These words refer especially to the future. We all live in the future more or less; it is so full of possibilities of improvement that we are strongly disposed to dwell upon it. God has not allowed the future state to be wrapped entirely in mystery; enough has been revealed to inspire us to inquire into its glorious realities.

I. THAT THERE IS A GREAT CHANGE TO TAKE PLACE IN THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH.

1. The new heaven implies that the future state will be suited to the soul in the fullest possible sense. There will be no night there — i.e., there will be no ignorance there. The "god of this world" will not have any power in "the new heaven," nor will any evil men or false teachers be found there to blind or delude the minds of the inhabitants. The state will be perfectly adapted to the redeemed soul. There will be no doubt there. Certitude will be the mental state of all in the future life; nor will there be any fear in that state. The deep mysteries of the future will not create any fear in the minds of the redeemed. There will be no falsehood in that state either; no one who loveth or doeth a lie shall enter into it: truth will be the very atmosphere of the place. There will be no such thing as a selfish emotion experienced by any soul in the "new heaven." Righteous principle will be the governing power in all. Neither will there be any hatred in the "new heaven." All will be sweet and harmonious reasonableness.

2. It will be suited to the body. It will be a state of established health and vigour. The "new earth" will abound in all the elements of true and pure strength. So perfect will the body, which we shall then possess, be in all its parts, that we shall never be conscious of any evil passions whatsoever. There will be no want in the "new earth." The "new earth" will be richly supplied with all that the new body will require; the new earth and the resurrection body will be most thoroughly fitted the one for the other.

3. The society of the future state will be of the purest and the best. The character of the inhabitants will be such that defection will be impossible. There will be great progression to fuller knowledge, larger views, and more comprehensive understanding of things spiritual and eternal. The very thought of it is an inspiration; what must an experience of it be?

II. THAT THE FUTURE STATE WILL BE ONE OF VERY INTIMATE SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE. "The tabernacle of God will be with men."

III. THAT THE FUTURE STATE WILL BE ENTIRELY FREE FROM ALL TRIAL

(D. Rhys Jenkins.)

I. IT WILL BE IN A SENSE A NEW STATE.

1. It may be physically new.

2. It may be dispensationally new. Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father.

3. It may be relatively new. New in the estimation and feeling of the occupants.

II. IT WILL BE A STATE WIDELY DIFFERING FROM ALL PRECEDING ONES.

1. The difference will arise from the absence of some things which were identified with all the preceding states.(1) All the elements of mental agitation — pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, doubt, fear, envy, guilt — will be excluded from heaven.(2) Death-beds, funeral processions, cemeteries, are not known there.(3) Suffering.

2. This difference will arise from the presence of some things which have not been in connection with any preceding states.

(1)A full manifestation of God.

(2)A perfect fellowship with God.

(a)Direct.

(b)Permanent.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

1. Our future state of being will partake very largely of a material character. That is, we shall not exist in an invisible, impalpable condition, floating in ether, as some have fancifully supposed, or mysteriously suspended upon nothing. The soul and body are not two antagonistic beings, to be severed and divorced for all eternity. They are separated by death to be re-united at the resurrection.

2. Our occupation in a future state will be greatly influenced by material things. It would be unreasonable to attribute to the future life an entire absence of all those warm and sensible accompaniments which give expression and force to our present being. Christ did not come to take sway all taste for the beautiful in nature, but to refine and elevate those powers by which we apprehend and appreciate the lovely and the sublime. Our capacity for investigating the works of God will not merely remain undestroyed, but be developed so as to meet the requirements of the new state of being. When we have made the material world minister to our wants; when we have gathered to our tables the produce of all lands, and when we have culled from the beauties of nature for the adornment of our homes — nay, further, when we have made the steam-power print for our use the ripest thoughts of the greatest minds, and when we have girdled the earth with an electric band, so that words of hearty friendship may be flashed as in a moment to the uttermost ends of the world — when we have done all this have we yet put the works of Omnipotence to their highest use? Are there not fields yet to be entered, regions yet to be explored, treasures yet to be discovered, harvests yet to be reaped?

3. We anticipate future opportunities to unravel the perplexities of a Divine providence.

4. The new earth, with its new and sinless life, will afford opportunity for the more perfect comprehension of the mysteries of grace.

(F. Wagstaff.)

I. THE SOURCES WHENCE THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN IS DERIVED.

1. The happiness of heaven will be derived from increased and perfected knowledge. On earth our residence is so short, our mental faculties are so limited, our hearts are so carnal, and our opportunities of acquiring knowledge are, in many cases, so few, that the wisest and the holiest know but little either of the character or the works of God. What sources of happiness will be afforded by the moral government of God, when we are permitted to read the sealed book of providence, and by the work of redemption, when, in the very presence of the Redeemer, we gaze upon its height and depth and length and breadth.

2. The happiness of heaven will be derived from holiness of character. Sin and misery are so connected that no mere change of place can sever them; and the mind of man is so much its own place that, if unsanctified, it would make a hell of heaven.

