"And there shall be no more sea."--Rev. 21:1
The entire absence of sea as a distinctive feature of the
New Jerusalem, would, equally with the absence of night, scarcely present an
object of beauty and attraction to those who have been used to regard the
grand old ocean, with its dark blue waves, its mountain billows, its creamy
surf, and its coral reefs, as one of the most picturesque and sublime
features of nature. And yet there can be no difficulty in assigning to this
negative attraction of heaven its proper place and significance in the
future home of the saints. It is clearly a marked and expressive feature of
the new earth and the new heaven which will form the blessed and eternal
abode of the holy city--the New Jerusalem--coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The sea covers three-fourths of the surface of the globe,
and consequently, while contributing essentially and beneficently to the
purposes of commerce, the beauty of the earth, and the health of the races,
must yet to a great extent absorb a vast portion of the earth which
otherwise might be devoted to the purposes of agriculture--thus furnishing
food and sustenance for man. But the absence of the sea in that material
world which will constitute the blessed and eternal abode of the glorified
saints must have its special and profound significance. To its consideration
let us address ourselves, regarding this magnificent and suggestive
phenomenon of nature both in its emblematic and spiritual
teaching.
What an evidence of the existence and creative power
of God is the SEA! To Him its creation is ascribed. "And the
gathering together of the waters called He SEAS." (Gen. 1:10) "The
SEA is His! and He made it." (Ps. 95:5) Making it, He bounded it by a
perpetual decree which it cannot pass. "He has compassed the waters with
bounds;" (Job 26:10) "And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no
further; and here shall your proud waves be stayed." (Job. 38:11) Thus
let the atheist consider and learn that there is a GOD, who created the
heavens, the earth, and the sea; and humbly and devoutly acknowledge "His
eternal power and Godhead," blushing that he should for a moment have
gazed upon this sublime phenomenon of nature, and then have lifted his
atheistical brow to heaven, exclaiming in his heart, "There is no God!"
But to the believing and devout mind, recognizing,
considering, and glorifying God in all His works, with what conviction and
comfort does this emblem of the sea bring to his mind the great
foundation-truth of all revealed religion--the being of God! And, as
he studies its varied moods and phases, its endless forms of grandeur and
beauty--now roused into billows by the giant storm, and now pencilled with
dimples by the gentle zephyr--now an ocean of liquid diamonds sparkling in
myriad sunbeams, and now a 'sea of glass,' upon which the victors might be
supposed to stand having the harps of God--with what filial and devout
emotion he exclaims, "My Father made it all!"
"The God that rules on high,
And thunders when He please,
That rides upon the stormy sky,
And manages the seas;
This dreadful God is ours--
Our Father and our Love:
He shall send down the heavenly powers
To carry us above."
What an emblem of the DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF ETERNITY,
MAJESTY, AND POWER is the sea! God's eternity who can grasp? His
self-existence who can understand? His infinity who can measure? His
thoughts who can count? His perfection who can fathom? Of all this greatness
the sea is an expressive emblem. "He has measured the waters in the
hollow of His hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended
the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance. Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and
are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold He takes up the islands
as a very little thing." (Isa. 40:12, 15) Thus illustrating the divine
attributes, to the devout Christian the grand old ocean presents an
instructive and soothing emblem. You repair to it when all God's waves and
billows are going over you, and are ready to sink in deep waters. His
dealings are trying, His dispensations are dark, and His judgments are a
great deep. And as you gaze upon the vast expanse of ocean spreading out
before you, you exclaim, "He who made this great wide sea can send from
above and take me and deliver me out of many waters. I will trust and not be
afraid, even though troubles and trials come in upon me like a flood, and I
sink where there is no standing. He who binds and controls the waves can
bring me up again from the depths, hushing the tempest and stilling the
billows of my soul into peace, even His own peace, which passes all
understanding."
Man of God, tried and troubled! child of sorrow, daughter
of grief, around whom the dark waves are surging--go and stand upon the
sands that belt this grand old ocean, and learn that He who made it, who
binds and controls it, can, from His infinite resources of power and
goodness, supply all your need, bring you out of all trouble, and through
the deep, dark waters lead you to the Rock that is higher than yourself.
"The VOICE of the Lord is upon the waters,"--His voice of authority
commanding them--His voice of power staying them--His voice of love calming
them. "The Lord sits upon the flood." Enthroned in majesty and
sovereignty, His scepter rules it, His word controls it, His love stills it.
