Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-03-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME ny THE
WASHINGTON PREACHER
Subject: Wings Of seraphim."

TExr. "wuh twain be covered his face,
ami with twain he covered his feet. ana with
twain he did Nv. Isaiah vi. ,
In hospital OF leprosy good King Uzsiah
had died. and the whole lana was shadowed
with solempity, and theological and pro-
phetic Isaiah was thinking about religious
things. a one l. apt 90 do In time OF great
national bereavement, and forgetting the
presence Of his wife and two sons, who made
up his family, he has a dream not like the
dreams Of ordinary character. which gem
orally come from indigestion, but a vision
most instructive and under the touch Of the
hand of the Almighty.
The place. the ancient temple-huilding
grand. awful. majestic. Within that temple
a throne higher and grlnder than that Oc-
cupiet by any ear or sultan or emperor
On that throne the eternal Christ. In lines
surrounding TINT thr me. the brightest celes-
tials, not the cherubim, but highcrthan 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-
ditIon TO the features and the limbs, which
suggest Il human being, there are pinions
which suggest the lthest, the swiitest, 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
! ullltFtuI ltuTIioses lsAlAn uEtiil QulNtfs
| 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
! n.y."
| The probability is that these wings were
| not all used az once. The seraph standing
/ there near the throne, overwhelmed at the
| insigniilcauce of the paths his feet had
! trodden ~ compared with the paths trodden
| by the feet OF God, and with the lameness of
! his locomotiOn amounting almost to decrep-
/ tude rs compared with the divine velocity,
! with teathery veil of angelic modesty hides
! the feet. "Wth twain he did cover the
feet
/ Standing there, overpowcred Y the over
/ matching splendOrs of Gods glory and UNI
| able longer with the eyes to look upon them
| and wishing those ewes shaded from the in
sufferabe glory tue pnions gather over the
/ cOuntenancp. '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 ami love and joy and get
back before the first anthem, it does not take
/ the seTaph 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 aud useful lesson for
. you and me. when we SEQ the seraph spread
ing his wings over the feet, is the lesson Of
I humility at impcrfcctiOn. The brightest
| angels of God are so far beneath God that
He charges them with folly, the seraph 50
far beneath God aud we so far beneath the
seraph in service we ought to be plunged in
humility, utter and complete. our feet, how
!aggard they have been in the divine ser.
vice! Our feet: how many missteps they
have taken. Our feet. in how many paths
OF wOrliliness and folly have they walked.
sound the praises Of the human foot.
d. u Z.
the foundation Of the physical fabric. II IL
the base OF Il God poised column. With it
the warrior braces himself Tor battle With
1t the orator plants himself for eulogium.
With it the toiler reaches his work. With il
the outraged stamps his indignations its loss
an irreparable disaster, its health an lnval-
liable equipment. II you want to know its
value, ask the man whose foot paralysis hath
shriveled, or machinery hath crushed, or
surgeons knife hath amputated. The Bible
honors 1t. Especial care. Lest thou dash
thy foot against stone, '''He will not suffer
thy foot 10 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 dissolu-
ton. "He shall set one foot on the sea and
the other on tho earth. ~
Give me the history OF your foot, and | 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 will know more about you
than | want TO know. None OF US could en-
dure the scrutiny. Our feet not always III
paths of God, sometimes in paths of worldli-
ness. Our feet, n divine and glorious ma.
chiDery for usefulness and work, so often
making missteps so often going in the wrong
direction. God knowing every step, the
patriarch saying, Thou settest print on
E r a.. l..
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 go into
self ubnegation before the all searching, al
scrutinizing, all trying eye of God? The
seraphs do How much more we? ''Witl
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 pauperZed. There is well in Bel
GUM which once had very pure water, and
it was stOutly masoned with stone and brick
but that well afterward became the centre
Of the battle OF Waterloo. At the opening o
the battle the soldiers with their sabers com
PEELED the gardener, William Won KyIsom, t
! draw water out of the we'll for them, aud il
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 thai
the we'll of refreshment became the we'll o
death, and long after people looked dowr
into the well and they saw the bleachet
skulls, but no water. So the human sou
was u well of good. but the armies OF SIN have
! fought around it and fought across it ant
been slain, and it has become well ofskele
tons. Dead hopes, dead resolutions, deaC
opportunities, dead ambitions. An aban
doned we'll unless Christ shall reopen ant
purify and III it ms the we'll of Belgium
never was. Unclean, unclean.
Another seraphic 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. il
. the chipping of monuments for memento
in the fact that military guard must stand a
the grave of Lincoln and Garfield, and thai
old shade trees must be cut down for fire.
wood, though fifty George P. Morrises beg
0 the wOOdmen TO spare the tree. and that call!
:. Il corpse a cadaver, and that speaks of deatt
as going over to the majority, and substi
tutes for the reverent terms father ant
mother "the old man" and "the old woman,
and finds nothing impressive in the ruins o
Baalbec or the columns of Karnac, and see:
no difference in the Sabbath from other day!
a except it allows more dissipation, and read,
the Bible in what Is called higher criticism
-, making it not the word of God, but a gooC
book with some fine things in it.
Irreverence never so much abroad. How
: many take the name of God in vain, how
many trivial things sal about the Almighty
Not willing to have God in the world, thel
roll up an idea of sentimentality and hu
manitarianism and impudence and imbecil
ity and call 1t God. No wings of reverence
overthe face, no taking off Of shoes on hol,
ground. You can tell from the way they tall
they could have made a better world thai
this, and that the God of the Bible shock
every sense OF proprietry. They talk of tn