3. The happiness of heaven will be derived from the society of angels and the redeemed.

4. This happiness will be derived from the presence and friendship of Jesus Christ.

5. This happiness will be derived from the employments of the inhabitants.

II. THE PECULIARITIES BY WHICH THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN WILL BE DISTINGUISHED.

1. The happiness of heaven will be perfect in its nature. That is, it will be free from every imperfection and alloy that mingles with our enjoyments here.

2. The happiness of heaven will be various in its degrees. There is a prophet's reward, and a righteous man's reward.

3. The happiness of heaven will be progressive and eternal.

(S. Alexander.)

None can deny that after the resurrection and the final judgment the just made perfect will not be, as angels, simply spiritual essences, but be endowed, as when on earth, with material bodies. Now material beings naturally presuppose a material locality; material sight would be simply useless unless there were material substances to see; material hearing, unless there were material sounds to hear. This obviates one great objection to what I am saying, that the whole Apocalyptic description is only the lowering of heavenly ideas to earthly minds. If a mere spiritual state were being described, doubtless it would be so; but when, to say the least, much that is material must be mixed up with it, the argument vanishes. Consider, again, the remarkable terms in which the abode of the elect is mentioned, after the final doom: "A new heaven and a new earth." And lest any one should think this is a mere casual expression of St. John's (granting that such things might be), St. Peter also and Isaiah speak of "new heavens and a new earth." If, now, there were no analogy between the old and the new, between the first and the second earth, to what purpose this particular and thrice- repeated expression? And most remarkably it is said, "There was no more sea." There is, therefore, so strong a resemblance between the two earths, that the absence of the sea in the second is thought a point worthy of notice. Therefore, all the varieties of natural beauty, besides this, it may be presumed, still will exist. If of one thing in a series it is recorded that it is abolished, the natural presumption about the others is that they remain. And in the mystical descriptions of heaven with which Scripture abound, we find frequent references to the other most remarkable components of earthly scenery. To trees, for there is the tree of life; to mountains, for there is the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; to lakes, for there the glorious Lord will be a place of broad streams; to rivers, for there is the river of the water of life. Surely it is impossible to believe that these things are purely metaphorical; nor can it be even said that the expressions are used in a sacramental sense.

(J. M. Neale, D. D.)

1. There shall be in heaven no more trackless wastes. Over three-fourths of this whole globe is composed of a wild, cheerless, trackless waste of waters. The ship passes over it and leaves no trace of its route. The sun woos it, the zephyrs waft it, the dews and rains descend upon it, yet it produces no vegetation. How many human beings seem to spend useless lives, leaving the world no better nor happier than when they came into it! There is no corner for such supernumeraries in the New Jerusalem. Its inhabitants shall not spend eternity in doing little but to sing songs and wave palm branches; but in service, glorious service, for the great King. Great energies will not be expended, as too often in this life, in vain efforts.

2. There shall be in heaven no more devouring waves.

3. There shall be in heaven no buried secrets. The sea is full of concealment and mystery. The scientific explorer dredges out wondrous revelations from the bosom of its gloomy depths. In heaven all earthly secrets shall be revealed, and there shall be no more sea.

4. There shall be in heaven no restless existence. The changeful tides, the constant agitation of surface, the winds and hurricanes, the ever-shifting scenery of old ocean are a picture of human life, with its rises and falls, its joys and sorrows, its births and deaths, its successes and failures — fickle, transitory, uncertain, unsatisfactory human life. What, is it possible that all this agitation of time shall some day cease? Its unquiet of body, its tumult of mind, its yearning of soul all come to an end? Yes, in heaven, where "there is a rest for the people of God," a blessed calm, an eternal peace of soul in the presence of God.

(M. D. Kneeland, D. D.)

We know not whether there will be a literal physical sea or not in the future world. To the Apostle John, who doubtless, in common with all his countrymen, looked upon the sea with dread, the absence of it in the heavenly vision may have been welcomed as a relief. All the allusions to the sea in the Bible refer solely to its power or danger — never to its aesthetic aspects; and many, especially those to whom the sea has proved cruel, may sympathise with this prejudice, and rejoice to accept the announcement in all its literality, that in heaven there shall be no more sea. To others, again, whose earliest and sweetest associations are connected with its shelly shores and its gleaming waters, a world without a sea would seem a world without life or animation, without beauty or attraction — a blank, silent realm of desolation and death.

