It is this swift and simple domestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted for the slow and intricate ceremonial of the temple — a seraph with a glowing stone in his hand, vnth tongs had he taken it off the altar. And yet the prophet feels this only as a more direct expression of the very same idea with which the elaborate ritual was inspired — for which the victim was slain, and the flesh consumed in fire, and the blood sprinkled. Isaiah desires nothing else, and receives no more, than the ceremonial law was intended to assure to the sinner — pardon of his sin and reconciliation to God. But our prophet will have conviction of these immediately, and with a force which the ordinary ritual is incapable of expressing.
IF The Syriac Fathers are said to have regarded the burning coal as the symbol of the Incarnate Son of God ; and we may well see a profound fitness in the symbolism. The burning coal in Isaiah's vision purged away his disabling uncleanness, and inspired him with the will and the power to obey the Call of God. This two- fold grace of purification and inspiration is the gift of the 8
114 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
Incarnate Son to His brethren. The Gospel indeed includes a narrative which might seem the Christian counterpart of Isaiah's record of vocation. The revelation of God to an Apostle is realised through the same cycle of spiritual experiences. First, conviction of sin; then, consciousness of pardon; finally, a clear commission. Simon Peter, when he saw the sign which dis- covered the Presence of the Incarnate, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord . . . and Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.^
VI.
" And he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; aud thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."
1. The action of the seraph was of course symbolic, but the thing symbolised is a great spiritual fact. In it we have mirrored the very heart of the process of redemption. The cleansing efficacy of the burning ember resided not in the ember, but in the Divine fire contained in it. In the imagery of sacrifice the fire is always conceived as God's method of accepting and taking to Himself the offering. The sacred flame that comes down from God licks up the sacrifice, and in vapour carries it up to heaven ; a sweet-smelling savour represents, therefore, the pitying holiness of God, that stoops forgivingly to sinful men, and graciously accepts and sanctifies them and their sacrifices. Contact with that has sin-cleansing power, and nothing has besides.
2. If anything is clear exegetically, it is the coinciding of the prophet's forgiveness with the application of the sacramental sign. The moment he rises from that act of sacramental com- munion, he exclaims in the full consciousness of a Divine absolution, " Here am I, send me." This allusion to a sacrament may furnish the best solution of the seraph's reassuring message. A sacrament is something more than a momentary act. It is an act that symbolises the passing into a forgiven and lifelong state — a state that is best described by God's eternal now ; not " shall be," but " is." Hence, to paraphrase his language, it might read, " Lo, this glowing stone tovxihes thy mouth, and, as
' H. H. Henson, Thi Liberty of Prophesying, p. 253.
ISAIAH 115
you kneel in silent receptivity under the mystic sign, I, as heaven's delegate, pronounce the words Absolvo Te — Thine iniquity passeth away, and thy sin is expiated ! " So that the forgiveness in Isaiah's vision may be treated as follows : —
(1) Its Divine origin — a glowing stone "from the altar,"
(2) Its completed character — " Thine iniquity is taken away."
(3) Its adaptability to the individual man — " Lo, this hath touched thy lips ! "^
3. This symbolic act of the angel would perhaps be quite intelligible to the contemporaries of the prophet ; but it is undoubtedly very obscure to us. The act is intended to shadow forth in some way the cleansing of the prophet from sin ; but what is the connection between such cleansing and the touching of Isaiah's lips with the stone heated on the altar fire ? What is the tertium comparationis of the symbol ? The stone is a means of applying fire, as we have seen ; when, therefore, it is brought to the lips of the prophet, it is the same as if the whole altar-fire had been brought there ; and that again is the same as if the prophet's "unclean lips" had been laid on the altar. The everyday use of the stone would at once suggest this to the mind of Isaiah's hearers. The angel's act, therefore, is as much as to say : " Lo, I lay thy sinfulness on the altar-fire ; and thou art cleansed from sin thereby." But how should laying on the altar cleanse from sin ? Gesenius, in his Commentary, compares Malachi iii. 2, 3 (" a refiner's fire "), and refers us to the belief, so widespread in antiquity, in the purifying power of fire. But, even if this were not too mechanical, and almost too magical, to satisfy us, laying on God's altar fire irresistibly suggests sacrifice ; and we can hardly suppose that the prophet did not, in some way, have sacri- fice in his mind. It is to be presumed, at the very least, that the meaning of the prophet is not different from what he believed to be the meaning of sacrifice. Now, whatever differences of opinion there may be regarding other parts of the sacrificial ritual, all schools agree that the laying of the sacrifice on the altar and burning it, in whole or in part, signifies its presentation to God, The sacrifice is given to God by being burnt ; no one supposes that the burning is to purify or " refine " it. The idea of purifying