Connecticut western news., 1897-03-04
WINGS OF SERAPHIM.
DR. TALMAoE'S PRACTICAL SERMON
 UPON AN EXALTED THEME.

DR. TALMA0E'S PRACTICAL SERMON
 UPON AN EXALTED THEME. Hs UrgsA His Hearers to Aspire to Fly Upward = Dying, He Says, Is but the Melting Season For the soua - Living Near Christ. ....
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 2S.-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. g, 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 Uxziah had died, and the whole land was shadowed with solemnity. and the ological and prophetic Isaiah was think ing about religious things, as one is apt to do in time of great national bereaye- mens and forgetting the presence of his wife and two sons, who made up his family, he has 8 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 sul- tan 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 heav- enly inhabitants-the seraphim. They are called burners because they look like Are-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 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 different purpose. Isaiah'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 GOV cred his face, and with twain he did hy."
 The probability is that these wings were not all used at onoe The seraph standing there near the throne, over- whelmed at the insignifcance of tn" 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 overmatching 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. az 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 great while to spread himself upon the air with unim- Agined celerity, one stroke of the wing equal to 10000 leagues of air. "Witr twain he did fly.
 Humility and Imperfsction.
 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 hu- mility. utter and complete. Our feet, how laggard they have been in the di- vine servicei Our feet, how many mis- steps they have takenl Our feet, in how many paths of worldliness and folly they have walkedi
 Neither God nor seraph intended to put any dishonor upon that which is one of the masterpieces of Almighty God the human foot. Physiologist and anat- omist- are overwhelmed at the won- ders of It's organization. The Bridge water treatise, written by Sir Charles Bell, on the wisdom and goodness o1 God as illustrated in the human hand, was result of the $40, ,O00 bequeathed in 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 hii 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 Sil Charles Bell to write so valuable bool on the wisdom of God in the structur, of the human hand, the world could af ford to forgive his oddities. And tn, world could now afford to have anothe, Earl of Bridgewater, however idiosyn cratic, if he would induce some othe, Sir Charles Bell to write book on tn, wisdom and goodness of God in the con struction of the human foot, the artic ulation of it's bones, the fabrication O it's joints, the gracefulness of it's lines the ingenuity of it's cartridges, the deli cacy of its veins, the rapidity of it muscular contraction, the sensitivenes of its nerves.
 I sound the praises of the human foot With that we halt or climb or march It is the foundation of the physical fab rio. It is the base of God poised col umn. With it the warrior braces him self for battle. With it the orator plant himself for eulogium. With it the toile reaches his work. With it the outrage' stamps his indignation, its loss an irrep arable disaster, it's health an invalu able equipment. If you want to knoy It's value, ask the man whose foot pa ralysis hath shriveled, or machiner. hath crushed, or surgeons knife hat amputated. The Bible honors it. Espe cial care, "Lest thou dash thy foo against stone, He will not suffe thy foot to be moved, " ''Thy feet shal not stumble. Especial charge, "Kee thy foot when thou goest to the hous of God. |" Especial peril, "Their fee shall slide in due time. Connecte
 with the worlds dissolution, He sha
 get one foot on the sea and the other 0
 the earth"
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