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

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 Vision." He also conducted
 the impressive sacramental service.
 MT Steele sad in part: The temple
 setting with it's ministering priests and
 magnificent appointments was calcu-
 lated to impress the worshipper with
 its real splendor. The Lord was 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 im-
 part the sense of his exaltation. The 1 cherubim over the ark were the symbol
 of his invisible presence, the holy
 shikinah, between them he was SUD-
 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 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 elements 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 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 a vision as Isaiah's to sustain us. Some lives seem too shall low, all do not gain it but any may.
 The test of such a 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 a corresponding sense of humility, "Woe is me for 1 am man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of people of I 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 it's true perspective, l its enormity. Sinful unconscious of t sin until Spirit of God touches his life. 1 Have parallel or echo of Isaiah's ex- 1 perience in Peters depart from me, r for am sinful man. ," Isaiah says r unclean, "for tor because) mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts."
 It has cleansing effect. Then one ii of the seraphim flew, having live coal from off the altar and touches my mouth and said, "lo, this that touched f 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 q true, impossible to go back into o cramped, narrow dinginess of our for ner sinfulness. Wendall Phillips got u vision of freedom and his soul, restless n while fellow beings in, servitude. Au- 2; 2 gustine from hls moral delinquency U and foul immortality saw God and be- came Saint and theologian. So did the 3rofane tinker Bunyan and tells of it re n matchless allegory of Pilgrims Prog u 'ess.
 "And I heard the voice of the Lord, aying, When shall send and who u will go for us?' Then l said, Here am T send me-. And he said, Co. '" Love s missionary, offers itself in willing ervice. The people of unclean lips CT leeded what Isaiah had received. The c, ivine light does stop in us but seeks st o diffuse itself through other lives. lame reponse from Saul of Tarsus on Damascus road. +l May it be that we shall catch that sl l,I ision and be able to say as Paul did to IN lgrippa, 70 King, was not disobedi mt to that heavenly vision"
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