C.H. SPURGEON
Partings, and changes, and storms!
"And there was no more sea." Revelation 21:1
Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean. The new Heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores.
Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the bias with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring, without the diamond which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here.
In Heaven, there will be no division—the sea separates nations and divides peoples from each other. To John on the island of Patmos, the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work. There shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billowslie between us and many a kinsman whom we prayerfully remember—but in the bright world to which we go—there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea.
The sea is the emblem of change—with its ebbs—and flows, its glassy smoothness—and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs—and its tumultuous roarings. The sea is never the same for long. As the slave of fickle winds and the changeful moon—its instability is proverbial.
In this mortal state—we have too much of this change. This world is constant—only in her inconstancy! But in the Heavenly state—all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of any storm to wreck our hopes or drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory, which is unbroken by a wave! No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise!
Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall all be ended! Jesus will waft all of His people there! Are you in Him or not? This is the grand question!
"And there was no more sea." Revelation 21:1
Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean. The new Heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores.
Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the bias with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring, without the diamond which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here.
In Heaven, there will be no division—the sea separates nations and divides peoples from each other. To John on the island of Patmos, the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work. There shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billowslie between us and many a kinsman whom we prayerfully remember—but in the bright world to which we go—there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea.
The sea is the emblem of change—with its ebbs—and flows, its glassy smoothness—and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs—and its tumultuous roarings. The sea is never the same for long. As the slave of fickle winds and the changeful moon—its instability is proverbial.
In this mortal state—we have too much of this change. This world is constant—only in her inconstancy! But in the Heavenly state—all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of any storm to wreck our hopes or drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory, which is unbroken by a wave! No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise!
Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall all be ended! Jesus will waft all of His people there! Are you in Him or not? This is the grand question!
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