to me of great importance for the conduct of our daily life which may be
gathered from this remarkable vision, with the remarkable note of time
that is appended to it.

Now, before I pass on, let me remind you, in a word, of that apparently
audacious commentary upon this great vision, which the Evangelist John
gives us: 'These things said Esaias, when he had beheld _His_ glory and
spake of _Him_.' Then the Christ is the manifest Jehovah; is the King of
Glory. Then the vision which was but a transitory revelation is the
revelation of an eternal reality, and 'the vision splendid' does not
'fade but brightens, into the light of common day'; when instead of
being flashed only on the inward eye of a prophet, it is made flesh and
walks amongst us, and lives our life, and dies our death. Our eyes have
seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever
Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have
seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of
men, are raised, and lo! the long line of glittering peaks, calm,
silent, pure. Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand out,
and the veil is drawn aside?

I. Let me say a word or two about the ministration of loss and sorrow in
preparing for the vision.

It was when 'King Uzziah died' that the prophet 'saw the Lord sitting
upon the throne.' If the Throne of Israel had not been empty, he would
not have seen the throned God in the heavens. And so it is with all our
losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all our
pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God. The
possession of the things that are taken away from us, the joys which our
sorrows smite into dust, have the same mission, and the highest purpose