Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-29
THE USE FOR WINGS.
sllmage Teaches a Lesson of Humil-
Aity From Isaiah's Seraphim.
9DERN IRREyERENCE REBuKED.
human Nature Was Originally Regal, But
Now 1t Is fauperized.
DEATH is ONLY A MoULTING SEASON.


sermon, delivered to day, is on Isaih 6:1
with twain he covered his face; with twai
he covered his feet, and with twain he di
hy"
In g hospital of leprosy good King Uzzial
had died, and the whole land was shadowet
with solemnity, and theological and pro
phetic Isaiah was thinking about religion
things, as one is ant to do in time of grea
national bereavement and forgetting tn,
presence of his wife and two sons, who mad,
mp his family, he has a dream, not like th,
dreams of ordinary character which gener
ally come from inigestion, but a vision mos
instructive, and under the touch of the han
of the Almighty.
The place, the ancient temple: building,
grand, awful, majestic. Within that temple
throne higher and grander than that oc
cupied by any cZar or sultan or emperor
On that throne, the eternal Christ In lines
surrounding that throne the brightest
celestials, not the cherubim, but higher than
they; the most exquisite and radiant of the
heavenly inhabitants; the seraphim. They
are called burners because they look like
fire. Lips of fire, eyes of fire, feet of fire.
In addition to the features and the limbs
which suggest a human being, there are
pinions which suggest the lithest, the swift
est, the most buoyant and most inspiring OF
all intelligent creation-a bird. Each seraph
had six wings each two of the wings for a
different purpose. lsaiah's dream quiyers
and flashes with these pinions. Now folded,
now spread, now beaten in locomotion.
"With twain he covered his feet, with twain
he covered his lace, and with twain he did
n.y."
A Practical Lesson of Humility.
The probability is that these wings were
NOT all usel a once The seraph stand
ing there near the throne overwhelmed at
the insignificance of the paths his feet had
trodden compared with the paths trodden
by the feet of God, and with the lameness
OF his locomotion amounting almost to de-
crepitude as compared with the divine ve-
locity, with feathery veil of angelic modesty
hides the feet. "With twain he did cover
tine feet"
Standing there overpowered by the over
matching splendOr of Gods glory, and un-
able longer with the eyes Co look upon them,
and wishing those eyes shaded from the in
snferahle glory, TIE pinions gather over the
the face" Then as God tells this seraph to
go to the furthest outpost of immensity ON
message of light and love and joy. and get
back before the first anthem, it does not
take the seraph great while to spread him
sell upon the air with unimagined celebrity,
one stroke of the wing equal to TO- O0O0 leagues
of air. with twain he did fly"
The most practical and useful lesson for
you and me-when we see the seraph
spreading his wings over the feet, is lesson
of humility and imperfection. The brightest
angels of God are so far beneath God that he
charges them with folly. The seraph so far
beneath God, and we so far beneath the
seraph in service we ought to be plunged in
humility, utter and complete. Our feet,
how laggard they have been in the divine
service! Our feet how many missteps
they have taken! Our feet, in how many
paths of worldliness and folly they have
Nither God nor seraph intended to but
any dishonor upon that which is one of the
masterpieces of Almighty God-the human
foot. Physiologist and anatomisr are
overwhelmed at the wonders of its organi
cation.
The Wonders of the Human Foot.
The articulation of its bones, the lubrica-
tion of its joints, the gracefplness of its
lines, the ingenuity of its csrtilages, the del
icacy of its veins, the rapidity of its muscu- |
lar contraction, the senstiveness of its |
nerves. 1 sound the praises of the human |
foot.
With that we halt or climb or march, 1t is
the foundation of the physical fabric. It is
the base of a God-poised column. With it
the warrior braces himself for battle. with
il the orator plants himself for eulogfum.
W 18th it the toiler reaches his work. With it
the outraged stamps his Indignation, Its
loss AN irreparable disaster. Its health an
equipment. Ii you want to know |
its value, ask the man whose foot paralysis
ll.ttl SitrlNele0, or machinery hath crushed. l
o. surgeons knife hath amputated.
The Bible honors it. Especial care: sLest |
thou dash thy foot against a stone;" "He |
will not suffer thy foot to be moved "thy
feet stall not stumble" Especial charge:
keep thy loot when thou goest TO the house
o God" Especial peril: Their feet shall
slide in due time" Connected with the
wur!as dissolution: "He shall set one foot
On the sea and the other on the eartn.'
Give me the history OF your foot and / |
will give you the history OF your lifetime
" hat declivities and in what roads and in 1
" nat directions, and will know more about |
7ou than l want to know. None OF us could |
endure the scrutiny. Our feet not ALWAYS |
N paths of God. Sometimes i'll paths of |
y orldllness. Our feet, divine and glorious 4
for usefulness and work so often |
making missteps, so often going in the wrong |
direction. God knowing every step, the |
patriarch saying, Thou settest a print on |
he heels OF my feet' Crimes OF the hand, |
crimes of the tongue, crimes OF the eye, |
)f the loot. On, We want the wings of hu- |
nlllty to cover the feet.
Human Nature Utterly Corrupted.
All this talk about the dignity OF human
Iature is braggadocio and sin. Our nature
tarted at the hand of God regal, but it has
'een pauperized. The human soul was a |
veil of good, but the armies of sin have |
ought around it and fought across it and
een slain, and it has become a well of skele- |
opportunities, dead ambitions. An aban. !
oned well unless Christ shall reopen and
urify and I'LL it as the well OF Belgium
ever was Unclean, uncleani ,
Another seraphic posture in the text:
With twain he covered the face" Never !
o much irreverence abroad in the world as
o-dsy. You see it in the defaced statuary, :
1 the cutting out of figures from fine paint :
lgs, in the chipping OF monuments for | :
in the Iact that military guard
lust stand at the grave of Grant and Gar {
cid, and that old shade trees must be cut
own for nrewood, though so George p. |
IOrrises beg the woodmen to spare the |
rec, and that calls corpse cadaver and
nat speaks OF death as going over to the | T
rms, father and mother, "the old man, G
nd "the old woman" and finds nothing i'm 4
ressive IN the rulns-ot Baalbec or the col | o
INNS of karnac. and see no difference in the g
ibhath from other days except it allows s
ore dissipation, and reads the Bible in Il
nat is called higher criticism, making it +
ot the Word OF God but good book with /
,me fine things in it, N
never so much abroad. How
any take the name of God in vain how +
any trivial things said about the Al
lightly. Not willing to have God in the
orld, they roll up an idea of fsentimentality
I'd humanitarianisln and impotence and
and call it God. No wings of
verence over the lace, no taking of OF
oes on holy ground.
Colossal self-Corceit OF This Age.
ou can tell from tne way tney talk they |
uld have made a better world than this u
ID that the God of the Bible shocks every =
nse of propriety. They talk of the love of
ID in such way that shows you they
lieve it does not make any difference how
d man is here, he will come in at the
infng gate. They talk of the love of God I,
such q way which shows you they think it | u
a general jail delivery Tor all the aban- u
ned and the scoundrelism of the universe ~
punishment hereafter 1or any wrong ~
ne here. "
q Rible gives us two descriptions of God