The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-03-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Lessons From Isaiah's Description
Of the Seraphim's Wings.
Humility at Imperfection and Reverence
Toward God-We Must Keep Nov
ing-God Gives the Soul
Wings for Flight.

Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of the following sermon: "Wings
OF Seraphim,' basing it on the text:
With twain he covered his face, with twain he
covered his feet, and with twain he did fly
Isaiah vi, 2
In hospital of leprosy good King
Uzziah had died, and the whole land
was Swallowed 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, forgetting the pres
ence of his wife and two sons, who
made up his family, he has dream,
not like the dreams of ordinary char
acter, which generally come from indi-
gestion, but vision most instructive
and under the touch of the hand of the
Almighty.
The place, the ancient temple; build
ing grand, awful, majestic. Within
that temple throne higher and grand
err than that occupied by any car 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 seraph-
i'm. 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 swiftest, the
most buoyant and the most inspiring
of all unintelligent creation-a bird.
Each seraph had six wings, each two
of the wings for different purpose.
lsaiah's dream quivers and flashes with
these pinions Now folded, now spread,
now beaten in locomotion. with twain
he covered his feet, with TWAIN he COW
cred his head. and with twain he did
fy.'
The probability is that these wings
were not all used at once. The seraph
standing there near the throne, over
whelmed at the insignificance 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 de-
crepitude as compared with the Divine
velocity, with feathery veil of angelic
modesty hides the feet. with twain
he did cover the feet"
Standing there overpowered by the
guaranteeing splendors of Gods glory,
and unable longer with the eyes to look
upon them, and wishing those eyes
shaded from the insufferable glory, the
pinions gather over the countenance
with twain he did cover the face"
Then, as God tells this seraph to go to
the farthest outpost of immensely 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 himself upon the air with un-
imagined CELEBRITY, one stroke of the
wing equal to 10000 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
the lesson 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 into
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 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 overwhelmed at the
wonders of its organization. The
..Bridgewater Treatise" written by Sir
Charles Bell, on the wisdom and good
ness of God rs illustrated in the hui
man hand, was the result of the S40,-
600 bequeathed in the last will and
testament of the earl of Bridgewater
for the encouragement of Christian
literature. The world could afford to
forgive his eccentricities, 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 a
book on the wisdom of God in the struc
ture of the human hand, the world could
afford to forgive his oddities. And the
world could now afford to have another
earl of Bridgewater, however idiosyn-
cratic, If he would induce some other
Sir Charles Bell to write book on the
wisdom and goodness of God in the
of the human foot. The
articulation of its bones, the lubrica-
ton of its joints, the gracefulness of
its lines, the ingenuity of its cartilages,
the delicacy Of its veins, the rapidity of
its muscular contraction, the sensitive
ness of its nerves.
/ sound the praises of the human
foot. With that we halt or climb or
march. 1t is the foundation of the phys
ical 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 indig-
nation. Its loss an irreparable disas-
ter. Its health an invaluable equip
ment. II you want to know its value,