I. The existence of the sea implies SEPARATION. The sea, along with its accompanying lakes and rivers, is in this world the great divider. In the peculiar arrangements of land and water on the surface of the earth we have a clear and unmistakable evidence of God's intention from the very beginning of separating mankind into distinct nationalities. For this separation a twofold necessity suggests itself. It exercised a restraining and a constraining influence. Had mankind been permitted to remain for an indefinite period in one narrow region of the earth, brought into close and constant communication with each other, and speaking the same language, the consequences would have been most disastrous. They would have inevitably corrupted one another. Family and individual interests would have come into frequent and violent collision. Their proximity would have been the occasion of endless wars and deeds of violence and bloodshed. God, therefore, mercifully interfered; He separated mankind into distinct nations, placed them in different scenes and circumstances, and effectually kept them apart by means of seas and trackless oceans; and thus the maddening passions of man were rendered comparatively innocuous, or circumscribed within the narrowest possible limits. Another reason for this separation of the human race by means of the sea was that national character might thus be formed and educated — that the one type of human nature might develop itself into every possible modification by the force of different circumstances and experiences. If there were no individuality among nations mankind could make no progress; all human societies would lose the mental activity, the noble competition, the generous emulation which distinguish them; there would be no mutual instruction, nothing to keep in check local evils, and by the better agencies of one region stimulate into action similar agencies in another. And it is a remarkable circumstance that this barrier continued insurmountable while the infant races were receiving the education and undergoing the discipline that were to qualify them for enlarged intercourse with each other. When, however, the day appointed by God to enlighten and emancipate the world approached, the sea became all at once, through the improvement of navigation and ship-building, the great highway of nations, the great channel of communication between the different and distant parts of the world. Christianity is rapidly melting the separate nationalities into one; but the fusion of these discordant elements into one glorious harmony, pure as sunlight, inspiring as a strain of perfect music, will never be accomplished in this world. "And there was no more sea." Methinks these words must have had a deep and peculiar significance to the mind of the old fisherman when we think of the circumstances in which he was placed when he wrote them. A touching tradition pictures the aged apostle going day after day to an elevated spot on the ocean-rock, to which, Prometheus-like, he was chained, and casting a longing look over the wide waste of waters, as if by thus gazing he could bring nearer to his heart, if not to his sight, the beloved land and the cherished friends for whom he pined. The cause of his beloved Master needed the aid of every faithful arm and heart, but he could do nothing. Oh! a feeling of despondency must have often seized him when he thought of all from which the cruel sea divided him. And when the panorama of celestial scenery was spread out before his prophetic eye, to compensate him for the trials of banishment, with what joy, methinks, must he have seen that from horizon to horizon there was no sea there — nothing to separate — nothing to prevent the union and communion of those whom the grace of Christ had made free, and His power had transferred to that "large place"! "And there was no more sea." Do not these words come home to our own hearts with peculiar tenderness of meaning? For what home is there whose circle of happy faces is complete, from which no wanderer has gone forth to the ends of the earth? Heaven is the land of eternal reunion. The friends who bade reluctant farewell to each other on earth, and dwelt apart with wide seas rolling between, shall meet on the eternal shore to separate no more for ever.

II. "And there was no more sea." These words imply that in heaven there shall be no more CHANGE. The sea is the great emblem of change. There is nothing in the world more uncertain and unstable. Now it lies calm and motionless as an inland lake — without a ripple on its bosom; and now it tosses its wild billows mountains high, and riots in the fury of the storm. And not only is it the emblem of change: it is itself the cause, directly or indirectly, of nearly all the physical changes that take place in the world. We cannot name a single spot where the sea has not some time or other been. Every rock that now constitutes the firm foundation of the earth was once dissolved in its waters, lay as mud at its bottom, or as sand and gravel along its shore. The materials of our houses were once deposited in its depths, and are built on the floor of an ancient ocean. What are now dry continents were once ocean-beds; and what are now sea-beds will be future continents. Everywhere the sea is still at work — encroaching upon the shore — undermining the boldest cliffs by its own direct agency. And where it cannot reach itself, it sends its emissaries to the heart of deserts, and the summits of mountain ranges, and the innermost recesses of continents — there to produce constant dilapidation and change. Viewed in this light there is a striking appropriateness in there being no more sea in the eternal world. Heaven is the land of stability and permanence. There will be progress, but not change; growth, but not decay. There will be no ebb and flow — no waxing and waning — no rising and setting — no increasing and diminishing in the life of heaven. There will be perfect fulness of rest in the changeless land where there is no more sea.

III. The existence of the sea implies the existence of STORMS. And is not this life, even to the most favoured individuals, a dark and rainy sea, with only here and there a few sunlit isles of beauty and peace, separated by long and troubled voyages? There are many outward storms that beat upon us in this world — storms of adversity arising from personal, domestic, or business causes; as soon as one blows past, another is ready to assail us. And there are inward storms — storms of religious doubt, of conscience, of temptation, and, worse than any of these, the raging of our own corrupt affections and unsubdued desires. Between these two seas many of us are scarcely ever allowed to know what a calm means. But amid all these storms we are strengthened and consoled by the assurance that they are necessary, and are appointed to work together for good. Yet still we long for their cessation, and look forward with joyful hope to the region of everlasting peace. In heaven there will be no stormy winds or raging waters. Through the shoals and the breakers, and the sunken rocks of those perilous worldly seas, the Christian voyagers, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship, will escape all safe to land — and there shall be no more sea.

