The Newtown bee., 1908-05-15
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
FINE DISCOURSE BY REV ALBERT . >.. STEELE OF BETHEL. ..


 Rev Albert Steele, pastor of the | Bethel Congregational church, gave an eloquent sermon, Sunday morning, on "Isaiah's Vislon." He also conducted | the impressive sacramental service. MT Steele sad in part: The temple setting with its ministering priests and magnificent appointments was calcu- lated to impress the worshipper with 1 its real splendor. The Lord was a king and his majesty and dignity were to be upheld by the surrounding show and pomp. He himself could not be seen while all this circumstance was to i'm part the sense of his exaltation. The cherubim over the ark were the symbol of his invisible presence, the holy shikinah, between them he was sup posed to dwell. Amid such surround ings Isaiah saw the Lord. Through all this form, ceremony, pomp and even the imperfection of priest, caught a vision of, God. Penetration of his mind to center, the heart and spirit all this form. All this manifestation was glory of God but character was holy.
 This reaction of Isaiah's character on temple worship. Multitudes worship ped; he alone had this exalted vision. This night of illumination was gained in state of intense thought, in which l the consciousness of self was wholly lost and with itself. God himself | seemed to touch the soul and take pos session !of it. In such supreme mo- ments the clements that appeal to sense are but the images of the ex- pression that enters into the deeper ex- periences of the soul, in its most inti- mate communings with the Eternal. | Isaiah experienced an actual sight of Gods cloudy garment filling the tenn pie, and the fiery beings that surround ed him, as subjective vision, but its inner content was revelation of the holiness of God. It was such a spirit that John was in on the Lords Day when he beheld the new Jerusalem.
 We need such a vision. Need to seek past the form of worship. To be caught in its spirit and penetrate to it's spirit, Inner meaning. To get that conception and conviction that cannot be uttered in liberal speech. That sees beyond the human imperfections of those who minister and those worship to that toward which all these are but the frail gropings of the human heart. We need such vision as Isaiah's to sustain us. Some lives seem too shal- low, all do not gain it but any may.
 The test of such vision, the proof that it is not mere emotional ecstasy or an haluciation is found in the effects produced by Isaiah. The sense of Gods holiness contrast ed with mans unholiness and enforced corresponding sense of humility. "Woe is me for l am man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips" A real vision of God | produces sense of sin, it rebukes and humbles. The nearer one gets in like ness to God the more his sense of un- worthiness increases and sense of sin. for he sees sin in its true perspective, its enormity. Sinful unconscious of sin until Spirit of God touches his life. Have parallel or echo of Isaiah's ex- perience in Peter's depart from me, for 1 am a sinful man. '' Isaiah says unclean, flor tor because) mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts."
 It has a cleansing effect. Then one of the seraphim flew. having a live coal from off the altar and touches my mouth and said, ''lo, this that touched thy lips; and thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin is forgiven. Wis., ions of truth cleanse us as high ideals supplant lower standards of living. If | the vision of God has been real and true. impossible to go back into | cramped, narrow dinginess of our for mer sinfulness. Wendall Phillips got vision of freedom and his soul, restless while fellow beings in servitude. Au- gustine from his moral delinquency and foul immortality saw God and be- came Saint and theologian. So did the profane tinker Bunyan and tells of 1t in matchless allegory of Pilgrims Prog ress. ,, "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, When shall l send and who will go for us?' Then I said, Here am I send me-. And he said, Co. '" Love is missionary, offers itself in willing service. The people of unclean lips needed what Isaiah had received. The divine light does stop in us but seeks to diffuse itself through other lives. Same reponse from Saul of Tarsus on Damascus road.
 May it be that we shall catch that vision and be able to say as Paul did to Agrippa. 70 King, was not disobedi- ent to that heavenly vision."
 J. B. Shaw advertises- a car load of