Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-12

another. The Hebrews were not sea-faring
people. True, in solomen's time, their
ships piled over the waves where the En-
giish ships sail now, between Suez and In
dis- But that was long ago. To the coun-
trymen of St. John little was known Of the
sea except Its Syrian shore. Indeed, to
most of the ancient nations the sea must
have been formidable barrier. The com.
pass had not been invented. The uses OF
steam were still undiscovered. The sea
stood for danger. It symbolized separation.
THE ExILED APOSTLE.
From that rocky crag Of Patmos, from that
desert island where st. John dwelt in exile,
away he looked over the sea toward Ephesus.
There was his home; there were his friends;
there were the Christians and the churches
beloved by him, and needy counsel from
him, and the sea was a wall between him
and them. 1t parted them asunder. And
he looked into the ideal world, into the new
heaven and the new earth, and this great
barrier was taken away, and there was no
more sea-" In the ideal world, there will
be no separation.
Nation is parted now from nation, and
there are standing armies and wars and
rumors of wars, but that will be done away
sometime, and there will be federation of
the world. Church Is parted from church
now, and there are riyalr1es, and jealousles,
and party lines, and narrownesses, and
waste of strength; but we will all be one
sometime, in one body and of one spirit, IN
one fold under one shepherd-sometlme.
We are parted from one another now by all
sorts of partings, by the division of distance
of space, so that we cannot see each other
when we would; by the division of variance
and Misunderstanding, setting heart away
from heart, making people unbrotherly. All
that will be done away sometime. All
parting, all distance all misunderstanding
all that hinders sympathy, all that helps
sometime. There will be no more sea.
THE CHRISTIAN DUTY.
We waste time, think, in wondering
tohen all this will come. We will best
hasten the coming OF that blessed time by
making ourselves ready for it. The ideal
world knows neither space nor time. 1t is
no more dependent upon space and time,
and no more to be defined in terms based
upon such measurements, than life eternal
is a matter of length of duration. To know
God is life eternal, to put out Of our own
hearts whatever Christ, when He comes,
would wish to Danish, is to enter now into
the boundaries of the celestial country.
Christ will reign in the ideal commonwealth.
Christ reigns now in every genuinely Chris
tian heart
And SO the new heaven and the new
earth begin. We must try to be more
truthful, more quiet and confident, more
like the strong rocks than like the unstable
sea. We must try to be more workful, fill
ing our whole lives with worthy and fruitful
living, with no space of waste ocean in
them. We must try to be more brotherly
and loving, bridging all the separations that
we can. So will earth be like heaven, and
the real present approach the ideal future.
The OLD sea will be done away, and a new
sea will take its place, the "sea of glass
mingled with fire." the symbol of triumph
over evil, the symbol of the benediction Of
God. GEORGE HODGES.