We might even fancy, vdthout unduly stretching fancy, that Isaiah, who, though not yet a prophet, appears to have been a citizen of high rank, and perhaps familiar at the court, had this vision presented to him a little after he had come out of the royal chamber where the deceased monarch lay in state. Perhaps he had been permitted to enter along with the common crowd of subjects, who pressed in to render their last act of homage ; and though he had seemed to walk round the bier, and linger a moment to look upon the still face, as mechanically as any of them, it was with very different thoughts in his heart. It was a dead king that lay before him. And though the presence of death in any form might have suggested the first half of the vision — the unseen world within this world — only the sight of a dead king could have led Isaiah's mind to draw that comprehen- sive sketch of the history and the destiny of his nation with which the chapter ends. Those eternal, changeless sights are reflected in the face, rapt but unmoved ; the grandeur, the unchanging flow of eternity, the awful face of God, holding the mind in an absorbed stillness, so that emotion ebbs and flows no more in the heart, and no more plays upon the countenance, but all is still.
ISAIAH ^i
Now when the prophet came out from the presence of the dead, musing on all things as he must have mused, and prob- ably entering the Temple where the service of God was going on — for the vision is just the reflection of the service of God in His house upon earth, it is only this service translated into its real meaning — it is not unnatural that such a vision as this should have presented itself before him. Such a sight is well fitted to bring before our minds the same great scene. For there is such an eternal scene behind the changing forms of the present life ; a scene not future but present, though the perfect realising of it be, to most of us, future ; a world within this world, or behind it, of which we only catch glimpses sometimes through the occurrences of this life — a world such as the prophet saw, God the King on His throne, surrounded by beings all alive to His glory, serving Him continually in the greatness of their might. There is such a world within this world, of which this world is but the veil and covering ; and we begin to understand this world, and see any order and meaning in it, only when this other, which is the inner side of it, is revealed to our sight.
IF A king must die ! There seems to be something almost incongruous in the very phrase. The very word " king " means power. The king is the man who can, the man who is possessed of ability, dominion, sovereignty ; and the shock is almost violent when we are told that the range of the kingship is shaped and determined by death. We could all understand how death might limit the years and conquests of Lazarus, shivering outside the palace gates, weary, hungry, and "full of sores," but it is more difficult to understand how death can enter the palace, and set a barrier to the life of Dives, " clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day"; but "it came to pass that the beggar died," and " the rich man also died, and was buried." A little while ago I took up the death-roll at a workhouse, and glanced through the chronological lists of paupers : Elizabeth So-and-so, died so-and-so. Then I took up a volume of English history, looked at the death-roll of monarchs, the chronological list of kings and queens : Queen Elizabeth, died so-and-so. I found that the one word described the end of both pauper and king — " the beggar died" " William the Conqueror died" " King Uzziah died." How the one word suffices for all sorts and con- ditions of men ! ^
1 J. H. Jowett.
74 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
4. God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or the Church, without being ready to fill them. He sometimes empties them that He may fill them. Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for the vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye, that it may see Him. When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can see the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. Well for us if the passing of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass, if the unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because of change.
This accounts for a great many o^ the dark experiences in life. God puts out our little light that we may see Him the better. When you are looking out of the window at night, gazing towards the sky, you will see the stars more clearly if you put out your gaslight. That is what God has to do for us. He has to put out the secondary lights in order that we may see the eternal light. Uzziah has to die, in order that we may see