Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-08
THE SERAPH'S WINGS.
DR.. TALMAeE IN THE MANUFACTURE
ING TOWNS OF MIDDLE ENGLAND.

OF HOu-lnls
Seems to De an Age OF Irreverence.
Fools Make n Mock of Sin.
LONDON, Aug. 2s.-During the past week
DR.. Talmage has been preaching to enor-
nous audiences in the great manufacture
ing towns of the English midland coun-
ties. In Birmingham, in spite of the great
size of the churches placed at his disposal,
it was necessary to engage the town hall,
the spacious building in which John Bright
| delivered his famous speeches to the elect
ors and even this edifice would not con-
tain half the people who tried to get en-
trance. At Leicester, Cardiff and Swan
sea there was the same eagerness to hear
him and he was received with unbounded
enthusiasm. The sermon selected for pub
lication this week is on Isaiah vi, 2, "With
twain he covered his face, with twain he
covered his feet, and with twain he did fly"
In hospital of leprosy good King Uz-
ziah had died and the whole land was
shadowed with solemnity, and theological
and prophetic Isaiah was thinking about
religious things, as one is apt to do in time
Of great national bereavement, and forget
-,
who made up his family, he has a dream,
not like the dreams of ordinary character
which generally come from indigestion,
but vision most instructive and under
the touch of the hand of the Almighty.
| The place, the ancient temple; building,
grand, awful, majestic. Within that tenn
pie throne higher and grander than that
occupied by any czar or sultan or emperor.
On that throne, the eternal Christ In
lines surrounding that throne the bright
est 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 pinio9s which Suggest the lithest, the
| swif.est, the most buoyant and most in
, spring of all intelligent creation-a bird.
| Each seraph had six wings, each two of
the wings for different purpose. Isaiah's
dream quivers and flashes with these pin
IONS Now folded, now spread, now beaten
in locomotion. with twain he covered
his feet, with twain he covered his face,
and with twain he did fly"
| GODS SWltI MESSENGERS.
The probability is that these wings were
not all used at once. The seraph standing
there near the throne, overwhelmed at the
insigniicance of the paths his feet had
trodden as compared with the paths trodden
by the feet of God, and with the lameness
of his locomotion, amounting almost to
decrepitude as compared with the divine
velocity, with feathery veil of angelic mod
esty hides the feet. with twain he did
cover the feet"
Standing there overpowered by the over
matching splendors of Gods glory, and
unable longer with the eyes to look upon
them, and wishing those eyes shaded from
the insutferable glory, the pinions gather
over the countenance. "With twain he
did cover the face. Then as God tells this
seraph to 60 to the farthest outpost of i'm
mensity on message of light and love and
joy, and get back before the first anthem,
it does not take the seraph a great while
to spread himself upon the air with unim-
agined celebrity, one stroke of the wing
equal to ten thousand 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 a les
son of humility at 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 takenl Our feet, in
how many paths of worldliness and folly
they have walked!
Neither God nor seraph intended to put
| any dishonor upon that which is one of the
masterpieces of Almighty God-the human
foot. Psychologist and anatomist are over
| whelmed at the wonders of its organi-
cation. The "Bridgewater Treatise, writ
| ten by Sir Charles Bell, on the wisdom and
| goodness of God as illustrated in the
human hand, was a result Of the $4,000
bequeathed in the last will and testament
| of the Earl of Bridgewater for the en-
| couragement of Christian literature The
world could afford to forgive his eccen-
tricities, though he had two dogs seated at
his table, and though he put six dogs alone
in an equipage drawn by four horses and
| attended by two footmen. With his large
bequest inducing Sir Charles Bell to write
| so valuable book on the wisdom of God
in the structure of the human hand, the
world could afford to forgive his oddities.
THE BRIDGEwATER TREATIsEs.
| And the world could now afford to have
another Earl of Bridgewater, however
| idiosyncratic, if he would induce some
other Sir Charles Bell to write book on
the wisdom and goodness of God in the
| construction of the human foot. The ar
| ticulation of its bones, the fabrication of
| its joints, the gracefulness of its lines, the
| ingenuity of its cartilages, the delicacy of
| its veins, the rapidity of its muscular con-
| traction, the sensitiveness of its nerves.
l sound the praises of the human foot.
| With that we halt or climb or march. 1t
is the foundation of the physical fabric.
1t is the base of God poised column.
| With it the warrior braces himself for
battle. With it the orator plants himself
| for eulogium. With it the toiler reaches
his work. With it the outraged stamps
his indignation. Its loss an irreparable
disaster. Its health an invaluable equip.
ment. If you want to know its value ask
the man whose foot paralysis hath shriv-
eled, or machinery hath crushed, or sur
geon's knife hath amputated. The Bible
honors it. Especial care, LEST thou dash
thy foot against stone;" "he will not
suffer thy foot to be moved" "thy feet
shall not stumble" Especial charge,
keep thy foot when thou goest to the
house of God" Especial peril, ''Their
feet shall slide in due time" Connected
with the worlds dissolution, "He shall set
one foot on the sea and the other on the
earth"
Give me the history of your foot, and I
will give you the history of your lifetime.
| Tell me up what steps it hath gone, down
what declivities and in what roads and in
what directions, and I will know more
about you than, I want to know. None of
us could endure the scrutiny. Our feet
not always in paths of God. Sometimes
in paths of worldliness. Our feet, divine
and glorious machinery for usefulness and