The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-03-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: "Wings of Seraphim."

Subject: "Wings of Seraphim.'
TEXT: "With twain he covered his face,
and 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 shadowed
with soIemnity, and theological and pro-
phetic Isaiah was thinking about religious
things. Us 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 has dream not like the
dreams OF ordinary character, which gem
orally come from indigestion, but vision
most instructive. and under the touch Of the
hand of the Almighty.
The place, the ancient mple-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 celes-
tials, not the cherubim, but higher than they,
the most exquisite and radiant Of the heav-
emily inhabitants the seraphim. They are
called burners because they look like fire
lips of fire, eyes Of fire, feet OF fire. In ad-
ditlon to the features and the limbs, which
which suggest the lithest, the swiftest, the
most buoyant and the most aspiring of all
unintelligent creation-a bird. Each seraph
had six wings, each two OF the wings for a
different purpose. 1saiah'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 covered his face, and with twain he did
fly"
The probability is that these wings we're
not all used a. once. The seraph standing
there near the throne, overwhelmed at the
insiynifcauce OF the pE.hs 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 decrepi-
tude as compared with the divine velocity,
with feathery veil Of angelic plodesty hides
the feet with twain he Gid cover the
feet
Standing there, oVerpowered ty the over
matching splendors of Gods glory and un-
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 go
to the farthest outpost Of immensity 'on
message Of light anu love and joy and get
back before the first anthem, 1t does not take
the seraph great while to spread himself
upon the air with unimagined celebrity, one
stroke of the wing equal 10 10000 leagues OF
air. with twain he did fly"
The most practical and useful lesson for
you and me, when we see the seraph spread
ing his wings over the feet, Is the lesson OF
humility at imperfection. The brightest
angels of God are 90 far beneath God that
He charges them with folly, the seraph so
far beneath God and we so far beneath the
sera2h in service We ought to be plunged In
N1nkn ntNr fAQf n
laggard they have been in the divine SER
vice! Our feet, how many missteps they
have taken. Our feet, in how many paths
of worldliness and folly have they walked!
sound the praises Of the human foot.
With that we halt or climb or march. It is
the foundation OF the physical fabric. 1t Is
the base of q God poised column. With 1t
the warrior braces himself for battle. With
1t the orator plants himself for eulogium.
the outraged stamps his indignations, its loss
al rreparable disaster, its health an inval-
liable equipment. If you want to know its
value, ask the man whose foot paralysis hath
shriveeh, or machinery hath crushed, or
surgeons 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
Especial peril, ".Their feet shall slide In due
time" Connected with the worlds dissolu-
ton. He shall set one foot on the sea and
the other on the EARTH"
Give me the history o. your foot, and will
give you the history OF your lifetime. Tell
me up what steps 1t 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 en-
dure the scrutiny. Our feet not always In
paths of God, sometimes In paths OF worldli-
ness. Our feet, divine and glorious ma
chinery for usefulness and work, 80 often
making missteps, 80 often going in the wrong
direction. God knowing every step, the
patriarch saying, Thou settest print on
the heels of my feet" Crimes Of the hand,
crimes of the tongue, crimes OF the eye,
crimes of the ear not worse than crimes OF
the foot. Oh, we want the wings OF humility
to cover the feet! Ought We not to 20 into
self abnegation before the all searching, all
scrutinizing, all trying eye OF God? The
seraphs do. How much more we? "With
twain he covered his feet"
All this talk about the dignity Of human
nature is braggadocio and sin. Our nature
started at the hand Of God regal, but it has
been pauperized. There Is q we'll in Bel
gtum which once had very pure water. and
1t was stoutly masoned with stone and brick,
but that we'll afterward became the centre
Of ths battle Of Waterloo. At the opening OF
the battle the soldiers with their sabers COM
PEELED the gardener, william Won Kylsom, to
draw water out of the we'll for them, and it
was very pure water. But the battle ragged,
and 800 dead and half dead were flung into
the we'll for quick and easy burial. so that
the we'll of refreshment became the we'll OF
death, and long after people looked down
into the we'll and they saw the bleached
skulls, but no water. So the human soul
was a we'll of good. but the armies OF SIN have
fought around it and fought across it and
been slain, and it has become well OF skele-
tons. Dead hopes, lead resolutions, dead
opportunities, dead ambitions. An aban-
doned we'll unless Christ shall reopen and
purify and fill 1t as the we'll OF Belgium
never was. Unclean, unclean.
Another serapnic posture in the text.
"With twain he covered the face" That
means reverence Godward. Never so much
irreverence abroad 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 memento,
in the fact that military guard must stand at
the grave Of Lincoln and Garfield, and thar
old shade trees must BIZ cut down for fire.
wood, though fifty George P. Morrses beg
the woodmen to spare the tree. and that calls
a corpse cadaver. and that speaks OF death
as going over to the ma jority, and subSti-
tutes for the reverent terms father and
mother "the old man" and "the old woman"
and finds nothing impressive in the ruins of
Baalbec or the columns OF Karnnc, and sees
no difference in the Sabbath from other days
except it allows more dissipation. and reads
the Bite in what IS called higher criticism,
making it not the word Of God, but good
book with some fine things In 1t.
Irreverence never 80 much abroad. How
many take the name Of God in vain, how
many trivial things sail about the Almighty!
Not wiling to have God in the world they