Untitled article by Augusta W. Heald

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 15, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 46.

BY THE SEA-SIDE.

By Augusta W. Heald

BY AUGUSTA W. HEALD.

"What are the wild waves saying?"

WHO can contemplate grand old ocean in all his majestic beauty without solemn thoughts of the great work of creation and of the Infinite Creator?

How accurately has the omnipotent One "measured the waters in the hollow of His hand!"—measured them that there be always enough for the formation of vapor, clouds, and the gently-falling rain which replenishes the earth, and refreshes man and beast. The rivers flow again to the sea, and so in Almighty wisdom the balance is ever maintained.

The ceaseless devisings of the wicked are compared to the restlessness of the vast ocean. "For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall." Prov. 4:16. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can not rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isa. 57:20.

The sea is considered cruel and relentless, and not without reason. Yet God hath His way in the sea at all times. By it, as a scourge in His powerful hand, the proud hosts of Pharaoh were overthrown, "Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters." Ex. 15:10.

Yet how safe were the disciples, when tossed in their fisherman's bark on storm-swept Galilee, for the Master was with them. At His command the tumult ceased and "there was a great calm."

Notwithstanding its changeful moods and destructive characteristics, the sea is a symbol of righteousness: "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandment! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

In that great day which hastens on apace, the sea will give up the dead. Its cruel waves can no longer hold the redeemed. "They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea." Isa. 24:14.

And when by God's grace the new heaven and the new earth are ushered in "wherein dwelleth righteousness," there will be "no more sea," turbulent, cruel, relentless, but the "pure river of water of life" "shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High,"—"clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Then shall the earth "be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."