The Monitor-register., 1897-03-05

Upward - Dying, He Says, Is but the
Molting Season For the Soul - Living
Near Christ.
WASHINGTON, Feb 28.--In this dis
course DR.. Talmage takes most exalted
theme and makes it practical and useful
to the last degree. The subject is
wings Of Seraphim," and the text is
Isaiah vi, 2, "With twain he covered his
face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly
In hospital of leprosy good King
Uzziah had died, and the whole land
was shadowed with solemnity, and the
illogical and prophetic Isaiah was think
ing about religious things, as one is apt
to do in time of great national bereave-
ment, and forgetting the presence of his
wife and two sons, who made up his
family, he has dream not like the
dreams of ordinary character, which
generally come from indigestion, but a
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 grander
than that occupied by any czar or sui
tan or emperor. On that throne, the
eternal Christ In lines surrounding
that throne, the brightest celestials, not
the chernbim, but higher than they, the
most exquisite and radiant of the heav-
enly inhabitants-the seraphim. They
are called burners because they look like
tire-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 ithest, 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 different purpose.
Isaiah's dream quivers and flashes with
these pinions, now folded, row spread,
now beaten in locomotion. with twain
he covered his feet, with twain he COW
cred his face, and with twain he did
fly"
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 loco
motion amounting almost to decrepitude
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
overwhelming 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 immensity 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 unin-
agined celerity, one stroke of the wing
equal to 10, 900 leagues of air. "With
twain he did fly"
Humility and Imperfection.
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 be-
meath 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 hui
mility, utter and complete. Our feet,
how laggard they have been in the di-
vine servicei Our feet, how many mis-
steps 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 anat-
omist are overwhelmed at the Won
ders of its organization. The Bridge
water treatise, written by Sir Charles
Bell, on the wisdom and goodness of
God as illustrated in the human hand,
was result of the $40, 900 bequeathed
i'll the last will and testament of the
Earl of Bridgewater for the encourage
ment 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
III an equipage drawn by four horses
and attended by two footlnen.
Withhis large bequest inducing Sil
Charles Bell TO write so valuable book
on the wisdom of God in the structure
of the human hand, the world could af-
ford 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 con-
struction of the human foot, the artic-
ulation of its bones, the fabrication of
it's joints, the gracefulness of its lines,
the ingenuity of its cartilages, the deli.
cacy of its veins, the rapidity Of its
muscular contraction, the sensitiveness
of its nerves.
sound the praises of the human foot.
With that we halt or climb Or march
1t is the foundation of the physical fab
ric 1t is the base of a God poised col
nmn. With it the warrior braces him.
self 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 irrep-
arabic disaster, its health an invalu-
able equipment. If you want to know
its value, ask the mai whose foot pa
ralysis hath shriveled, or machinery
hath crushed, or surgeons knife hath
amputated The Bible honors it. Espe-
cial care, "Lest thou dash thy foot
against a 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. -
Wings of Humility.
Give me the history of your foot, and
will give you the history of your life
time. Tell me up what steps it hath
gone, down what declivities and in
what roads ard III what directions and
l will know more about you than ]
want to know. None of us could en-
dure the scrutiny. Our feet not always
in paths of God, sometimes in paths of
worldliness. Our feet, a divine and
glorious machinery for usefulness and
work, so often making missteps, so often
going i'll the wrong direction, God
knowing every step, the patriarch say
ing, "Thou settest a print on the heels
of my feet. Grimes 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 humil-
ity TO cover the feet Ought we not to
go into self abnegation before the all
searching, all scrutinizing. all trying
q :. 10 Ill