HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-4.-The vision of God. Sight is a thing of degrees. The healthy eye sees with infinite shades of distinctness and indistinctness, according to the amount of light which is vouchsafed. it. The diseased eye has an equal variety of gradation in its powers of seeing, owing to the variations in its own condition. And it is with our spiritual as with our natural sight. The vision which men have of God varies infinitely with varying circumstances-from extreme dimness up to perfect distinctness. Amid this infinitude of gradation, depending mainly on ,the internal condition of the visual power, three.main varieties, depending on the circumstances under which the spiritual sight exerts itself, may be distinguished. I. '.l'HE NATURAL VISION OF Goo IN THIS LIFE. This is, even in the best men, dim anc.l unsatisfying. "Now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Cor. xiii.12). We have to look within us and without us; and, among the confused shadows of things, as sight and memory and imagination present them to us, we have to piece together a conception of that mysterious.and inscrutable Power which alone exists of itself and has brought all that is beside itself into existence. How should not the vision be unsatisfactory ? Agnosticism denies that any conception which wa can form can possibly bear any resemblance at all to the reality, if there be a. reality. Agnosticism, to be consistent, ought not to go so far, but should content itself with saying that we cannot tell whether there be a resemblance or no. Some conception, however, of God all men form who reflect at all; and there is so much likeness among the conceptions of men of all times and countries as to point to some basis of truth underlying them all as the only con- ceivable ground of the similarity. '.l'he conceptiollS differ less in their essential character than in their vividness and their continuousness. Most men II see God" dimly and rarel.Y -,-by snatches, and as through a cloud or mist. A small number have a somewhat clearer and _more frequent vision., To a few only is it given to II set God always be.fora their face," and to see him with something approaching to distinctness. II. THE ECSTATIC VIBION OF Goo IN THIS LIFE. It has been the privilege of some great saints to be lifted up from earth into that condition which is called ecstasy, and while in that state to have a vision of God. In ecstasy Moses saw "the glory of God" from the II cleft in the rock " on his second a.scent of Sinai (E:a:od. :u.x.iii. 18-23 ; x.xxiv. 6-8). In ecstasy Isaiah now saw him. In ecstasy Ezekiel saw him "by the river of Chebar" (Ezek. i. 26-28). So St. John the divine beheld him in the island of Patmos (llev. iv. 2-11). The exact nature of such visions we do not know; but it is only reasonable to suppose that they were, to those favoured with them, reve- lations of God more distinct, more vivid, more satislying, than any which belong to the ordinary course of nature, even to those which are vouchsafed to the "pure in heart" (Matt. v. 8). They fall short in respect of duration; they are transient-some of them, perhaps, momentary. But their vividness seems to have so impressed them ou the beholders as to have given them a quasi-J)llrmanency in the recollection, which made them possessions for life, and gave them an undying influence on the character. III. THE BEATIFIO VISION 01!' Goo IN ANOTHER LIFE. What this is no tongue of man can tell. "Eye hath not seen," etc. We know only what the Word of God declares. " Then shall we see him /ace to /au ; then shall we know even aa we ar, known n (1 Cor. xiii. 12). That this vision transcends even the ecstatic one is reasonably concluded, from its being the final reward of God's saints-the beatitude beyond which. there is none other (Rev. x:x:ii. 4). But it is scarcely reverent to speculate on a theme so far above human imagining. Even Bishop Butler seems to overstep the just limit, when he supposes the beatific vision to include the contemplation of the scheme of the universe in the mind of him who contrived it {' Sermon on the love of God,' p. U6), We shall not know what the beatific vision ia until _we are admitt.ed to ii. 110 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [ Oii, VI, 1..._,ltl,
Perhaps it will not be the same to all. Pi:ol1ably, M 'on eitrth "the cyo eeos th!\t wl1ltlli it brings with it the power of seeing," so, in the world beyond tho grflvc, tho \>isforl di G(l{l will stand in a certain correlat.io'n. \\·ith the seeing' faculty of the J,iel1ofcie1:s. , ,All :,rill_"see bis face," but a_ll will not be capable of.i:eceiv\ng fr,;>m the si~h(~~flt \"'.hicij 1t will e<>nv<'y to some. There are degrees of happme~s m the next world no io/\s than in the prcs,•nt. If we would derive from that blessed sight all that God intcnrled man to derive fr,)m it, we must in this lifo cultivate the power of " seoing God" and delighting in the contemplation of him.
Ver. 5.-.llfa.n's 11nwort1iiness brought homt t~ him l,y rtothirig eo ',much as "se~ing God." The natural man i~, for the most part; very well contented with hiins!llf. ' lie does not de~! much in self-scrutiny, and is not often troubled with tMnges of conscience. If at any time he has any misgivings, he compares himself with 'other men, and readily perstrnoPS himself that he is quite as good, or even'very much better than his neighbours. "God, I thank thee tl1at I am not as other men arc,'' is his self-satisfied titterance;:or, if he is not quite so arrogant as thi's, at any r11te he thinks himself "quite"good enough "-as honest, industrious, liberal, moral generally, ail he needs to· be,: Occa- sionally he may be ~tartkd a little out of his self-complacency by coming in contact with pcrrnns of a different stamp from himself, whom he sees to have· a dilforent rule of life, a different conccp·tion of their duties to God and man. Uut .it is seldom that 'he wakes up to any true conviction of sin until in some way ·or other, tb~re 'is revealed to him some "vi~ion of God," some conception -of the true nature of tbat pure and, holy Being who has made and rules the unfrerse. · Once let bim open the e:Ye'Of his sou'! tmd sec God ns he is-perfectly pure, holy, jnst; immactilate-'-and he pann:ot but be driven b~· the contrast torecognize his own weakness, wickedness,'imputity, unrighteous- ness, dee1,ly rng:rained sinfulness. Some conviction'of sin must flash on 'him., Well for him if it he deep and strongl Well for him if-'it btings liim, first'to 1:on,fussi/jn. (Luke xviii. 13), and then to earnest, heartfelt prayer for pardon:! God's·seraph win then ha.ply bring him such a "burning coal" from the altar ·before the throne ·of God as he brought to Isaiah, and con"lly to him the ass11-railce that, for the merits of Obrist, his "iniquity is taken away, and his sin purged." • ',:· ' J !,i 1. L,