"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise
of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea." Have faith in
this great God, child of affliction and trouble, upon whom the water floods
are falling; for He has promised, "When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you."
And that exceeding great and precious promise He will make good; for "He
is faithful who promised." He may see fit, in order to display His own
faithfulness and love, and to make you a partaker of His holiness, that you
should pass through fire and water; but He will bring you into a wealthy
place. (Ps. 61:12)
As an emblem of GOD'S LOVE, how expressive is the
sea! "God is Love." Words of mighty import, the truth of which distances all
thought, defies all imagery, exhausts all language! But what we cannot fully
understand we yet may in some degree experience. God's love is, like His
eternity, everlasting; like His nature, infinite; like His
essence, divine; like His power, omnipotent; like His
immortality, unchangeable. "God is love," and every divine perfection
is a modification and embodiment of love. His love is wisdom planning; power
redeeming; holiness obeying; mercy suffering, bleeding, dying to save
sinners. Thus every attribute of His nature is but another and new form and
expression of the love, the great love, with which He has loved us. All that
that love has done--from the gift of its costliest, most precious treasure,
to its last and latest expression as the spirit it ransomed and saved, wings
its flight to heaven--is worthy of its greatness and its grandeur.
As every perfection of God is an embodiment of His love,
so every part of His salvation is a reflection of His love: it is electing
love, and so reflects His eternal purpose; it is discriminating love, and so
reflects His sovereignty; it is saving love, and so reflects His mercy; it
is free love, and so reflects His grace; it is unchangeable love, and so
reflects His immutability.
True love, as a mere human passion, is never at a loss
for modes and seasons of expression. It inspires every purpose, moulds every
thought, prompts every action, pencils with beauty and bathes with perfume
its every and lowliest offering, and never falters or wearies in sacrifice
and service. But oh! what imagination can conceive, or thought can reach, or
language describe, the Love of God to man?--the love of God,
beloved, to you! Think how it chose you to salvation, laid all your
sins upon Jesus--adopted--pardoned, justified, freely, fully--and forever
SAVED you. Well may we exclaim, "Herein is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins."
You grand and beautiful old ocean! upon whose brow time
has impressed no wrinkles--flowing on in your majesty and power, in your
soundless depths and boundless reach--washing with your waves every
shore--whitened with every sail, and bearing upon your bosom earth's
costliest treasures! you are to me the image and the emblem of the ocean of
DIVINE LOVE--the Triune love of God the Father, of God the Son, and of God
the Holy Spirit--full, limitless, free--restoring a heaven forfeited, and
extinguishing a hell deserved. And, as I tread your pearly shore, muse upon
your vast expanse, and listen to your sweet music murmuring at my feet, you
shall raise my thoughts to Him who made you, fixed your bounds, pencilled
your dimples, fanned your wavelets, controls your rage, and bids you do His
pleasure.
Beloved! the Lord the Spirit direct your heart--your
contrite heart, your sad heart, your lonely heart, your sinful heart--into
the fathomless, boundless ocean of divine love, exclaiming, as you descend,
"Oh! the breadth and length, the depth and height of my Savior's love! it
passes knowledge, and yet it fills my soul with all the fullness of God."
There is yet one more view of God's love in Christ Jesus
which the sea beautifully images--its perfect freeness. Who thinks of
paying for the sea? Who dares fetter it, restricting and burdening it
with a price? Such is God's love to us--it is a most free love. "I
will love them FREELY." It is the full, free, spontaneous outflow of His
grace to sinners, the unworthy, the needy, the poor. Away then with every
thought of meriting, purchasing, working for God's pardoning love in
Christ Jesus. The ocean's waves are not more unfettered, the mountain spring
not more spontaneous, the winged winds not more free, than God's love to
sinners, flowing through the cross of His dear Son. All the worth of angels
and of saints could not deserve--and all the wealth of the universe could
not purchase, one drop of this infinite ocean of God's love to man. The
great gospel truth is--"By GRACE are you saved, through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Come, then, to this vast sea of love, without money and
without price; linger not upon its shore, waiting for some meritorious work,
some good thing in yourself, some worthy preparation and fitness before you
plunge into its fullness, and drown your sins and guilt, your sorrows and
needs, your doubts and fears, in its free and fathomless depths. God enjoins
no worthiness, Christ looks for no fitness, the gospel imposes no terms,
love asks no price, in those who approach as humble, penitent, believing
sinners, casting themselves upon the Savior, and accepting as the free gift
of His grace God's pardoning love in Christ Jesus.
