The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 127

make it sound in the conscience of others. There is, besides, the consciousness of inefficiency. 'l'he very calling which already glimmers before Isaiah's mind ns his is that for which :he finds himself unfit. lie is to be a nabi, a prophet; that is, a m11n of fluent hps and pure, through which the streams of Divina eloquence are to ll"w. Alas l h~w can t~is be 'i' For he is 11 "mnn of unclean lips," and will not the truth be muddied passing through them, and so cease to be truth? All this ie 11 typical experience. The man who has never felt unfit will never be fit for any great thin!!:, Jeremiah, at his call, felt that he was" a child;" and Moses that he was" slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exod. iv. 10); and John fell at the feet of the Son or man "as one dead," brain and hand paralyzed, before he took up the pen that glowed with apocalyptic fire. Who is the :fit man for God's ends? The self-confident man? It depends on what we mean by "self-confidence." Appearances deceive• the show of strength is not the same thing with strength itself, nor the demeanour of weakness a certain index of inefficiency. To read our own hearts is our ,business. And henrt-experience may teach us that absolute confidence in our resources bodes humiliation, while trembling self-distrust may hint that something is to be done by God through us. "Do the very thing you are afraid to do," is in certain moments the voice of conscience and of God. So it proved in this instance. 2. Purification and pardon. One of the burning beings flies to the prophet's side, bearing a heated stooe (for such seems to be the meaning of the word ritzpah) forming part of the altar, a.nd detached without difficulty from it. With this he touches the lips of the trembling seer, saying, "Lo l this bath touched thy lips, and so will thy guilt depart, and thy sin may be atoned for." More meaning can be condensed illto a symbolic action than into any mere words. Fire is the enemy of all impurity; and the idea of a fire- baptism as the means of cleansing is deeply rooted in the lore of olden time. In this respect it seems nearly allied to the sprinkling of blood. And just as when Moses sprinkled all the people with the sacrificial blood, or the priests sprinkled the altar and other sacred objects, one drop seemed sufficient to diffuse ceremonial cleanness on the object on which it fell, so the mere touch of the hot coal or stone is enough to signify the completeness of the purification. It is not the quantity of the fiery element, bot the quality, which does the work. A small spark may kindle a mr.ss of fuel, or, falling on the hand, spread a keen pain through all the nervous network of the body; so a glimpse of God, a touch from bis hand, may change the mood of our being for a lifetime. It may set np a glow which shall not die down till all that is selfish, sensual, base, in us shall lie in ashes. The sense of guilt lies deep in the mind ; and never is it so clear and keen as in moments of bodily sickness or mental depression. The moment when we are tempted to say, "I canuot help it," there rises up ,the thought that there is help in God, and therefore that we are not helpless. No sooner does the cry of weakness, the complaint concerning the unclean lips, escape Isaiah, than the eternal evangel, in all its supernatural strength to heal, comes home to his heart. For this is the eternal gospel in its essence, whether borne by lips of soraph, prophet, or Son of God : " Thy guilt will depart, thy sin may be atoned for." And in those· blessed moments when we grasp this message in its fullest meaning, and believe it in its inmost truth, the heart is set free, and, despite present fetters and prisons in which fact or fancy holds us bound, we know that it will not ever be thus. 'J'hen, indeed, the yoke of duty becomes easy, the burden of toil, for the sake of the love which pardons and emancipates, light. 3. The call to service. .Again the august and dominant voice of the Eternal is beard : "Whom shall I send, an~ who will go for us?'' A ready answer, full of devotion, full of self-abandonment, comes from that lately overwhelmed heart : "Here am I; send me." Out of weakness Isaiah has been made strong, and there is no hesitation now. There is "triumph lingering in his eyes, wide as of some swimmer'• who descries help from above in hiR extreme despair." The foolish imprudence which cries, "Here am I; send me," without having calculated the ~ost of tihe enterprise and the extent of the resources, is not that of Isaiah. Still less· is the unfaithful trifling with one's powers and opportunities under the excuse of modesty, or the delight in dreams of action rather than in action itself, seen in him. We seo some men rashly staking their future on the cast of a die, impetuously crossing a Rubicon; otbeni lingering on the brink, or moving superstitiously in a fancied circle, beyond which . aeems to lie the frowning impo88ible. And we see a third class who have learned the olt. vt. 1-13.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 115