Revelation 21:1-8 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.… St. John saw that the sea, whilst a great and essential good on earth, might in some aspects be regarded as an emblem of what was evil, and therefore undesirable. I. THE SEA IS EMBLEMATIC OF SEPARATION. Think of receiving a cablegram to-day telling that, say in Australia, a loved mother or child was lying ,lying and calling for you. How keenly you would feel the barrier set by the sea! II. THE SEA IS EMBLEMATIC OF PERIL. Some of the saddest wrecks on record have taken place on our coasts. The sea, therefore, is a fit type of peril. Now "the sea is no more" in heaven, and so there is no occasion of hurt, no cause of danger, no need for anxiety. We move amid perils now. III. THE SEA IS EMBLEMATIC OF COMMOTION. The sea is never still. Even at its calmest there are ebbings and flowings, and sometimes in storm the disturbance is very great, we have our calms, but also our storms. A life of uninterrupted prosperity would be good for none of us. But the heavenly experience is better than earth's best. When we reach the land of light the need of testing shall be past, and the reason for discipline shall have vanished away. And so "the sea shall be no more." (G. Gladstone.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. |
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