, 1900-05-07
NO MORE SEA"
SERMON BY REV. H. WARREN NICE
AT THE FIRST BAPTIST
CHURCH.
We Need to Look Out Upon Life's Sea
and Remember That No Chance
Rules This World, But the Eternal
God, Who Will Bring All Things
Right Some Day

at the Baptist church Sunday evening.
His subject was mo More Sea-
mo More Sea" This expression of
st. John will not find a ready echo in
many hearts, to whom the sight CT the
restless sea brings back memoc:es of
early days passed upon its shores.
Some people will feel like the soldiers
Of Xenophon's army and long for the
time to ome when they can shout with
joy and gladness "Thalatta!" "Thalat-
tai" as they behold the sea onco more.
But change your circumstances and
think for a minute of the lonely exile
upon the isle Of St. Helena; think of
the men whose punishment has been
imprisonment upon some barren isle,
and then you can see why John was
glad to say There was no more sea-"
l remember spending several days
upon the rocky isle Santa Catalina, off
the coast of southern California. and |
shall never forget the scene of loneli-
ness when the vessel left us only for
three days absence. My imagination
will convey to me what | would have
experienced if | had been alone upon
hat island only a few hours.
Let US picture John upon the isle of
Palmos and see him as he really vas
situated. He leaves his lonely hut and
climbs the hill to survey the prospect
around him; he turns his eyes south
ward and sees in his mental vision, the
city of Alexandria,: he remem-
bers the books there and with an old
mans thirst for books he longs for
some of them, but alas! between him
and that distant city lies the wide eX-
panse of sea. To the man upon the
island how much greater it must
have seemed. Poets talk even now of
the sails of M whitening every
sea-" But this is a great stretch Of
poetic license, for even in these days
you can spend three weeks in a steamer
on the Pacific and not see a single YES
sci besides your own.
How this greatness of the sea made
John lift his eyes heavenward to see
the glories of the eternal home and cry
Of his loving heart, There was no
more sea-" His experience vas vivid
and true to life and the sea had no joy
for him.
Might it not be that John turned his
westward and thought of the
mighty city upon its sever hills, and of
the cruel Emperor Domitian who had
placed his in exile. Eusebins tells us
that John was exiled during Domitian's
reign and his testimony is safer than
any other which disputes this time and
tries to place the blame upon Nero.
Then would not the old mans
thoughts go back to the lives Of Paul
and Peter and If he knew of their death
how his tears would flow, for he loved
Peter especially as his own brother.
Their cruel deaths would make him
think of the time to come when all
wrongs would be made right and right
forever on the scaffolds and wrong for
ever on the throne would be no more
because God would claim His own. How
this would make him think Of the
treachery of the sea. 1t seems so tran
quill and quiet to us and yet If we listen
it is never still, always 1t has that sub
dued ring which makes you think OF
the crouching lion ready for its victim.
What a contrast when you see the
ocean in a calm and then in a raging
storm; a storm upon the ocean once
seen will never be forgotten. Ships are
like toys and all powers of man are put
to shame.
In the world now we sec many forces
for evil that seem to prosper, wicked
men will often have more money than
the most devoted Christians, cowardly
church members will be more prosper
ed than the most loyal men and women,
and so on you might enlarge the list
of the wrong seeming to prosper.
But like John we need to look out up
on life's sea and remember that no
chance rules this world, but the eternal
God, who will bring all things right
some day and each man will then have
the reward for his deeds done in the
body.
We can lift II eyes upward from
the ANNOUNCEMENTS of this life and Its
49, tha nyur