"
When unsanctified men have a vision of God, it is not their lack
of power, but their lack of purity, their unlikeness to Christ,
the Holy One, that troubles them. And so it was with the prophet.
But he adds: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a
live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off
the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath
touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin
purged." Here again, it is purity rather than power to which our
attention is directed.
Again, in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, we have another
type of this spiritual baptism. In Isaiah the type was that of
fire, but here it is that of water; for water and oil, and the
wind and rain and dew, are all used as types of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord says, through Ezekiel: "Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an
heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and
do them."
Here again, the incoming of the Holy Spirit means the outgoing of
all sin, of "all your filthiness, and of all your idols.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56