God's Furnace in Zion: Love's Paradox of Fire and Ice

Isaiah 31:9 presents a remarkable designation: "The Lord, whose fire is in Zion." This emblem carries a double aspect—rich in blessing yet pregnant with warning. Exell observes that in the Church, Elohim is present as a great reservoir of fervid love, a storehouse of blazing affection heated seventy times seven hotter than any creatural love, pouring out its ardours for the quickening of all who walk in that light.

Yet a profound contradiction emerges: Christian churches often function as ice-houses instead of furnaces. How can worshippers dwell in the very focus and centre of Yahweh's burning love, the infinite lovingkindness of God, and remain cold and unmoved? A fiery furnace hung with icicles is no greater anomaly than a soul professing to have been touched by divine love yet living in phlegmatic coldness.

Exell rejects hollow "emotional Christianity" without foundation in principle and intelligence. But he equally condemns a faith that accepts truths magnificent enough to "kindle a soul beneath the ribs of death and make the dumb sing," yet produces no visible warmth. Cold is death. Smoke is not fire.

The remedy requires higher temperature and wiser feeding of the flame—a more obvious and powerful effect of solemn, glorious, heart-melting beliefs upon the affections of professing Christians. Adonai's furnace in Zion demands response: not hysteria, but heat.