(H. Macmillan, D. D.)

I. NO MORE PAINFUL MYSTERY. We look out upon the broad ocean, and far away it seems to blend with air and sky. Mists come up over its surface. Suddenly there rises on the verge of the horizon a white sail that was not there a moment ago; and we wonder, as we look out from our hills, what may be beyond these mysterious waters. And to these ancient peoples there were mysteries which we do not feel. Whither should they come, if they were to venture on its untried tides? And then, what lies in its sunless caves that no eye has seen? It swallows up life and beauty and treasure of every sort, and engulphs them all in its obstinate silence. What should we see if depth and distance were annihilated, and we beheld what there is out yonder, and what there is down there? And is not our life ringed round in like manner with mystery? Oh! to some hearts surely this ought to come as not the least noble and precious of the thoughts of what that future life is — "there shall be no more sea"; and the mysteries that come from God's merciful limitation of our vision, and some of the mysteries that come from God's wise and providential interposition of obstacles to our sight shall have passed away.

II. NO MORE REBELLIOUS POWER. God lets people work against His kingdom in this world. It is not to be always so. The kingdom of God is in the earth, and the kingdom of God admits of opposition. Strange! But the opposition, even here on earth, all comes to nothing. Men may work against God's kingdom, the waves may rave and rage; but beneath them there is a mighty tidal sweep, and God's purposes are wrought out, and God's ark comes to "its desired haven," and all opposition is nugatory at the last. But there comes a time, too, when there shall be no more violence of rebellious wills lifting themselves against God. The opposition that lies in all our hearts shall one day be subdued. The whole consent of our whole being shall yield itself to the obedience of sons, to the service of love.

III. NO MORE DISQUIET AND UNREST. Surely some of us are longing to find anchorage whilst the storm lasts, and a haven at the end. There is one, if only you will believe it, and set yourselves towards it. There is an end to all "the weary oar, the weary wandering fields of barren foam." On the shore stands the Christ; and there is rest there.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

This fact can be read physically. It would be the easiest reading, but perhaps not the only one, nor the most satisfying and helpful one. Rendered physically, it would neither satisfy curiosity nor offer stimulus. It would add nothing practically to our knowledge of the future, because we know nothing of the other physical conditions with which this fact of sealessness would stand in relation; and no fact means anything when standing alone. Every man in conceiving the things which are eternal has to think in terms of time; and in conceiving the things which are celestial has to think in terms of earth. In our most spiritual moods we cannot get away from our common surroundings or from our every-day vocabulary. We have only one language in which to phrase present experience and heavenly anticipatings. The finest pictures which our thought paints of the things which are unseen and eternal are done in tints gathered from off a pallet of earthly colour. If we are weary, then heaven means rest; if we are sin-sick, then heaven means holiness; if we are lonely, then heaven means reunion with the loved ones that have gone on before. If any kind of barrier invests us, we think that in heaven that barrier will be erased. In the sailor-boy's dream of home, no buffeting waves or tempestuous sea divide longer between him and the old hearthstone. For the time being there is with him no more sea. Now there are many phases of life, many limitations by which we are hedged in, upon which this sentiment of our text falls with a singular power of stimulus and of comfort, and the more completely these waters of separation sunder us, and exile us from our soul's object, the more richly freighted with fruition does the new and the sealess city become to us. There are in the first place our physical limitations, by which we are so many of us so closely and painfully walled. Much of our severity and acidity is only indigestion become a mental fact, and a good deal of our solicitude and distrust are no more than an enfeebled condition of the blood telling upon the spirit: The body made to be the helpmeet of the soul is become its adversary. Much of sin is the offspring of the body. Redemption and immortality are as much of the body as of the mind. Then there are our mental limitations. Men want to know, but they do not know how to know. Our philosophy is tentative. Thinking is trying experiments mostly. We think different things at different times, and no two men think the same thing, as no two eyes see the same rainbow. And then most of that which we do know is of things chat are going to last but a little; as it were, a gathering of wilting flowers. All knowledge is transient, that is, of things that are transient, as the splendour fades from off the hills as the sun passes under the west. There are also our moral limitations. Holiness is yonder, and there is a great gulf fixed. We can abstain from acts of sin, but do not succeed in becoming clean through and through. Our wishes outrun our attainments. Our bodies hold us back; our past holds us back; our surroundings detain us. We want it should become our nature to do right. Holiness lies in the future, but it is a sure fact of the future, and our wall of moral separation shall be broken down, our exile repealed, the island made continuous with the continent, and no more sea in the New City of God.