One thought more. Deal with God's love to you, and not
with your love to God--with the fathomless depths of His love, and not with
the empty shallows of yours. We shall never find Christian evidence, or
derive spiritual comfort, or extract divine strength, from looking in upon
ourselves--sitting and deploring the coldness of our affection to God,
raking among the dead embers of our hearts for some faint spark of love to
give us assurance and comfort, our sad lamentation still will be, "My
leanness! my leanness." Oh! there is nothing but sin and darkness and death
in our fleshly hearts. The Fall has robbed us of every particle of holiness;
not a pulse of spiritual life beats there; not a spark of divine love glows
there; not an atom of heavenly purity exists there. Why, then, seek streams
from this dry well? Why expect purity from this foul source? Why search for
flowers of grace and fruits of holiness in this sterile soil and
uncultivated wilderness? In a word, why seek the living among the dead?
A greater saint than, perhaps, he who reads this page has
declared, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good
thing." Turning aside, then, from all this corruption, darkness, and
death, plunge just as you are into the infinite sea of God's love, and sink
every sin and sorrow, doubt and fear, in its fathomless depths--depths of
love "which the lamb may ford, and in which the elephant may swim."
Not less is the sea an emblem of THE GREAT ATONEMENT OF
THE SON OF GOD. It is clearly to this truth, thus symbolized, that
the prophet refers in those marvelous words, "You will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19) The ATONING BLOOD of
Christ is the sea into the depths of which all the sins of the Church
are cast, which, if sought for, are never more to be found. "The blood of
Christ!"--how often are these wonderful words upon our lips! yet how low our
thoughts of its nature! how shallow our soundings of its depth! how cold our
realizations of its preciousness! and how imperfect our experience of its
power! To what shall we trace this essential defect in our personal
religion? To one cause– that is, imperfect views of the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. Low views of sin will ever engender low views of
sin's great Atonement. Superficial apprehensions of the disease will beget
superficial appreciation of the remedy. Oh! what must sin be, the removal of
which required the blood-shedding of Incarnate Deity!
But how superficial and defective are the views of sin
even of many of God's people! What willful blindness to its guilt, and vain
excuses for its commission! What torpor of conscience, languid resistance,
little confession, and infrequent laving of the feet in Christ's blood! What
perversity of judgment and laxity of practice concerning particular
things--the sanctity of the Sabbath--conformity to the world--light
literature--doctrinal error--volatility of conversation--disregard of purity
and truth! These are stains upon their professional garments, "spots upon
their feasts of charity,"--clouds which dim the luster--and inconsistencies
which weaken the power of their public testimony for Christ and His gospel,
and are unworthy of them as becomes saints.
But these infirmities and defects touch not the great
truth or efficacy of Christ's Atonement. Into that crimson sea God has cast
all the sins of those who believe. Alas! how faintly do His people realize
this truth; and, consequently, how little do they know of the peace and joy
of a present salvation! "Behold, NOW are we the sons of God." "Your sins
ARE forgiven you." "By grace you ARE saved." "Having FORGIVEN you all
trespasses." "I write unto you, little children, because your sins ARE
FORGIVEN." If, then, God has cast all your sins into the infinite depths
of Christ's blood, why attempt to recall them? If God does not seek them,
and if law and justice and judgment cannot find them, why should you be ever
angling with the rod of unbelief, as if to bring them up again to the
surface?
Oh! it is not so much dealing with your sins that will
fill you with sin-loathing, penitence, and humility, as your dealing with
the sin-atoning guilt-cleansing BLOOD that has put them all out of
sight--its crimson waves closing over and entombing them forever! The great
secret of peace and assurance is a heart sprinkled from an evil
conscience with atoning blood, and thus purged from dead works, serving the
living God. It is not dealing with a wound that promotes its healing,
but with the balm. It is not poring over the wounded conscience,
probing its depth, and lamenting its symptoms, that will cure and heal it;
but, it is applying in faith the only true and infallible remedy prescribed
in God's pharmacy--the sin-atoning Blood of Christ.
Only believe the grand truth that Jesus died for
sinners--that He pardons the guiltiest--receives the vilest--saves the
worst--welcomes the poorest; rejecting none who apply to Him for healing but
those who bring a price in their hand with which to purchase it, and you
shall be saved--yes, you are saved. Well may the apostle designate it
"the PRECIOUS blood of Christ"--essentially, efficaciously
precious--one drop of which is of more worth than the wealth of the
universe. Oh! what will riches, or rank, or honors, or learning avail in a
dying hour? One drop of Christ's blood applied by the Spirit, and received
in faith at that solemn moment will be more precious and welcome than life's
dearest treasures, or earth's richest diadem. Sin-laden, guilt-oppressed
soul! plunge by faith into this atoning sea, and yours will be the
"blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered, and unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity."
