1 Corinthians 14:15

Paul advocated praising and praying to God with both the spirit (emotions) and the mind (understanding). The spirit and the mind are both receptors as well as expressers of impressions. Music without words can make a real impression on us even though that impression is not intellectual. One reason tongues is an inferior gift is that in it the reason has no control.

Sometimes modern Christians who believe they have the gift of tongues wonder if they should speak in tongues in private even though they do not know what they are saying. Some of them claim that doing so edifies them (1 Corinthians 14:4). Let us assume they are speaking some language that they have not studied, which is what the tongues-speakers in the early church were speaking. This, by the way, eliminates most modern tongues-speakers since most modern tongues-speakers simply repeat gibberish. A pastor friend of mine who used to "speak in tongues" (gibberish) said he had taught many Christians to "speak in tongues" and could teach anyone to do so. According to him it just requires learning a few phrases, getting oneself into the proper emotional state, and releasing one’s inhibitions. Paul did not discourage speaking unknown languages in private. Nonetheless the relative value and profitability of such an experience are so minimal that its practice seems almost foolish in view of the more edifying options that are open to Christians. Perhaps the current preoccupation with feeling good, in contrast to having to work hard with one’s mind to edify the church, is what makes this practice so attractive to many today.

"It is, of course, impossible for anyone to prove experimentally that speaking in tongues cannot occur today. It may be demonstrated, however, that speaking in tongues is not essential to God’s purpose now, and that there are good reasons to believe that most if not all the phenomena which are advanced as proof of modern speaking in tongues is either psychological or demonic activity." [Note: John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, pp. 185-86.]

If the New Testament gift of tongues were still in the church today we would expect that missionaries with this gift would not have to go to language school to learn the language of the people they were preparing to minister to. But this is not the case.