LIGHT OR FIRE?

'And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a
flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one
day.'--ISAIAH x. 17.


With grand poetry the prophet pictures the Assyrian power as a forest
consumed like thistles and briers by the fire of God. The text suggests
solemn truths about the divine Nature and its manifestations.

I. The Essential Character of God.

Light and Holiness are substantially parallel. Light symbolises purity,
but also knowledge and joy. Holiness is Separation from Creatures, but
chiefly from their Evils.

II. The Different Attitudes which Men assume to that Character.

'Light of _Israel_': '_His_ Holy One.'

God becomes ours, and we have an interest in that radiant Personality if
we choose to claim it by faith, love, and obedience. We are free to
accept God as ours or to reject Him.

III. The Opposite Aspects which that Character accordingly assumes.

(a) The self-same divine Character has two effects according to the
character of the beholder.