But, dropping this symbolical view of our subject, let us
examine more closely the spiritual import of this NEGATIVE ATTRACTION of the
New Jerusalem--"And there shall be no more SEA."
The first thought which the words naturally suggest is
the absence in the new earth of all barriers to international
communion and friendship; in other words, the perfect unity of the races.
Such a union the sea now prevents. It is true the power of steam rapidly
transports our people over its surface, and the power of electricity yet
more rapidly flashes our thoughts along its bed; yet, with all these
wonderful means of communion and facilities of friendship, the seas still
interpose a wide and separating barrier. The advancement of "unity, peace,
and concord among all nations,"--for ages the prayer of the Church, and the
labor of the Christian--has presented but a faint and feeble illustration of
the revealed truth, "He has made of ONE BLOOD all nations of men to dwell
on the face of the earth."
Despite the spread of Christianity and the march of
civilization, the triumph of commerce, the discoveries of science, and the
efforts of philanthropy, men are still learning the art of war, and the
nations are still delighting in its carnage. It is quite clear, then, that
we are to look for a new era in the world's history, when this barrier to
the communion of nations shall be removed, welding and molding into one
great family of love and Christian brotherhood all peoples that dwell on the
face of the earth.
That era will be inaugurated by the 'Coming of the Lord;'
and then shall the "people beat their swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more." Oh! what a paradise will the new
earth be when the languages and habits, the feuds and the hates, the
jealousies and wars, which for so many centuries have separated nation from
nation, turning the world into a very Aceldama, will no longer exist; for
there shall be no sea to float the murderous pirate, the marauding
privateer, or the invading armada. And its absence will be that unity,
peace, and communion among nations for which Christians prayed and
philanthropists labored; which prophets predicted, and of which poets mused;
but which in its glory and blessedness will infinitely transcend all
thought, imagination, and song. O happy land! when the nations of the earth
will be ONE--one heart, one language, one King, around whose throne all will
cluster, and at whose feet all will lay the tribute of their homage and
their love!
Not the unity of nations only, will the absence of the
sea promote; but what will prove far lovelier, holier, and spiritual--the
unity of the Church of God. Independent of many causes which, in the
present imperfect state of the Christian Church, prevent its union, and
unhappily and widely divide it, the geography of the world--of which the sea
constitutes so large an element--limits, if it does not render almost
impossible, the inter-communion of the saints of the Most High scattered
abroad.
But when we are reminded that in the New Jerusalem there
will be "no more sea," a vision of the Church in her essential and
perfect unity rises before the mind in all its peerless splendor. A perfect
Church--unbroken in her unity--filled with the Spirit--fair as the moon,
clear as the sun, and tremendous as a bannered army--will then descend out
of heaven upon the new earth, in which will dwell righteousness. O blessed
Savior! King immortal! hasten Your appearing, that with You may come
Your ONE Church--her divine symmetry no more marred by theological
creeds--her essential unity no more broken by human divisions--her spiritual
beauty no more veiled by unlovely ritual--her moral strength no more
impaired by unseemly strifes--her communion and communion no more
interrupted by national distinctions, ecclesiastical separations, and
geographical bounds--for "there shall be no more sea."
Then, and not until then, will the VISIBLE UNITY of the
Church, of which prophets foretold and bards have sung; for which martyrs
bled, saints labored, and the Savior died, be complete, and the glorious
prayer of our great High Priest be fully answered--"That they all may be
ONE; as You, Father, are in ME, and I in You, that they also may be one in
us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me."
"One song employs all nations, and all cry,
'Worthy the Lamb! for He was slain for us.'
The dwellers in the valleys, and on the rocks
Shout to each other; and the mountain-tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
Until, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round."
An idea related to the preceding one, and suggested by
this negative attraction of heaven, is that, there will be NO
INTERRUPTION OF PERSONAL COMMUNION with those we love in the New
Jerusalem. The idea which the existence of the sea suggests is just the
opposite of this. It is a separating element--it divides relatives and
friends; tears asunder kindred minds and loving hearts--its dark and stormy
billows separating for months, for years, perhaps forever! But oh! how sweet
the thought of the certain reunion, the perfect recognition, the inseparable
love, the changeless friendship, the personal communion of that holy and
blissful world in which there shall be no more sea! How the thought softens
our present grief, alleviates our present separation, makes the sweetness of
life more sweet, and the bitterness of death less bitter!