(C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)

I. THERE WILL BE NO MORE MYSTERY.

1. Our life is a mystery — birth, health, sickness, death.

2. Revelation is a mystery — prophecy, miracles, Calvary.

3. Providence is a mystery — prosperity of ungodly, adversity of the godly, death of children, war.

II. THERE WILL BE NO MORE TROUBLE. The sea a picture of our life — restless, stormy.

1. Business troubles.

2. Domestic troubles — an erring son, bereavement.

3. Personal troubles — disease of body, perplexity of mind about religion, spiritual needs.

III. THERE WILL BE NO MORE IMPURITY.

IV. THERE WILL BE NO MORE DANGER.

1. Danger from pernicious books.

2. Danger from evil companions.

3. Danger from Satanic influences.

V. THERE WILL BE NO MORE HIDDEN LIFE. VI. THERE WILL BE NO MORE SEPARATION.

(A. Gray Maitland.)

I. THERE IS NO DIVISION THERE. How much there is in this world that divides men! There are:

1. Social caste.

2. National prejudices.

3. Religious sectarianism.

4. Selfish interests.

5. Mutual misunderstandings. None of these will exist in heaven.

II. THERE IS NO MUTATION THERE. The only change is that of progress.

1. Progress in higher intelligence.

2. In loftier services.

3. In nobler fellowship. No change in the way of loss. The crown, the kingdom, the inheritance — all imperishable.

III. THERE IS NO AGITATION THERE. Human life here has many storms. In how many hearts does deep call upon deep, and billows of sorrow roll over the soul! In heaven there are no. spiritual storms.

(Homilist.)

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.)

St. John writes of the blessed life of the new creation, where holy souls are at rest, that there is "no more sea." What was the sea, then, to him — what is it everywhere — that he should choose it to symbolise something that is unheavenly — something that is to be done away with when that which is perfect is come?

I. The sea is that which sunders man from man. It divides nation from nation, as well as land from land. Whatever the original unity of the race, it breaks that unity apart. That is the very epithet that a Latin poet (Horace), who lived just before St. John's time, applied to it — the "dissociable" ocean. So long as the seas intervene, this is a divided world. The family of souls cannot be literally one; the universal neighbourhood and brotherhood at which the gospel aims cannot be actually represented till the first earth is passed away and there is no more sea. But if there is one thought that lies nearer the heart of the gospel than any other, it is that of the perfect oneness, or flowing together, and living together, of the nations and souls of men. The bond of that harmony began, in fact, to be woven when Christ was born, and the angels predicted peace at His coming, at Bethlehem. We know well enough how slowly the consummation has advanced against wars, crusades, caste, slavery, the complicated injustices and wrongs of a selfish society! Hereafter it will not be so. Hatreds, suspicions, oppressions, cruelties, quarrels, are all to be swept away. The spirit of Christ's mediation shall be the reigning force. So much for the society at large. Think, too, of the heavenly comfort it must bring to private hearts to have all the sorrows of personal separations ended. There will be no empty rooms that feel empty, or deserted hearts. Communion, fellowship, love, the presence of the loved, will be perpetual.

II. There is a second character of the sea which probably likewise suggested it to St. John, for Christian comfort, as an image of what is of the earth earthy, and must therefore pass away before the coming in of an everlasting satisfaction. The ocean is all a field of nothing but barrenness. Nobody makes a home on that restless, fluctuating floor. The sailor is a ceaseless fugitive. Nothing settles or abides on that restless breast. All the life it ever sees or supports is a transitional, passing life, moving from one tarryingplace or coast to another. What an image it is of the fickle and transient elements of this world that now is, compared with the fixedness and stability and blooming life of that which Christ has opened! More than this: there is a key to this second part of the meaning of the text in the closing passage of the chapter that goes just before. "The sea gave up the dead which were in it." The sea is a great graveyard. It is the home of the drowned and buried that it has swallowed up by thousands. And it never allows affection to set up a sign where the dead go down. There is no harvest from it, except the harvest of the resurrection. But then, following this scene of the judgment is the new creation, and when the Evangelist comes just after to speak of that, his mind goes back to the sepulchral sea. And lo! it is gone for ever. In other words, dropping the figure, that new world — the Christian home — is all a dwelling-place of life — life everywhere; life without sleep; life for ever. Deselations and destructions are come to a perpetual end. Everything there must be as useful as it is beautiful, and as fruitful as it is fair. You may say there is s wild and wondrous beauty about the ocean; and no doubt in this material world it has its uses; hat neither the gospel in this world nor the evangelic descriptions of the next recognise any beauty that is not the source of peace, or life, or benefaction. Heathen beauty, Greek beauty, cold, restless, faithless intellectual beauty, must be baptized into the warm "spirit of life" in Christ Jesus, or there is no room for it in the heaven Christ opens.

(Bp. F. D. Huntington.)

I. Some of the many present uses of "THE SEA." Among other special particulars, and mast material, one of the most prominent that strikes us is, it causes under Providence —

1. The fertility of the earth.

2. The temperature of climates. How serviceable are its gales, and how refreshing are its breezes, especially after the burthen and heat of the summer's day!

3. Employment and sustenance to man. The first followers and chosen disciples of our Lord were chiefly "fishermen."

4. Intercourse with foreign and distant lands. Again, the sea —

5. Affords security and defence for weaker states, and enables them to withstand the entrenchments of their more powerful neighbours.

