of any appearance or of what the
appearance was like. But wherever the appearance is spoken of it is
always either fire or some touch of the human kind or both.

In Eden He waits and speaks, two human things. He talks with Abraham as
a man talks, and ratified the covenant by passing fire through the
pieces of the covenant sacrifice.[59] It is as a simple, natural man
appearing at Abraham's tent door that He talks about Sodom. It is a
human voice speaking about Isaac, though no appearance is mentioned.
Moses sees a flaming bush, and hears a voice in the desert, and sees a
whole mount aflame while a voice speaks at Sinai.

And so it was always: the fiery presence-cloud in the Wilderness,
Joshua's Captain taking command, Manoah's angel ascending in the flame
of the altar, the voice in the night heard by Samuel, the flooding of
Tabernacle and Temple with the glory-presence, Carmel's fire descending,
Elijah's "still small voice," Isaiah's vision of glory and the voice,
Ezekiel's man of flame speaking, and Daniel's, both of the latter two
akin to this Revelation appearance.

But there is a distinctness and a fulness of description here greater
than at any previous time, yet the same essential thing as at every
appearance of God in Old Testament pages. The coming of Jesus among us
has brought God closer to us and made Him mean more. Jesus was God
coming closer and in a way that we could understand better and take hold
of more easily.

The Identifying Mark.

But let us reverently look a little closer that we may understand yet
better. There are certain characteristics of this Man of Fire that are
allowed to stand sharply out here. We are meant to look at them. This is
part of the purpose in the heart of Christ in letting us see Him as He
is here.

The sense of _purity_ is intenser than can be put into words. Fire is
pure. There is nothing so pure. It resists impurity. It burns it up. It
is most significant that this is the one thing familiar to us that
always accompanies the presence of God as He appears to men. It is
always in fire whether to speak His message of peace and love or to
remove the impurity of evil.

Our God is a consuming fire. Yet fire only consumes what can't stand its
flame. The fire reveals purity and makes pure. God is pure. The presence
within the man looked out in eyes of flame, in a countenance like the
sun, and feet like molten brass glowing in a furnace. There could be no
stronger statement o