lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips! For mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts; Whom guilty man cannot behold, and live.' It is contrary to God's nature that deep and true repentance should fail to find pardon. The Prophet's confession was therefore immediately followed by the forgiveness of his sins. This forgiveness was conveyed to him through the medium of a heavenly sacrament, and was attested by a seraphic absolution. God has strong consolations for holy mourners: He can heal the plague of every soul, and relieve the pressure upon every heart. A Seraph, on hearing the Prophet's cry of penitence, flew to the altar of incense, and, with the tongs of the altar, he took a red-hot coal,-which the Syriac fathers have always regarded as a symbol of the Incarnate Suffering Saviour, Christ in the Burning Agony of His Crucifixion and with this coal, he flew to Isaiah, and touched his lips. He touched the member of whose uncleanness the Prophet had complained. The touching of the lips, and the taking away of the guilt, were simultaneous. "Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." Thy sin is covered up, is annihilated, has no longer an existence in relation to the penal justice of God. Not only were the Prophet's lips made clean: he was "clean. every whit." It was an immediate and a complete pardon present, full, and free. From the moment that he received that pardon, Isaiah was a new man. The debilitating anguish of the sin-laden soul was healed. The oppressive weight 1 John 13. 10. as of a millstone was lifted from his heart. And now all was ripe and ready for communicating to him his prophetic commission; which was the primary object of the vision. God, although surrounded by Seraphim, wanted a man. He willed to send to His people a Prophet from amongst their brethren. "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?" So long as Isaiah knew only the Holiness of God, he felt unworthy to speak a single word for Him. But directly he had experienced God's Pardoning Love, all was changed. The "new song," "even praise unto our God "-a very new song in a rebellious and discontented world-had been put into his heart, and was ready upon his lips. He was eager for God's work. To the Divine Call for a messenger, he at once responded, with a heart as light as an angel's, "Here am I; send me." He was ready to be a fellow-worker with the bright Seraphim: he immediately received his Commission; and he became "the Seraphic Prophet." This was probably his first call to the Prophetical Office. Whosoever helps one struggling, storm-tossed soul to reach the haven of spiritual bliss and peace, does Seraph's work. Isaiah now desires to do for the souls of others what had been done for his own. He was however sent to an impenitent people, to warn them that their wilful disobedience was making blind the inner spiritual eye, and making deaf the inner spiritual ear of their soul; and was making their inner heart unresponsive and dead to all that is spiritually true, and beautiful, and good: the 'eyes closed,' the ears heavy,' the 'heart fat,' making it impossible for them to "see with 1 Ps. 40. 3. their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed."1 Such was his message to an apostate people. But the dark message was delivered by the Prophet with all the surroundings of the bright vision. Himself pardoned and blessed unspeakably, he accompanied the stern proclamation of wrath with all the tender pleadings of the Divine love and mercy. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow." "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." "Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Thus, throughout the whole of Isaiah's prophecies, the many lights of the heavenly vision are ever breaking through the dark cloud. 1 Is. 6. 9, 10. 2 Is. 1. 18; 40. I; 43. 25; 55. I, 7. CHAPTER VII. THE SERAPHIM'S WORSHIP (Isaiah 6.)—Ritual I. Intelligible Worship.-2. Responsive Worship.-3. Congregational Worship.-4. Reverent Worship.-5. The Ritual use of Incense.6. Musical Worship.-7. Beautiful Worship. THE Holy Spirit has revealed and recorded the Seraphim's Worship (Isaiah 6) "for our learning." In reading this (or any other) portion of God's Word, we ought to read with humble hearts, prepared both to unlearn and to learn: to unlearn our own erroneous views of worship; and to learn what kind of worship is good and acceptable to God. In studying the Bible, we should read in the spirit of the beautiful words which Eli put in the mouth of the child Samuel, "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth."1 Having in the preceding Chapter considered the Spiritual Characteristics of the Seraphim's Worship, we now come to examine its RITUAL CHARACTERISTICS. The Ritual Characteristics of this great act of worship are worthy of a careful study: for they are in no small measure representative. The same ritual features will reappear again and again in other inspired accounts of the Worship in Heaven. 11 Sam. 3. 9. 1.-Intelligible Worship. We have already seen that the Seraphim's Worship was an INTELLIGIBLE Worship. Had it been conducted in an unknown tongue, it would have lost, not all, but nearly all, its Impressiveness: for it would have lost its clear and definite teaching. The blessed Seraphim are not represented as mere silent spectators, while one or two, or a small band of choristers, selected from amongst their number, chanted words absolutely unintelligible to the rest. Such a worship would be a monstrous and lamentable phenomenon in heaven; and it is no better on earth. An unedifying worship, which would be unsuitable for angels, is still more unsuitable for men; for men need edification and instruction more than angels do. Nor was this worship intelligible only to the Seraphim who engaged in it. It was equally intelligible to Isaiah. We can hardly read the account which the Prophet gives of the deep and definite impressions made upon him by witnessing the heavenly worship without being reminded of S. Paul's argument against the use of an unknown tongue in the public ministrations of the Church. S. Paul explains to his Corinthian converts that the "understanding" ought to be engaged in public worship; and that this can only be done when. worship is conducted intelligibly, in a known tongue. The use of an unknown tongue leaves the "understanding" devotionally unemployed, "unfruitful." It treats that faculty as if it were incapable of ministering to true worship, whose chief minister it is. "What is it then?" exclaims the Apostle. "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else if thou bless with the spirit, how E |