Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-08-08
THE MYSTERY OF THE SEA.


xpect to find the churches very we'll filled,
Or midsummer services are too often To-
iously long drawn out when people would
ather be out In the sunshine enjoying the
resh air and the pleasant weather. How |
yer, at o number of our churches special |
,ains have been taken to secure interest
ng speakers to fill the pulpits during the
pastors vacations.
Thus Calvary Baptist church was we'll
illed yesterday morning TO listen to the
Rov. Mr.. Kittredge Wheeler Of Hartford.
He chose az his text Psalms lxxvii. 1920,
THY way Is In tho sea and thy paths In
Tho great waters and thy footsteps are not
known. Thou leadest thy people like
flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron"
He spoke ~ follows:
The sea ID the emblem of mystery and
Thy way 10 in the sea, and thy
path In the great waters. Who can And
II out; who can follow the sea- How deep,
how unex blored, how traekless are those
mighty waters. You sit by the shore, or
on some bold and rocky point, and you
look out seaward and try to enter into
with the rolling waves.
Tell me about your far off shores, your
beetling cliffs, your tides and storms
your awful depths, your sheltered bays,
your peaceful harbors, the islands tar away,
Where the waves are born and where the
tides begin to heave. You see some great
wave rolling, rolling in-grander, mightier,
more majestic his power: Tell thy story.
The deep voices of the distant sea. Have
htIAnu rOok1 MD
you see ships In mid ocean, Are the isl
ands singing or storm lashed3 Are there
many dead beneath thy path, sleeping till
the Judgment day. Did you hear the boom
of the fog whistle, and the wAtchmsn's
midnight CALI Do the stars of the sea
shine, and does the moon seem glad as she
looks upon shoreless ocean9 No answer,
no voice; deep are thy secrets thou emblem
of eternity and mysteryl
I have seen the fshermsn's wife with
her fatherless babes clinging to her side
upon some lonely shore of the sea, looking
out after the storm far away
upon the restless waters. straining
their vision to the horizons rim,
looking for the familiar sail and
a boat homeward bound; but the sail was
never seen, and the boat never hove in
sight, and the sea seemed to stretch away
and away, and away, to that stormless
shore, where the white sails glisten in the
sunlight, where the harbor welcomes and
the waves thereof are still
The sea suggests the eternal; the in6n-
ite-another world-the strange, deep
mystery of being-of living.
It makes us think of God-boundless,
almighty, unsearchable, past finding out,
infinite, eternal!
Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever thou hadst formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to ever
lasting, thou art God!
Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in
the great waters, and thy footsteps are not
knowni
am thankful that we are comprised
about by the infinite and the eternal-by
the hidden and the unseen and unsearcha
BILE God.
We Iowa the river, the lake, the bay, the
sound-where we can see from shore tc
shore; where we can embrace it, compre-
bend it, see it possess it all. But they dc
not thrill us as the ocean does.
The river and the narrow bay or SOUND
do not lift us and enlarge US. We set
them, we know them, We possess them and
| hold their secrets. They are not able t.
get US out of and away from ourselves
| They give US temporal, feshly, finite
| thoughts.
By the river side we talk, we shout, ",
| sing, we emphasize our own personality
our individuality, our self-importance, Gu
almightiness. But looking out upon tn
ocean, we are silent, we grow thoughtful
| Our own Importance dwindles away, ",
check the idle song, we bow our heads.
| We feel the breathing of the infinite, tn
| whisper of the eternal; we hope, we hun
| ger, ah, we pray, for who can tell wha
| shores beyond, what suns, what hills o
| joy, what bonds Of love, what la1ge
heart beats, what holier hopes. All, it
the infinite that lifts us, that makes GU
hearts ache in our ittleness, and selfish
ness, and sin, and makes US hunger TO-
the better, the higher, the holier-fo
communion with God
I am glad there is such an infnit!
about usl
| I am glad the mysterious sea stretche
away from us without shore
| am glad the sunset is not little shin
ing candle in my back yard-that cal
walk about with arrogant footstep and e1
allied pride. am glad that he sinks sol
emily end grandly out of sight beyon
the far-of hills, and robes the cloud
in glory, in fire, and flame
till the deeper shadows fall and the might
curtain of the night is drawn.
I am glad the sunset fills me with won
der, awe. foreboding, hope and fear, an
infinite characters of light written acros
the evening sky 1 can make out only on
word of the sentence, that all the other
fade away; one word-God.
Thy way is in the sea; and thy path
in the great waters; and thy footsteps ar
not known.
| I should be yerv sorry ever to come. Il
my future existence, to time when ha
reached the edge of his dominions-th
confines of his being. That would be tn
blight and decay of the soul. I woul
rather that his infnitude of power an
wisdom and holiness and love and the dee
mysteries of his being should still and fol
ever sweep away and beyond me illimitabl
and boundless forever and forevermore
so that wherever I may be in his vast uni
verse may enjoy the highest ecstacy Q
finite beipg-the worship of the infinite.
That may bow before him with yelled vision
AS did Moses in the cleft of the rock;
AS did Elijah in the awful solitudes of Horeb-
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths il
the great waters; and thy footsteps are nc
known.
Notice, now, the beautiful, striking an
highly poetic contrast. His majesty an
l mystery! 0OO dOoto uS huO D0yOuu III
and yet coming so near that he bestows uI
on us fathers care, mothers love!
Thou leadest thy people like hocl
Any more beautiful figure in all the rang
of poetic fancy! The shepherd in th
midst of his fock-going before them
the fresh misunderstanding with them 6
MONDAY beneath the shade by quiet We
ters; protecting them from all dangers an
folding them safely at night.
Howe By vision? by shadowy dream
by some vapor, some floating cloud. Nc
by living hand, hand of flesh. N
trackless sea here; no hidden footstep
here, but by tho hand of Noses and Aaron
He is great God-unsearchable-bu
how he comes down to our necessities
He led Abraham in a way that he knew no
of-but God led himl God came dow
upon Jacob as he slept upon the plain, i
the strange, deep visions of the night
and when the lonely wanderer awoke b
felt the awful presence of the unseen God
But God led him through deep waters
from the famine of Canaan to the fatnes
of Egypt; from the loss of Joseph to tn
thrown of Pharoah; from his death in
strange land, with all the glittering splen
dor of an Egyptian funeral. to tn
tombs of Maohphelah in the fold of Ephro
the Hittite, which Abraham had purchase
for burying place in the "Land of Prom
ise."
To Moses he said: Thou canst not Sc
me, thou canst not behold my face, tho
canst not look forward into all the dee
mysteries of my eternal purpose-for m
way is in the sea and my path is in tn
| deem waters: but as nv plan unfold