ISAIAH 105
than once known this particular form of sin to be killed outright in one day; and whereas there are other besetting sins which, even when a man has been pardoned, cling to him for a lifetime, very often this one is got quit of in one hour, and never comes back again. ^
IT " I am a man of unclean lips." In vision the prophet sees the throne, beholds the seraphim, listens to their song, the Trisagion, " Holy, Holy, Holy ! " Prompted to join in the august anthem that leaps from their lips, he at once realises that it ill becomes him to speak that thrice-uttered word, for he is unholy, he stands in his own way, he is too wicked to worship, and all about him are wicked too. I knew a collegian who was educated, but pro- fane. His vocabulary of oaths was copious, but he, as every swearer has, shunned the prefix " holy." It is a terrible word. It means whole. It expresses integrity, completeness, and is a vocable that bad men shun. It is rarely used by any of us in speaking of the dead. We may say of the departed, " He was good, amiable, or honest," but none, unless it be a clergyman in the pulpit discourse, says, " he was holy." Swearers shun the word. It is a gun that kicks more than it shoots. Yet we are told to " follow holiness " as a vocation, a business, if we would hope to see God. Holiness is everything or nothing. ^
IIL
"And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." v^Every soul has an environment, which it afifects, and by which it is affected ; and no question of guilt or innocence, forgiveness or condemnation, is limited to the individual by himself. This truth, which goes far back into the history of man's ideas about himself, is emphatically presented in the Bible. Thus Ps. 51, which gives expression most poignantly to the sense of personal guilt, also represents the sinner as born in a sinful environment : so here, Isaiah is conscious not only that he is a man of unclean lips, but that he dwells among a people of unclean lips. Not only is sin a personal act of rebellion, but it produces a sinful atmosphere, a condition of alienation from God. In like manner, the absolution or declaration of freedom from sin cannot concern
^ J. Stalkei", ill Christian World Pulpit, xliii. p. 389. ^ C. S. Robiuson, in The Homiletic Review, xvi. p. 248.
io6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE B!BLE
the individual alone : it must have an eye also to the society in v^hich he lives and to his relations towards it. ^
There is a sense of the sin in society which makes a man not a Pharisee, but a prophet. It is easy to be cynical at the expense of our fellows, and to pour out stinging satires on the shams and weaknesses of society ; but that is not the dominant spirit of the highest ministry. In the all-searching light of this vision, Isaiah sees that the world in which he lives is full of such shams ; speech is a symbol and expression of life, and speech which should be clean and sweet, as well as truthful and strong, is vile and unclean. But the life of sinful people is the life the prophet shares, the atmosphere he breathes, the sphere in which he lives and moves. He cannot flee to the wilderness and leave it all behind. He must be in this world, but not of it ; this he can do because he has learned that sin is an alien power in him- self and in society. It is treason to the Divine King ; in the name and by the power of the King it can be conquered. Through the influence of this deep revelation he can be a statesman as well as a religious teacher, a social reformer as well as a sacred singer, and through it all a saint. The vision means, then, the possibility of service. If there were no King a man might be content to be a time-server, but to the man who has seen the King the way of highest service is open, and he is " not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Life, then, finds its real meaning in servic^ to God and man. Behind this man's call to service there are certain great convictions which are a prophecy of, and a preparation for, the rich personal experience which is fully revealed in our Lord Jesus, and quickened in us by the power of His great sacrifice.^
iv.
" For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 1. The sleeping snake that is coiled in every soul stirs and begins to heave in its bulk, and wake, when the thought of a holy God comes into the heart. Now, I do not suppose that consciousness of sin is the whole explanation of that universal human feeling, but I am very sure it is an element in it, and I suspect that if there were no sin, there would be no shrinking.
^ T. B. Strong, in Encyclopcedia of Religion and Ethics, i. p. 49. - W. G. Jordan, Prophetic Ideas and Ideals, p. 62,