The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-04
SOAR LIKE A SERAPH.
WHICH IS SWIFT, ASPIRING, RA-
DIENT AND BUOYANT.

Rev. DIR. Taimage breaches Upon an Ex-
allied Theme, but He Makes It Practical
and Useful-The Rustic of Pinfons-Di.
vine Velocity.
In his discourse DR.. Talmage takes a
most exalted theme and makes 1t practi-
cal and useful to the last degree. The
subject is Wings of Seraphim," and the
text is Isaiah vi, 2. with twain he Gov
cred his face, and with twain he covered
his feet. and with twain he did fly"
In a hospital of leprosy good King Uz-
ziah had died, and the whole land was
Swallowed with solemnity, and theologi-
cal and prophetic Isaiah was linking
about religious things. as one is apt to
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 generally come
from indigestion, but a vision most in
structive and under the touch Of the hand
of the Almighty.
The place. the ancient temple. building
grand, awful, majestic. Within that tenn
pie a throne higher and grander than
that occupied by and car or sultan or
tiHptioI. oH tudl III the cItTIdl
Christ. In lines, surrounding that throne,
the brightest celestials, not the cheru-
BIN, but higher than they, and most ex-
quisite and radiant of the heavenly in
habitants-the ~seraphiIn. They are call
ed 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
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.
Isaiah'S dream quiverS and flashes with
these pinions. Now folded, now spread,
now beaten in locomotion. With twain
cred his face, and with twain he did fly"
UNIMAGINED CELEBRITY.
The probability is that these wings were
not all used at once. The Seraph standing
the insignifcance 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 al
most to decrepitude as compared with the
divine velocity, with feathery veil of an
gelic modesty hides the feet. with twain
he did cover the feet
Standing there, oyerpowered by the
overwhelming ~splendors of Gods glory
and unable longer with the eyes to look
upon them and wishing those eyes shad-
ed from the insufferable glory, the pin
ions gather over the countenance. with
twain he did cover the face" Then, as
~ tCllo tIiS z upI " 81 " (lC q z
outpost of immensely 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 unimagined 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 we see the seraph
spreading his wings over the feet-is the
lessen Of humanity at mperfection. 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 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 n anatomist
are overwhelmed at the wonders of it's or
ganization. The B~ridgewater Treatise"
written by Sir ChalreS Bell, On the wis
dom and GOODNESS of God as illustrated
in the human hand, was a result of the
t ses; Ge1 5~aao of the Earl in Of tf9 Rr laIt Witf a for
the encouragement of Christian litera-
ture. The world could afford to forgive
his eccentricities, though he had two
put six dogs alone in an equipage drawn
by four horses and attended by two foot
men. With his large bequest inducing Sir
Charles Bell to write so valuable a book
ON the wisdom of God in the structure of
the human hand. the world could afford to
now afford to have another Earl of
Bridgewater, however idiosyncratic, if he
would induce some other Sir Charles Bell
to write a book on the wisdom and COOL
ness of God in the construction of the
human foot. The articulation of it's bones,
the fabrication of it's joints, the graceful
cartilages, the delicacy of it's veins, the
rapidity of it's muscular contraction, the
constituencies of it's nerves.
APOSTROPHE TO THE FOOT.
I sound the praises of the human foot.
With hat we halt or climb or march. 1t
is the foundation of the physical fabric.
1t is the base Of a God poised column.
With it the warrior braces himself for
battle. With 1t the orator plants himself
for eulogium. With it the toiler reaches
his work. With it the outraged stamps
his indignation. It's loss an ~irreparable
disaster. Its health an invaluable equip
ment. If you want to know it's value, ask
the man whose foot paralysis hath shriv-
eled. or machinery hath crushed. or sur
geon's knife hath amputated. The Bible
thy foot against a stone" "He will not
suffer sSn,1 thy thy foot nt to be m Hyed Thy feet
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the
house of Cod" Especial peril. Their
feet feet t \ w slide in d due time" C9nnes SsS
set one foot on the sea and the other on
GlVe me the history OF your IOOt, ana l
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 I will know more
about o than l want to know. None of
us could endure 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
I. often going in the wrong direction. God
knowing every step. the patriarch saying,
Thou settest a 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.
coEer W" nv "a aant, ne nne Tths IS 1a MUMMY tn IL u 70 70
self abnegation before the all searching.
all scrutinizing, all trying eye of God?
The SeraphS do. How much more we?
With twain he covered the feet"
All this tall about the dignity of HUI
man nature is braggadocio and sin Our
nature started at the hand of God regal.
but 1t has been pauperiZed. There is a
We'll in Belgium which once had very pure
water, and it was stoutly masoned with
stone and brick, but that we'll afterward
became the centre Of the battle of Water