6. It signally subserves the purposes of its Creator. "Fire and vapour, storm and tempest, all fulfil the Almighty's word." Once the sea arose, "the deeps were broken up, and the foundations of the earth were discovered," in order to destroy the world.

II. Some EMBLEMS taken from "the sea." In other words, the instructive lessons it particularly gives.

1. It reveals somewhat of the Divine perfections. Doth it not remind us continually of His power, His mercy, and His judgments? How widely spread, how fathomless!

2. The sea represents the varied characters of men.

3. The vicissitudes of human life.

4. The state and circumstances of the world.

III. Some EVENTS either literally or figuratively represented as fulfilled — "there shall be no more sea."

1. No more dangers! no more hazards, likened to "perils on the sea."

2. No more trials, deceptions, errors, mistakes, and persecutions from the world!

3. No more concealment of, or the keeping from us what is agreeable, and of which we would desire the possession.

4. No more straitened limits and bounded habitations.

5. No more estrangement from our brethren.

6. No more separation from our friends.

7. No longer any distance (any of our present intervening barriers) between the Christian and his God.

(W. Williams, M. A.)

1. The sea, to St. John and the men of his day, was a great barrier of separation. We must remember that the art of navigation was not then what it is to-day. Think of the ships of the ancients as compared with ours; think of them probably without either chart or mariner's compass. All this is changed now. The sea, instead of being a barrier, has become the great highway of the nations. But we have to remember what the sea was to St. John. It was a type, an emblem of things that divided men. There was the sea of racial hatred, of selfish interests, of false religions, of cruel prejudice, of bitter animosities. To the Jew every Gentile was a natural enemy, an outcast, a dog of the uncircumcision. To the Greek the people of other nations were barbarians. To the Romans all but their own countrymen were hostes, towards whom enmity was the approved relation. And how much of this continues to this day! We see it in the grasping policy of chartered companies and of statesmen, in the competitions of modern commerce, in the deadly warfare between capital and labour, in the bitterness of sectarian life, in the jealousies and rivalries of social life and the domestic circle.

2. The sea, to St. John, was doubtless a source of fear and terror. The Jews seem to have had no love for the mighty deep. They invariably looked upon it with dread and awe. St. John appears to have shared the sentiment of his countrymen. From his desolate island he had gazed upon the sea in its many and ever-changing moods. His mind associated the most terrible objects with it. It was out of the sea that he saw arise the wild beast having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads the name of Blasphemy. It was on the many waters of the deep that he saw seated that purple-clad woman who had upon her forehead written, "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." To him the sea was a type of the confederate forces of evil that were sweeping over the world, spreading ruin and desolation; of the fearful storms that were breaking in upon the infant Church. But it was only to last for a season. Gradually the wild instincts of the human heart would be subdued. The fierce billows of opposition and wickedness and unbelief would be hushed and stilled. They had their limits fixed: "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." There should be "no more sea."

3. The sea was a type of the world's unrest. That AEgean Sea, laving the rocky island of Patmos, like the great ocean everywhere, was never still. Whenever he looked out upon it, its waters were heaving and tossing to and fro. A picture of the disquietude of the human spirit apart from God. He had felt it himself before he became a disciple of Jesus Christ: he had seen it in the life of his countrymen, in the life of the philosophers he had met at Ephesus, in the life of that Roman world with which, in various ways, he had been brought into contact. Unrest was the sign everywhere. The world was full of a restless life, of longings and questionings and yearnings it could not still. And the sea described that restlessness better than anything else. And John turned with relief from the troubled scene which everywhere presented itself to the rest-giving work of the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.

4. The sea was a symbol of mystery. It was specially so to the ancients with their limited knowledge of its vast confines and of the wonders and glories of its fathomless depths. Think of the mountains that lie beneath the surface of the deep; of the life with which it teems of the towns and villages it has engulfed; of its myriads of nameless graves; of the secrets it keeps; of tales it has to unfold. Oh, sea! thy name is mystery. And the mystery of which the sea speaks meets us everywhere. Find a man who is not awed with a perception of life's mysteriousness, and you have found a man who has never seriously begun to think. No sooner do I ask, "What am I? Whence came I? Why am I here? Whither am I going?" than I am conscious that I am in the presence of profound and inscrutable mysteries. Why should there be disease and pain? Why do the innocent suffer with the guilty? What was the origin of evil, and why was it permitted to enter the world? Why does a good and wise Providence allow storm and tempest to overtake men? And here is our comfort, that John foresaw a time when the mysteries of life shall be swallowed up in knowledge. No longer will the great sea of doubt or mystery roll over us; we shall know as we are known, the day shall break, and the shadows rice away, and the dark, impenetrable waters shall be no more.

(J. H. Burkitt.)

JohnJerusalemExists, Heaven, Longer, Pass, Passed1. A new heaven and a new earth.
10. The heavenly Jerusalem, with a full description thereof.
23. She needs no sun, the glory of God being her light.
24. The kings of the earth bring their riches unto her.

