IF The eldest daughter of Faith is Eeverence. We remember how Moses acted at the Burning Bush : he went up to it at first merely from curiosity, but as soon as he heard the voice of God • calling to him out of the fire, "Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." Without reverence of heart there can be no true worship ; and the soul-reverence ought to be accom- panied by reverence of posture and demeanour. It is not reverential to stand during praise with one's hand buried in one's trousers pocket, or to sit straight during prayer, and stare all over the church, or to go to or from public worship with a cigarette in one's mouth. These things ought not so to be.
» S. A. Tipple.
90 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
IF A friend of mine, a clergyman, told me that he was once showing some one over his church. This person omitted to take his hat off on entering the church. " I hope you don't mind my keeping my hat on ? " he said to my friend. " / mind ? not at all ! " was my friend's reply. " It isn't my house ! " ^
(2) The next pair of wings suggest the need of self-forget- fulness. " With twain he covered his feet." The wings made no screen that hid the seraph's feet from the eye of God, but it was the instinctive lowly sense of unworthiness that folded them across the feet, even though they, too, burned as a furnace. The nearer we get to God, the more we shall be aware of our limitations and unworthiness, and it is because that vision of the Lord sitting on "His throne, high and lifted up," with the thrilling sense of His glory filling the holy temple of the universe, does not burn before us that we can conceit ourselves to have anything worth pluming ourselves upon.
If Once lift the curtain, once let my eye be flooded with the sight of God, and away goes all my self-conceit, and all my fancied superiority over others. One little molehill is pretty nearly the same height as another, if you measure them both against the top of the Himalayas, that lie in the background, with their glittering peaks of snow. " Star differeth from star in glory " in a winter's night, but when the great sun swims into the sky they all vanish together. If you and I saw God burning before us, as Isaiah saw Him, we should veil ourselves, and lose all that which so often veils Him from us — the fancy that we are anything when we are nothing. And the nearer we get to God, and the purer we are, the more keenly conscious shall we be of our imperfections and our sins. " If I say I am perfect," said Job in his wise way, " this also should prove me perverse." Consciousness of sin is the continual accompaniment of growth in holiness. " The heavens are not pure in His sight, and He chargeth His angels with folly." Everything looks black beside that sovereign whiteness. Get God into your lives, and you will see that the feet need to be washed, and you will cry, " Lord ! not my feet only, but my hands and my head ! "
IF He covered his feet in order, I suppose, that his very form and motion might not be seen ; and therefore it is mentioned before " the flight." He did not set out until, as far as possible, himself was concealed. There shall be simply the fact of a mission, and the method • so that, if an " angel " were to bring God's embassy to you, you would not see " the angel." That is true embassy !
» W. J. FoxelL
ISAIAH 91
In like manner, it was commanded of the high priest, that his garments should " go down to his feet," that the minister should not be seen.^
(3) " And with twain he did fly." The third pair of wings suggest Service. Whosoever, beholding God, has found need to hide his face from the Light, even whilst he comes into the Light, and to veil his feet from the all-seeing Eye, will also feel impulses to go forth in His service. For the perfection of worship is neither the consciousness of my own insufficiency, nor the humble recognition of His glory, nor the great voice of praise that thrilled from those immortal lips, but it is the doing of His will in daijy life.
IF Some people say the service of man is the service of God. Yes, when it is service of man, done for God's sake, ib is so, and only then. The old motto, " Work is worship," may preach a great truth or a most dangerous error. But there is no possi- bility of error or danger in maintaining this : that the climax and crown of all worship, whether for us footsore servants upon earth, or for those winged attendants on the throne of the King in the heavens, is activity in obedience.
H The souls of modern men need all their wings to enable them to fly as quickly as their fellows, and they have none left wherewith to cover their faces and their feet.^