Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-09-03
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divina's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "seraphic Pastures and Bnman
Imperfectious."

win SoleinnltN and theolo glcal and proph-
etc Isaiah was thinking atout religious
things, AS one Is apt to do IN time of great
national bereavement, and forgetting the
presence OF his wife and two sons, who made
up bis family, he had dream, not like the
Creams of ordinary character, which gen
orally co re from indigestion, but a vision
most instructive, and under the touch of
the hanf OF the Almighty
The Dlace--the ancient temple; building
gram, awful majestic Within that
temple a throne higher and grander than
that occupied by any car, or sultan or EN-
peror. 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 ami radiant
OF the heavenly inhabitants, the saraphim.
They are called burners because they look
Ike fire. Lips of fire, eyes OF fire, feet of
fire. In addition to the features and the
limbs. which suggest human being, there
are pInions, which su ggest the highest, the
swlttest the most huoyant and most in
spring of all intelligent creation-a bird.
Each seraph had six wings, each two of the
wings Tor a different purpose. Isaiah's
dream qu,vers and flashes with these
pinlons. Now folded, now spread, now
beaten in locomotion. with twain he COW
cred bis feet, with twain he covered his face
and with twain he did fiy.s
The probability is that these wings were
not all used at orce. The seraph standing
there near the throne overwhelmed at the in
significance of the paths his feet had trodden
as compared with the paths trodden by the
feet OF God, and with the lamepess Of his
Iocomotion amounting almost TO decrepitude
as compared with the divine velocity, with
teathery veil of angelic mo1esty hides the
feet With twain he did cover his feet''
Standing there overpoNered by the over.
matching splendors of God's glory, AMI I'm
able longer with the eyes TO LOOK upon them,
and wishing those eyes shaded from the in
sufferable glory, the pinions gather over the
countenance with twain he did cover the
face" Then as God tells this seraph to 90 to
the farthest outpost of immensely on message
OF light and love and joy, and get back be-
Iore the hrst anthem, 1t does not take the
seraph great while 10 spread himself upon
the an with unlmagined celebrity; one stroke
OF the wing equal to ten thousand leagues of
air. 'With twain he did flv"
The most practical au | useful lesson for
you and me, when we see the seraph
spreading his wings over the feet, is a lesson
of humility at imperfection. The bright st
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 mssteps they have
taken! Our feet in how many paths Of
world ness and folly they have walked
Neither God nor seraph inten led to pus
any dlshonor upon that which is one of tho
masterpieces OF Almighty GOETHE human
foot. Psychologist and anatomist arr over
whelmed at the wonders OF its organization.
The Brldsewater Treatise" written by Sir
CHARTS Bell, on the wisdom and goodness of
God, as illustrated in the human hand. was
"a raSIIIt n no GAO bo, E,oI -, L.
will aud testament of the Earl of Bridge.
water for the encouragement of Christian
literature. The world could afford to for
give his eccentricties, 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 o. God in the structure of the
human hand, the world could afford to for
give his oddities. And the world could now
afford TO have another Earl of Bridgewater
however ldiosyncratic, if he would induce
some other Sir Charles Bell to write a book
on the vision and goodness of God in thu
construction of the human foot-the ar
uculation OF its bones, the fabrication of it;
joints, the gracetulness Of its lines, the in
senulIy o its carriages, the delicacy OF its
VEINS, the rapidity OF ITS muscular contrac-
ton, the senSitivelesS of its nerves
L sound the praises of the human foot
With that we hator climb or march. Its
the foundation OF the physical fabric. 1t is
the base o a Got poised column. With it
the warrior braces himself for battle. With
1t the orator plants himself for euogium.
With it the toiler reaches his wor6. With
it the outraged stamps his Indignation. Its
loss an irreparable dlsl ster. Its health an
invaluable equipment. Il you want to
know its vaIus. ask the man whose foot
paralysis hath shrlvelej, or machinery hath
crushed or surgeons knife hath amputated.
The BiO.e honUrs 1t Especial care, Lest
thou dash thy fOos against stons;" ''hs
will not suffer thy foot TO be moved;N tiny
feet shall not stumble" Especial charge.
Keep thy foot when thon goest to une
house OF Cod Especial peril, Their feet
shall slide in due tine" Connected with
the worlds dissolution, "He shall set one
foot On the sea and the other on the earth
Give me the hlstoryo your loot and l will
give you the history of your lifetime. Tell
me up what steps it hath gona, down what
declivites, and in what roa Is and in what
directions, and | will know more about you
than | want to know. Nom OF us c1ult en-
dure the scrutiny. Our feet not always in
paths of God. Sometimes in paths OF
worldineSs Our feet, divine an glorious
machinery for usefulness and WORK, so often
making missteps, so often going in tds
wrong direction. Col knowing every stsp,
the patriarch saying, Thou settest a p-inC
on the heels of my feet" Crimes of the
hand, crimes of the to1gua, crimes of tho
eye, crimes of the ear not worse than thu
crimes Of tha TOO GA, we want the wings
of humility to cover the feet. Ought we not
to go into self abegnation before the all
searching, all scrutiniZing, all trying eye Of
Goi2 The serap1s do. How mucl more
we? with twain be covered the feet"
he Ar,1l !.
nature Is braggadocio and sin. Our ma
ture started at the hand of God regal. but
it has been pauperlzel There is a we'll in
Belgium whica once had very pure water,
and it was stoutly masone with s5ons au1
brick; but that well atterwlrd bsca ne thu
centre of the battle of Waterloo. At tine
opening of the battle the soldiers wit their
sabers compelled the gardener. William Won
Kylsom, to draw water out of the well for
them, and it was very pure water
But the battle ragged and three hundred
dead aud half dead were flung into the well
for quick and easy burial, so that the we'll
of refreshment became the well of death,
and long after people looked down into the
well, and they saw the hleache1 skulls, but
no water. So the hun soul was a well OF
gooi, but the armies of sin have fought
around 1t. AMI fought across it and been
slain, and it has become a well of skeletons
Dead hopes, dead resolutions, dead oppor-
tunities, dead ambitions. An abau lionel
well unless Christ shall reopen and purify
and fill it as the well of Belgium never was.
Unclean unclean!
Another seraphic posture in the text
i'With twain he covered the face" That
means reverence Coward. Never so much
irreverencs abroa in the world as to-day
You see it in the defaced statuary, in the
cutting out of figures from fine paintings
in the chipping of monuments for a me-
mento, in the fact that a military guarl
must stand at the graves of Grant and Gar
field, and that old shade trees must ne cut
down for tirewood, though fifty Geo:ge
7. Morrises beg the wOo1man to
spare the tree, and that calls
corpse a cadayer, AMI that speaks of
death as going over to the ma
jority, ami substitutes for the reverent
terms, father and mother, 1.-THE old man"
and "the old woman" and finds nothing
impressive in the ruins of Baalbec or the
columns of Karn1c, and sees NJ diff rencs
in the Sabbath from any other DAYS except
it allows more dissipation. and reads the
Bible i'll what is called higher criticism,
making it not the Word of Col. but good
book with some fine things 10 il. Irrsver-
encs never so mucl abroad. How many
take the name OF Col in vain, how many
trivial things sail about the Almighty
Not wiling to have 60 in the worl ,
they roll W an lea OF sentmenta'ity
and humantarianism AMI impu iencs
and imbec lily ami call it COT NJ
wings of reverence ov Ar the face no takin
off of shoes on holy grouni. You can tell
from the way they talk they could have
7 ~