^ J. Adams, Sermons in Syntax, p, 204.
ii6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
is totally irrelevant to the laying of sacrifices on the altar-fira To lay on the altar is to give up to God — to make wholly His. Here, then, the angel says to Isaiah in substance this : " Thy sin-defiled nature " (" lips ") " I lay on God's altar. I will make it all His again. The uncleanness of thy nature consisted in its opposition to God, for all sin is selfish action, as opposed to action for God, and now all the opposition of thy nature to God is taken away. Thy nature is, by this act, devoted wholly to God. By Divine power thou hast been suddenly, miraculously, turned into one from whom all selfish thoughts and words and deeds are taken away, into one whose every thought and desire is toward God ; into one wholly consecrated and devoted to God ; and therefore into one wholly pure."
If Observe the manner in which sin, that is the guilt of sin, is here, as evermore in Holy Scripture, spoken of as taken away by a free act of God, an act of His in which man is passive ; in which he has, so to speak, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; an act to which he can contribute nothing, save indeed only that divinely awakened hunger of the soul after the benefit which we call faith. It is quite another thing with the power of sin. In the subduing of the power of sin we must be fellow- workers with God ; all the faculties of our renewed nature will need to be strained to the uttermost. So, too, it is quite another thing with the stain of sin : this, to be effaced, will demand the fuller's soap and the refiner's fire ; the patient toil, it may be the many tears, of him who would indeed have this stain effaced from his soul. But, in the matter of getting rid of the guilt of sin, we have nothing to do but to stand still and see the work of our God. This is the universal language of Scripture, and with nothing less than this will the heart of man be content. When Joshua, the high-priest (the passage, let me say, constitutes a most instructive real parallel to the present), stands before the Lord "clothed with filthy garments," the word of grace which goes forth concern- ing him, "Take away the filthy garments from him," is in its essence identical with this ; the interpretation of that symbolic act following close upon the act itself — " Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." It is this which in Scripture the saints of God, who feel themselves sinners too, crave after ; such an act of taking away as shall be wholly God's, and which, as being such, shall be perfect — " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." It is this which the soul, rejoicing in its deliverance from the condemnation of sin, avouches that it has received : " As far as the east is distant
ISAIAH 117
from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us " ; or again, " Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."i
4. It was at Isaiah's lips that the sense of sin had stung him, and it was there that he received the cleansing. The seraph laid the ' hot ember on his lips, and it left about his mouth the fragrance of the celestial incense. He felt that he breathed the atmosphere and purity of heaven. He, too, might now join in heaven's praise and service ; no more an alien, but a member of the celestial choir and a servant of the King. That act of Divine mercy had transformed him. He was a new creature, and instantly the change appeared. The voice of God sounds through the Temple, saying, " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? " And the first of all heaven's hosts to answer is Isaiah.
5. That Isaiah's vision does mean and imply all this, we who accept the New Testament as the Word of God can have no doubt ; for it was after quoting from this very vision that St. John wrote : " These things spake Isaiah when he saw his glory (the glory of the Christ), and spake of him." But if we accept this inspired interpretation of Isaiah's vision, think how much it implies, — a truth how far-reaching, a hope how large and sublime. It assures us (1) that the sin of man was no unforeseen accident which the eternal purposes of God did not include, but was part of that Divine education and discipline by which God is training His many sons for honour, glory, and immortality. It assures us (2) that, though our Father in heaven cannot but be pained to the very heart by our sins, yet His love is not alienated from us by them, but has been working from all eternity for our redemption and renewal. It assures us (3) that though, because of our iniquity, we cannot be redeemed without pain, though we must die to live, God will spare us no pain by which we may be purged from our iniquity and formed anew, fitted for His service and made meet to partake His glory.