Revelation 21:1

     1325   God, the Creator
     1355   providence
     2303   Christ, as creator
     2345   Christ, kingdom of
     4203   earth, the
     4266   sea
     4909   beginning
     5977   waiting
     8146   renewal, natural order
     8738   evil, victory over
     9155   millennium
     9160   new heavens and new earth

Revelation 21:1-2

     5477   property, land
     5659   bride
     6698   newness
     9411   heaven

Revelation 21:1-3

     1680   types
     5598   victory, over spiritual forces

Revelation 21:1-4

     4028   world, redeemed
     4209   land, spiritual aspects
     4906   abolition
     5006   human race, destiny
     5297   disease
     5542   society, positive
     5566   suffering, encouragements in
     6705   peace, experience
     8261   generosity, God's
     9105   last things
     9145   Messianic age
     9160   new heavens and new earth
     9165   restoration

Revelation 21:1-5

     2565   Christ, second coming
     4010   creation, renewal
     4915   completion
     6201   imperfection, and God's purposes
     7241   Jerusalem, significance
     8321   perfection, divine
     9130   future, the

Revelation 21:1-7

     9110   after-life

November 18. "And He that Sat Upon the Throne Said, it is Done" (Rev. xxi. 5, 6).
"And He that sat upon the throne said, It is done" (Rev. xxi. 5, 6). Great is the difference between action and transaction. We may be constantly acting without accomplishing anything, but a transaction is action that passes beyond the point of return, and becomes a permanent committal. Salvation is a transaction between the soul and Christ in which the matter passes beyond recall. Sanctification is a great transaction in which we are utterly surrendered, irrevocably consecrated and wholly committed …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

July the Twenty-Fifth no Temple Therein
"And I saw no temple therein!" --REVELATION xxi. 22-27. And that because it was all temple! "Every place was hallowed ground." There was no merely localized Presence, because the Presence was universal. God was realized everywhere, and therefore the little meeting-tent had vanished, and in place of the measurable tabernacle there were the immeasurable and God-filled heavens. Even here on earth I can measure my spiritual growth by the corresponding enlargement of my temple. What is the size of …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

He that Overcometh.
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."--REVELATION xxi. 7. Year by year as at this time, when the week of our Saviour's Passion and Death is just in front of us, and the shadow of His Cross is falling over us, one generation after another of the boys of this school gather here, and in the face of the congregation, young and old, they take upon them the vows of a Christian life. So we met last Thursday, and your vow is still fresh upon a great …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

A New Creation
MEN GENERALLY venerate antiquity. It were hard to say which has the stronger power over the human mind--antiquity or novelty. While men will frequently dote upon the old, they are most easily dazzled by the new. Anything new has at least one attraction. Restless spirits consider that the new must be better than the old. Though often disappointed, they are still ready to be caught by the same bait, and, like the Athenians of Mars Hill, spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

29Th Day. A Nightless Heaven.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "There shall be no night there."--REV. xxi. 25. A Nightless Heaven. My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these midnight tossings on life's tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. "His going forth is prepared as the morning." That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

31ST DAY. The Vision and Fruition of God.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."--REV. xxi. 3, 4. The Vision and Fruition of God. Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre to which every ray of light converges. God …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

The Disciple, -- Master, it is Clear to Almost Everyone that to Disobey God And...
The Disciple,--Master, it is clear to almost everyone that to disobey God and to cease to worship Him is sin, and the deadly result is seen in the present state of the world. But what sin really is is not absolutely clear. In the very presence of Almighty God, and in opposition to His will, and in His own world, how did sin come to be? The Master,--1. Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one's own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one's own …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

The Foundation of the Church among the Jews
A.D. 33-A.D. 38 Before entering upon an account of the Foundation and After-History of the Christian Church, it may be well to consider what that Church really is. Section 1. Definition of the Church. [Sidenote: Twofold nature of the Church.] The Church may be regarded in a twofold aspect, as an external Corporation, and as a spiritual Body. [Sidenote: 1. An external Kingdom.] In the first light it is a Kingdom, in the world, though not of the world, extending through different and widely-separated …
John Henry Blunt—A Key to the Knowledge of Church History

The City that Hath Foundations
"I ... saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem."-- Rev. xxi. 2. J. M. Meyfart, 1642. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 Jerusalem! thou glorious City-height, Oh might I enter in! My spirit wearieth for thy love and light, Amidst this world of sin-- Far over the dark mountains, The moorlands cold and grey, She looketh with sad longing, And fain would flee away. O fair sweet day! and hour yet more fair When wilt thou come to me? My spirit, safe within my Saviour's care Made glad, and pure, and free-- And calmly, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

