'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'--ISAIAH vi. 5.
In previous pages we have seen how Isaiah's vision of Jehovah throned
in the Temple, 'high and lifted up,' derived significance from the time
of its occurrence. It was 'in the year that' the earthly King 'died'
that the heavenly King was revealed. The passing of the transient
prepared the way for the revelation of the Eternal, and the revelation
of the Eternal more than compensated for the passing of the transient.
But strengthening and calming as these thoughts are, they by no means
exhaust the purpose of the vision, nor do they describe all its effects
on the recipient. These were, first and immediately, the consciousness
of unworthiness and sin, expressed in the words that I have taken for
my text. Then came the touch of the 'live coal from the altar,' laid on
the unclean lips by the seraph; and on that followed willing surrender
for a perilous service.
These three stages flowing from the vision of God, recognition of sin,
experience of purging, abandonment to obedience and service, must be
repeated in us all, if we are to live worthy lives. There may be much
that is beautiful and elevating and noble without these; but unless in
some measure we pass through the prophet's experience, we shall fail to
reach the highest possibilities of beauty and of service that open
before us. So I wish to consider, very simply, these three stages in my
remarks now.