CHAPTER 4.
Isaiah.
Had "the greatest of the Hebrew prophets" the Cosmic Sense I It does not seem unlikely. As Isaiah lived and wrote for thirty-nine years after his "vision" it might easily be that he was something over thirty years of age at that time—that is to say, in the year of the death of Uzziah, B.C. 740. The vision itself, as he describes it, suggests illumination—the oncoming of Cosmic Consciousness. Isaiah writes:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me [Isaiah: 6: 1–8].
** The chief points to be noticed are: (1) He saw God. (2) He saw that God ii the Cosmos. (3) The expression "the house was filled with smoke" ought (if the hypothesis is correct) rather to read "with light" or ''with flame," since it should refer to the subjective light; but it seems doubtful whether the Hebrew word Ashan ever means "light" or "flame." If, however, it is connected philologically with the Sanskrit Arman it ought to be capable of bearing an analogous interpretation. (4) He loses the sense of sin.