The personal coming of the Lord, with all His
saints, will be the gathering together unto Him, and to each other, of all
that are scattered abroad. Who can conceive the blessedness, or paint the
glory of that scene--that countless throng, that resplendent gathering, that
holy, joyous meeting, greeting, and fellowship? The very prospect is enough
to reconcile us to all the separations of earth--to the thought of a
thousand seas rolling between us and the being we love. We shall soon and
forever dwell where there is no more sea--and, therefore, no more
separation! Once we have crossed the narrow isthmus that separates time
from eternity, and have passed the little stream that divides earth from
heaven, we sweep beyond all the sundering, separating limits of this world,
and are identified with the Church of the First-born, "whose names are
written in heaven."
Oh! the welcomes--the greetings--the songs that await us
on that shore! The dead in Christ are safely housed with Him; and with Him
are 'expecting' the advent of that glorious day when, at the bidding of
Christ, the ransomed spirit will return to earth, re-tenant the body now
rebuilt and refashioned like unto His glorious body--fair, beautiful, and
vigorous--blooming with immortal youth--the fit abode of the pure,
enraptured spirit which will then reanimate and re-enter it, every limb and
organ, muscle and nerve, fitted to sustain, without weariness or decay, an
'eternal weight of glory.'
There will be no more SOUL-DISTRESS in the new
earth--strikingly symbolized by the fact that there will be no more sea. How
often is the believer brought into David's experience, and the yet deeper
experience of David's Lord--"Save me, O God; for the waters are come unto
my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into
deep waters, where the floods overflow me." (Ps. 69:1, 2) Soul-distress
springing from a fallen nature--the power of sin--a corrupt and deceitful
heart--fears within and conflicts without--the workings of unbelief, and the
suggestions of the Evil One--the corrodings of guilt--the grieving the
Spirit--the hidings of God--oh! these are waves and billows that enter
into the believing soul.
While the tempest breaks below the vessel, she rides
gallantly and securely on the mountain billow, laughs at the storm, defies
the waves, and "walks the water like a thing of life." But, let a plank
loosen, let the waves rush in and the vessel begin to sink, and then the
brave mariners stagger like drunken men, and are at their wits' end. So is
it with the believer. While the storms of outward adversity sweep over him
he can trust and not be afraid; but, when the waters of spiritual conflict,
fears, and unbelief come in unto His soul, then it is he cries,
"Lord, save! I perish!" But all this will entirely and forever have
vanished in the New Jerusalem abode of the saints, for there shall be no
more sea of spiritual distress. The unbelieving doubt will be dislodged by
unshaken confidence--the tormenting fear will give place to perfect
repose--the shading cloud will dissolve into noontide splendor--the sweeping
tempest will slumber into perfect repose, and the surging billows will
subside into a peaceful and eternal calm.
"And not a wave of trouble roll
Across the tranquil breast."
But let not this calm, which will distinguish the
blessedness of the saints in glory, be misunderstood. The absence of the sea
in the future home of the blessed indicates the absence of a religious phase
common alike to all God's people. We refer to those SEASONS OF SPIRITUAL
DEADNESS AND TORPOR, of relapse and decay of religion in the soul, the sad
and deplored experience, more or less, of the most gracious and eminent
saints. The spiritual life is subject to the same changes and vicissitudes
as the physical body. In nothing is the analogy stronger than in this. Who
can read the remarkable experience of David, as recorded in the 119th Psalm,
and not trace these variations and moods of which we speak--the diversity of
feature which marks the personal religion of all the regenerate? How
frequently he speaks of his "soul cleaving to the dust!" and then his
prayer is, "Quicken me, O Lord, according unto Your word."
Are there no records in the diary of your daily life, my
reader, corresponding with this? How frequently have you to mourn over the
drooping of spiritual life, the decay of divine grace, the waning of your
love, the weakness of your faith, the drowsiness and lethargy of your
spirit, the faint hold which the realities and glories of eternity have upon
your mind, the coldness and formality of your soul in prayer, the distance
of your walk from God, and the half-heartedness with which you follow Jesus!
