+I. Earthly powers fade and perish, but the Eternal Power that uses them all lives on+ (ver. 1). Comfort here, when a great king or statesman is taken away from the head of a nation; when a great leader of an arduous reformatory movement, such as Luther, is laid low; when an eloquent preacher or wise pastor is summoned to his rest; or even when the head of a household is cut off just when his family most need his care. He who has wrought by their instrumentality can work without it (Ps. lxviii. 5, &c.) +II. In God's temples there is room only for God.+ "His train filled the Temple." Ahaz could build in the courts of the Lord's house an altar to the god of Damascus (2 Kings xvi. 10-16), but he could not worship two gods there, for the only living and true God departed when His sanctuary was thus profaned. God will have all, or none (Isa. xlii. 8). All His earthly temples must be counterparts of the one heavenly temple, where He reigns alone. In no church will God divide His empire with the State or with popular opinion: we _must_ choose between Him and all other authorities. In no heart will He reign along with any other principle or passion (Matt. vi. 24). +III. Until we reach the land where there is no temple, we cannot see God as He is.+[2] To Isaiah a vision of God was granted, and yet it was but a symbolic vision. He saw a throne, and on it seated a Being of indescribable majesty; but who imagines that he saw God as He is? Does God sit on a throne, after the fashion of kings such as Uzziah, who fade and die? The vision was a condescension to the human faculties of the seer, and served its purpose, that of impressing upon him the majesty and holiness of the Most High. And he tells us more of the ministers who surround the throne than of its Occupant! Him no words can describe; of Him no absolute disclosure is now possible; He can but give us revelations--visions--administrations of Himself. And this He has done. 1. _In nature._ The purpose of the manifold and wondrous universe is not accomplished if we look only at the creation, and do not discern in it veils not thickly hiding, but helping to reveal the Creator (Rom. i. 19, 20).[3] 2. _In Providence._ The manner in which the world is governed is, to the man who studies it comprehensively, earnestly, and reverently, a revelation of the character of the Ruler. 3. _In His Word._ That man miserably mistakes, who studies the Bible as anything less than a many-sided disclosure of God. 4. _In Christ:_[4] a familiar thought this, yet how seldom do we enter into its depths! We do not worship an unknown God, yet we cannot see Him as He is until we have entered into that light which is inaccessible and which no mortal can approach unto, until we have been ourselves transformed into "children of light," and so rendered capable of looking on "the Father of lights." +IV. Those to whom He reveals Himself most fully are most humble, and those whom He most exalts are most ready to