TERRORS AND WONDERS OF THE SEA.

Preached 4th Sunday after Trinity, 1866.

"They that go down to the sea in ships: and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep."-Psalm cvii. 23, 24.

THERE is no object upon earth, in vastness and in awful grandeur, comparable to the sea-the mighty, the restless, the resistless sea. The towering mountains of the Alps, the Andes, the Hymalaya, stretching up three miles into the clouds, and covered with perpetual snow, are indeed stupendous objects to look at, but they sink in importance before the sea. They have no active agency of destruction about them. They are powerless and motionless. What they were yesterday, they are to-day, and will be to-morrow. But the great sea is never at rest. Even when there seems to be only a gentle ripple on the surface, the enormous mass of waters from their lowest depth is tiding to the shore or ebbing from it. The winds blow; and the waves rise up mountains high, and dash against the rocks, and boil and foam that it is fearful to look at. When the Romans first saw the uproar and turmoil of the

Atlantic Ocean, they thought that they had reached to the world's end, and had arrived at the abode of demons.

And now in the midst of the tempest which seems to mingle the earth and the skies together, what is that little object yonder like a speck on the distant horizon? It is a frail vessel full of terrified men. The Psalmist well describes their condition; "They that go down to the sea in ships: and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For at His word the stormy wind ariseth, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They are carried up to the heaven, and down again to the deep; their soul melteth away because of the trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end." And, surely, now those terrified men are at prayer; perhaps, in the words which our Church has written for them: "O most glorious and gracious Lord God, who dwellest in heaven, but beholdest all things below; look down, we beseech thee, and hear us, calling out of the depth of misery, and out of the jaws of this death, which is ready now to swallow us up: save, Lord, or else we perish. The living, the living shall praise thee. O send thy word of command to rebuke the raging winds, and the roaring sea; that we being delivered from this distress, may live to serve thee, and to glorify thy name all the days of our life. Hear, Lord, and

* Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea. Book of Common Prayer.

save us, for the infinite merits of our blessed Saviour thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ." "So when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, He delivereth them out of their distress. For He maketh the storm to cease: so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad, because they are at rest: and so He bringeth them unto the haven where they would be. O that men would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness: and declare the wonders that He doeth for the children of men."

So much for the terrors of the sea; the wonders of it are greater.

The first wonder is, that when put in motion towards the land, the sea does not roll on and sweep everything before it, towns, villages, forests, all the labours of husbandry, all the works of man, every living creature, and no ark of refuge even for one righteous person. But when God first gathered the waters of the sea together, He set them their bounds, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." So having reached the boundary, the waves rage and swell, and turn back.

A second wonder is, How this is brought to pass. Sufficient would it have been, that God had so decreed it, and said, "Thus it shall be." But He performs the several operations of nature by secondary means; and wonderful in their beautiful simplicity are all the component parts of the complex machinery. Now, my dear less-informed brethren, do not refuse me your attention, because I necessarily use a word or two which some of you may not quite understand. Think of the steam engine with which you are often engaged

in threshing out the corn, or doing some other important service. The machine consists of various parts, all connected with each other, wheels and straps going at an uniform rate, and doing the work well. But the steam which sets them all going is a fearful power, if uncontrolled; you would none of you dare go near it, and the engine itself would be shivered into a thousand pieces. What is it, then, which makes the steam (lawless of itself) such a quiet, docile, useful thing? It is the small balancing power above, playing all the time backwards and forwards and keeping the whole in order. So in respect of the sea, its deep waters and impetuous waves. There in the heavens above is the balancing power, which curbs and controls them, and confines them within the appointed boundary. The moon, small as she is to look at, by her attraction regulates the entire ocean. The waters in the sea follow her course in the heavens; move in the direction that she moves; turn and turn about with her. O Lord, "marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well!"

And now for another wonder. You cannot be out in a starlight night without observing that the stars apparently change their situation; the same stars being at different places in the heavens at different times of the night. In uncertain circumstances, therefore, they cannot be guides to sailors out at sea, as to where they are or in what direction they are steering. But there is one star which never changes its position. It is called the Pole star, and always keeps the same place in the northern portion of the heavens. If sailors can get

a sight of this, they know which way to sail, east, west, north, or south, as they may desire. Is not this a wonderful help which God has provided?

But often in stormy tempestuous weather the Pole star is not to be seen for nights together. What is to be done then? The captain goes into his cabin; unlocks a particular drawer; and takes out thence a small case, about the size of one of your watches. In this case is a card on which are drawn the several points of the compass; and in the centre is a needle turning on a pivot, as the hands of a watch do, only much more loosely and lightly. This needle has been touched by a loadstone, and always points towards the north. Shake it as you will in the box, as soon as it again becomes still it points to the north. The sailors then know where the north is (and so all the points of the compass), as well as if they were looking on the Pole star. The little needle is to them what the sudden appearance of the full moon would be to one of you, who should be wandering in a wild unknown country in a dark night. It shows them which way to go.

These are some of "the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep," which they witness that "go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters." And it is not the least of the wonders, that God has given ingenuity to man to build a little ship so scientifically out of a few trees, and such skill to a few men to manage it, and such sagacity to the pilot to steer it through troubled waters where he never was before, that it shall sail round the world, and again