that has received it. But if it is to be so to others also, there must be added interpretation. Now this he says, bringing them near to one another; that if a person himself have not the gift of interpretation, he may take unto him another that has it, and make his own gift useful through him. Wherefore he every where points out its imperfection, that so he may bind them together. Any how, he that accounts it to be sufficient for itself, does not so much commend it as disparage it, not suffering it to shine brightly by the interpretation. For excellent indeed and necessary is the gift, but it is so when it has one to explain what is spoken. Since the finger too is a necessary thing, but when you separate it from the other members, it will not be equally useful: and the trumpet is necessary, but when it sounds at random, it is rather an annoyance. Yea, neither shall any art come to light, without matter subject to it; nor is matter put into shape, if no form be assigned to it. Suppose then the voice to be as the subject-matter, but the distinctness as that form, which not being present, there will be no use in the material.