The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 124

HOMILIES. BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-'13.~Tlie prophet's call_and consecration. There are turning-points in life which giv:e a meaning to the whble of its after-course. A light may be given to the mind at sucn moments by which it may have to steer its course for years. In moments of dcspondericy the man_ of _God wiff fall back on memory, and encourage himself by th!J-recollccUori' tiiat,:baving'once received and followed Divine guidance, that guidance will not desert' him in' the future. Such was this moment in the history of Isaiah. Life stood before him .like a. ·crowded picture; he foresaw the difficulties with which he woµld have to conten~, yet that picture did not dismay him. "Like Christ from the first beginning of bis :fdessianic labours, be thought of the end, nor did he shrink from the im11ge of 'dea;tb, _so that the fact as it came nearer only confirmed what had not seemed strange from the beginning" (Ewald). It is the &ense, not of our own faithful- ness, nor of our own I!i\!ans, but of a Divine destiny working in and through us that inus_t be our support in weak and lonely hours. To feel that we are moving against the corusc oT the·sun, even _in the 'midst of external comfort or popular applause, is to be we~k; and ,unn·erved; while a stern yet sweet joy fills the soul in the prospect of duty an_d_danger, in which, though we seem to fail, we must be victors for ever. Every true ma1;1 _h!ls. his h(>Urs of prophetic revelation; and well for him whose will is strong, and who abicfes by_ the truth of that revelation through good and through evil report, 1.1\JSWervi'n,~ly, tci tpe end. • I. THE VI$IO?, .OF THE DIVINE MAJESTY.· 1. Its date is fixed in memory. "The year• that Kj_ng •Uzziah. djed .." •Dates _are the resting-places of memory and fancy, around which: accumulates the lore of our years. The accessions and the deaths of kings, oattles, •peaces, revolutions; acts of parliament that wrought weal for the people, 7 such Rr~ ,th,e· ,dat~s of natiims. . And every soul has its epochs-birth, youthful ev.erits of:Illea~ll-re,'love, 1 struggJ:e, defeat, success-; and for each there must be more to him tha:n th'e'. events, recorded Jn the calendar. The most "uneventful n year, as we .speak, _is-~n-ntful fpr the hiddeII spbe~e of many a. spirit. How faint and poor are our p\1~1ic He,1;11o~i~!s p! bis_tory _compared ~ith those private r~collections which are written ID tho 1Dv1sfble 1Dk or·memory I Let us own that history means, first and foremost to every one of us, the history of our own spirit. By a Divirie providence the fragment of a.n Isaiah's; .a· Jeremiah's; an· Ezekiel's· autobiography is preserved through the ages, to remind us that the inner life, the contact of God with the soul, is our real concern, our deepest interest. Between the two dates on the tombstone that will mark our entrance into the world, our -pass'age from it, what a record must lie, :;~red. ip the archiv~s of, eternity-of visio:ns beheld, of voices beard, whether oboyed pi:'4iii~egatq~d ! '' 1~-,the year_.$at King Uzziab died,'.' '2. lt is a _uisiori. o/ the s-ub- ,lirnity ()f G_od. _ ,Seated o_u a,h1gh, exalted throne, Go.d ID th.is image 1s conceived under -the,!¥laiogy, qf the lluler. 'Father and Ruler-such is the Bible view of God; his rulti ))a~ed upp~ hjs,fatherhood,):iis fathcrhqocl _imparting benignancy and tenderness to the sterner character of the Lawgiver of the universe. But here tbe father seems for the moment absorbed in the awful Sovereign, whose throne is in the heights of heaven, his footstool earth. It _is o:nly bis skirts that aro visi-ble to the_ nwe-struck gaze of the prophet. Amidst the <most maguifi:cent scenes ~f external nature, the Alps or the Andes we mriy gain A passing s011l,,_exprindi11g. vision of the Highest-still only part rciv.eal~d, but much more hidden. 'l'he verdure bejewelled with flowers, the forests glancing with the lustre of dazzling birds of plumage,-these may represent the vesture  112 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oa, vr. 1-13,