But all this will be done away in heaven! If there will be no more the
sweeping tempest of soul-distress, stirring it to its depths, there will
also be no more the dead calm of soul-insensibility, lulling it to
unsuspicion and danger. Oh, blessed thought! In heaven my love for God will
never chill; my zeal in His service will never flag; my obedience to His
word never falter; my assimilation to Christ never veiled; my soul never
lulled into that carnal security, spiritual torpor, drowsiness, and death
more to be dreaded than the storms and tempests, the searchings and probings
that drive me in tears and confession closer to Christ. For--
"More the treacherous calm I dread
Than tempests bursting over my head."
The absence of the sea in heaven tells me that there will
be no more AFFLICTION and no more TEMPTATION there. How like an
overwhelming flood are sometimes God's disciplinary providences, and Satan's
permitted yet curbed assaults! In reference to the one, we may quote the
language of David, "Deep calls unto deep, at the noise of Your
waterfalls; all Your waves and Your billows are gone over me." And in
reference to the other, we may quote the words of the prophet, "When the
enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard
against him."
But we part forever with all this when we plant our feet
on that shore unwashed by a wavelet of temptation and sorrow. Heaven is
sorrowless because sinless--is free from temptation because free from
corruption. Cheer up, O tried and tempted one! Soon shall you breast the
last foaming billow, quench the last fiery dart, and exchange the troubled
sea of sorrow for the crystal sea of glass, upon which you shall stand among
the victors with harp all strung and tuned to the song of Moses and the
Lamb.
"Courage, Christian! Though the way
Be both lone and dreary,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
Passed this way before thee.
See Him standing at the door
Of your home in glory;
He has made your title sure;
None can e'er defraud thee."
The sea will be closely associated with the solemn
transactions of the last great day of the world's history. "And
the SEA gave up the dead which were in it." The sea has its dead; its
swelling bosom and its crested billows, are mounds and monuments of the
myriads who have gone down into its liquid tomb. What a vast proportion of
the race has the sea engulfed! As the scene of battle and the highway of
commerce--as the road of the discoverer and the path of the tourist--what a
sad and instructive volume is the history of the sea! When God lets loose
His winds, it is here man feels his impotence. He has scaled the mountains
and chained the lightning; curbing the sternest elements, he has compelled
all nature to obey his behest; but the sea he cannot curb, the winds he
cannot bind. Here he is passive and powerless.
How varied and how touching the victims over whom the
dark blue sea rolls its waters! The gallant commander going down in the
faithful discharge of his responsible and perilous trust--the last to die;
the brave sailor dropping from the mast in the midnight gale; the merchant,
bent on enterprise and wealth, sinking beneath the deep waters, all his busy
thoughts at that very moment perishing; the invalid returning to his home,
committed to the deep in sight of his native hills; the emigrant to a land
of strangers in search of a new home, perishing amid the rocks and breakers
of its very shores; the missionary of the cross bearing the tidings of
salvation to the distant heathen, all his fond and holy thoughts of service,
and plans of usefulness engulfed in the trackless deep. All these--and
countless myriads more--will rise from the liquid tomb at the trumpet of the
archangel for, "the SEA shall give up the dead who are in it."
And will there be no more sea in the New Jerusalem? Oh
yes! one sea yet remains!--the sea of heavenly bliss--the ocean of
God's love--into the fathomless depths of which the glorified saints will
plunge--upon whose sparkling surface the happy spirit will sport and the
joyous harpers will stand, their anthems of adoration and praise to God and
the Lamb, rolling in swelling thunderings, and in circling symphonies,
mightier than the voice of many waters, round earth's new creation. My soul!
breast hopefully the waves, and plough manfully the billows of the stormy
seas, across which you are voyaging to the heaven-land--for surely and
safely Jesus will bring you to your desired haven.
"I am hastening homeward
To the land I love;
Would'st you bid me linger
From the realms above?
Soon I'll be with Jesus,
See Him face to face;
Then I'll sing the story,
Of His wondrous grace.
"In His presence standing,
I my voice shall raise,
In a sinless anthem
Of eternal praise;
Praise to Him who brought me
From darkness into light,
Put away transgression,
Clothed my soul in white.
"Here I have had sorrow,
There shall be no more--
Hushed is every WAVELET,
On yon glorious shore.
One by one they're gathering
Home from every land;
Soon I'll pass the desert--
Join their happy band.
"Why then should I murmur,
If the way be rough?
Jesus, He will guide me--
Is not that enough?
Then let clouds o'ershade me
Still I need not fear;
His strength shall sustain me,
His sweet voice shall cheer.
"Therefore I will hasten,
Homeward on my way,
Singing as I journey,
To the realms of day;
Ever shall my song be,
Through eternity,
Of His matchless glory,
And His love to me."--Geraldine Dening