The Land of Rest
Gerhard Ter Steegen Rev. xxi. 5 Wanderer, rest thy weary feet; Shapes and sounds forgotten now-- Close thine eyes in stillness sweet, With thy God alone art thou. In the deeps of silence rest, Let Him work His high behest. Silence! reasonings hard and keen, Still--O longings sad and deep-- Waken to the morn serene, Tangled dreams depart with sleep; In the calm eternal day Night's wild visions past away. In the silence of that dawn God shall speak His words of grace, Light that round thy waking …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

The Heritage of the Lord's People. --Rev. xxi. 5-7.
The Heritage of the Lord's People.--Rev. xxi. 5-7. "He that overcomes through me, Shall an heir of all things be, I his God, and he My Son," Saith the True and Holy One. What an heritage were this! An eternity of bliss, Heaven below and heaven above, O the miracle of love! "Abba! Father!" then might I Through the Holy Spirit cry; Heir of God, with Christ joint-heir, Grace and glory call'd to share. Can a worm such gifts receive? Fear not, faint not, but believe, He who gave His Son, shall He …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Whether God Always Loves More the Better Things?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not always love more the better things. For it is manifest that Christ is better than the whole human race, being God and man. But God loved the human race more than He loved Christ; for it is said: "He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Therefore God does not always love more the better things. Objection 2: Further, an angel is better than a man. Hence it is said of man: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels" (Ps. …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Impassibility and Immortality of the Risen Body.
Besides the attributes which immediately flow from the fact that our animal bodies will rise spiritualized, there are two more qualities, which we shall now consider; namely, the impassibility and immortality of our risen bodies. 1. Impassibility implies the total loss of the power of suffering. What an enormous capacity we have for suffering! The power of receiving pleasure through our senses is only as a drop in the ocean, when compared to our manifold capacities for suffering, in every faculty …
F. J. Boudreaux—The Happiness of Heaven

Christ's Finished and Unfinished Work
'Jesus ... said, It is finished.'--JOHN xix. 30. 'He said unto me, It is done.'--REV. xxi. 6. One of these sayings was spoken from the Cross, the other from the Throne. The Speaker of both is the same. In the one, His voice 'then shook the earth,' as the rending rocks testified; in the other, His voice 'will shake not the earth only but also heaven'; for 'new heavens and a new earth' accompanied the proclamation. In the one, like some traveller ready to depart, who casts a final glance over his preparations, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

All Fulness in Christ
The text is a great deep, we cannot explore it, but we will voyage over its surface joyously, the Holy Spirit giving us a favorable wind. Here are plenteous provisions far exceeding, those of Solomon, though at the sight of that royal profusion, Sheba's queen felt that there was no more spirit in her, and declared that the half had not been told to her. It may give some sort of order to our thoughts if they fall under four heads. What is here spoken of--"all fullness." Where is it placed--"in him," …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

A Word for the Persecuted
Remember that this supposition is a very likely one. There are a few Christians so favourably circumstanced that all their friends accompany them in the pilgrimage to heaven. What advances they ought to make in the sacred journey! What excellent Christians they ought to be! They are like plants in a conservatory--they ought to grow and bring forth the loveliest Bowers of divine grace. But there are not very many who are altogether in that case. The large proportion of Christians find themselves opposed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 20: 1874

Why they Leave Us
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."--John 17:24. THE PRAYER OF THE SAVIOR rises as it proceeds. He asked for his people that they might be preserved from the world, then that they might be sanctified, and then that they might be made manifestly one; and now he reaches his crowning point--that they may be with him where he is, and behold his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886

The Apostolate.
"That ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."--1 John i. 3. The apostolate bears the character of an extraordinary manifestation, not seen before or after it, in which we discover a proper work of the Holy Spirit. The apostles were ambassadors extraordinary -- different from the prophets, different from the present ministers of the Word. In the history of the Church and the world they occupy a unique position and have a peculiar …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

An Impossibility Made Possible
'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?'--JER. xiii. 23. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.'--2 COR. v. 17. 'Behold, I make all things new.'--REV. xxi. 5. Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, 'It is of no use--I have tried and can do nothing.' The second text is the grand Christian …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Three Tabernacles'
'The Word ... dwelt among us.'--JOHN i. 14. '... He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them.'--REV. vii. 15. '... Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.'--REV. xxi. 3. The word rendered 'dwelt' in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is only found in the New Testament--in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Departed Saints Fellowservants with those yet on Earth.
"I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets." The revelation made to St. John in the isle of Patmos, was a comfort to the suffering apostle, and a blessing to the church. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the word, of this prophecy." The beginning indeed was dark; the prophetic sketch, was for sometime, gloomy: It unfolded a strange scene of declensions and abominations, which were to disgrace the church of Christ and mar its beauty; and dismal series of woes on woes, …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Greeks Seek Jesus. He Foretells that He Shall Draw all Men unto Him.
(in the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^D John XII. 20-50. ^d 20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast [The language indicates that they were Greek converts to Judaism, such as were called proselytes of the gate. It is also noted that as Gentiles came from the east at the beginning of Jesus' life, so they also came from the west at the close of his ministry]: 21 these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee [See p. 111. They were possibly …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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