There are other similitudes. "This great and wide sea" gladly receives, and instantaneously swallows up, whatever weighty bodies are cast into it. It takes them into measureless waters, and hides. them from ken within unexplored recesses. Precious is the knowledge that, for Christ's sake, God is willing so to deal with the sins of His people. “He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and," saith the Prophet, (Micah, vii. 19,) addressing himself directly to the Lord— 66 Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Mystical Babylon shall thus perish, surely and suddenly, to the joy of the Saints. The beloved disciple, (Rev. xviii. 21,) as he looked from the rocks of Patmos, over the blue waters of the Ægean, beheld this in vision : “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." The Ocean's density is demonstrated in the pressure exercised upon all submerged substances. Its capacious basin receives, from every quarter, the outpourings of the world's watersheds. The time cometh, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. * "Many waters!" These words often occur in Scripture, and have different meanings. With the Prophets, they are symbolical of "nations;" (Numbers, xxiv. 7; Rev. xvii. 1;) and Jehovah's supremacy is, therefore, well set forth by David, (Psalm, xxix. 3, 10,) "The Lord is upon many waters;" and again, "The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." In another place (Psalm, xciii. 3, 4) he describes, in like language, the nation's wild uprisings, "The floods have lifted up, O Lord! the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves." But, let the sea roar, and there is one to restrain it; or, let ungodly men arise, and Jehovah can speedily quell them. "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." As floods overwhelm and desolate, so, in the Poetical Books, the phrase is indicative of sorrows. David bewails himself, (Psalm, xlii. 7,) "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me;" and, (Psalm, lxxxviii. 7,) "Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves." The Lord's deliverance is touchingly described in similar tropes, (2 Sam. xxii. 17; Psalm, xviii. 16,) "He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters." It was thus redeeming love was tried, even to the uttermost; yet it failed not. "Many waters" (Canticles, viii. 7) could not quench this desire of Jesus for His people; neither could the floods drown it. Through the dreadful gulf, eveh of the wrath of God, He waded for His Church's sake. On the other hand, the phrase is at times indicative of gladness and beauty. What is more melodious than the chiming falls of some noble river? The voice of The Beloved is likened to the "sound of many waters," both in the Old and New Testament. (Ezek. xliii. 2; Rev. i. 15; xiv. 2.) His people resemble Him in mind; (Phil. ii. 5;) in body; (ib. iii. 21;) and even in voice, (Rev. xix. 6,)-for the "Alleluia" of heaven is 66 the voice of many waters." as I pause over this last comparison; for in mine ear, as I am writing, the Sea is audibly swelling and falling. Commingled there, I know, are the Amazon, Mississippi, Volga, Danube, Rhine, Thames, Clyde, and Shannon, with the little unknown streamlet, that babbles past my sequestered parish. All take their part in Ocean's mighty diapason, and there would be incompleteness were any wanting. I learn something from this, and am comforted by what I learn. The low notes of the organ are essential to the melody, as well as the trumpet-swell. The child's weak treble contributes to the anthem's perfection along with the ringing tenor and the deep bass. The "new song" is sung together by the Redeemed; and I, the feeblest that ever "learned" it, shall take my part therein, along with David and Isaiah, along with Paul and John. Through the Ocean passes, all unchanged, the mighty Gulf Stream. Its course is ever onward; and still, as it proceeds, it preserves its warmth and freshness.* Whatever shore it washes, receives a bless Similarly, we are told of the memorable Jordan that, in passing through, it does not mingle its waters with those of Gennesareth. "It is certain," wrote Dr. Kitto, (" Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature," Vol. ii. p. 459,) "that the course of the river may be traced through the middle of the lake by a line of smoother water." This circum ing. A higher temperature is felt there, and fertility attends upon its genial outpourings. Thus Christians, while in the world, are not of the world, and are "kept" from commixture with the evil that is in the world; and, in their heavenward progress, they diffuse around them hallowed influences, felt by all whom their presence can reach, and their fellowship sanctify. The New Testament, pre-eminently, is the Book for the Sea-side. In the narratives of the Evangelistic Four, we have graphic pictures of occurrences on the waters. The most memorable events of man's history are connected with Gennesareth. Its waters, full many a time, bore on their bosom the incarnate Son of God. Its shores and hill-sides re-echoed His divine voice. Making a ship his pulpit, He there taught the multitudes that followed Him. His marvellous works were there continually done; and the waves themselves were made to feel His power. When there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and the disciples' ship was filled with water, and they were in jeopardy, then He arose, and rebuked the stance has been often referred to, in illustration of Israel's present condition. For instance, Davison, in his "Discourses on Prophecy," thus depictures the modern Jews : “Present in all countries, with a home in none; intermixed, yet separated; and neither amalgamated nor lost, but like those mountain streams which are said to pass through lakes of another kind of water, and keep a native quality to prevent commixture; they hold communication without union, and may be traced as rivers without banks, in the midst of the alien element which surrounds them." winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. Again: when His disciples were in a storm, and their ship was in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, and was unable to make the shore, for the wind was contrary, in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. A patriarch (Job, ix. 8) asserted that Jehovah "alone" could attempt this; and Christ, as He was seen "treading upon the waves of the sea," manifested Himself to be "equal with God." How great, therefore, was His humilityhow marvellous His condescension; for, this glorious One, the "fellow" of the Almighty "When He came from heaven, did love the Sea, Sea-faring men were among the Saviour's earliest friends; and possibly (as an old writer conjectures) Joseph, His reputed father, was a ship-carpenter. Hands, hardened by the oar and excoriated by the dragging of nets, were the first uplifted for Him, in pleading with sinners; and in His own exquisite paronomasia, "fishermen" were made, through His goodness, "fishers of men." Often, in other days, when my home was by the sea, I found, in the visible objects around me a forceful meaning in the Saviour's words. The net was, before mine eyes, cast into the sea; and I saw that it gathered of every kind. I beheld the seamen, when it was full, drawing it to the shore; gathering the good into vessels, but casting the bad away. Often, too, when ministerial anxieties thickened around me, and the desire of |