Isaiah 23:4

The sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea

The voice of the sea

God, through the wildly wailing winds, and loudly surging waves, has often uttered a voice of warning and of woe to cities filled with corruption and vice.

And how, too, through these winds and waves, has the sea spoken in its strength to crushed and broken hearts, when its surface has been thickly strewn with shattered wrecks, and the floating and sinking bodies of its helpless victims.

I. But the sea often speaks to us in other language than this, addressing us, as it does, through the eye as well as the ear, and CALLING UPON US TO ADORE AND LOVE GOD for the beauty with which He clothes and overhangs it, and for the blessings which, by means of the sea, He conveys to us, no less than to tremble and bow down before Him in view of the vastness and the majestic grandeur of the ocean in its more excited and terrific moods.

II. The sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, by ITS VASTNESS AND FORCE AND GRANDEUR OF ITS MOVEMENTS.

III. The sea hath spoken, too, and will, we trust, thus ever speak, through THE ELECTRIC WIRE, which here and there lies far down in its lowest depths, and which, in coming years, will be more widely extended abroad.

IV. Yet again the sea hath spoken, in that IT APPEALS TO OUR KIND CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY AND INTEREST in behalf of those who, as seamen, go forth upon the deep.

V. When the sea in its strength thus speaks to us, with the voice of wailing, lamentation, and woe, HOW OUGHT WE TO PRAY FOR SEAMEN AND THOSE CONNECTED WITH THEM, with all the power of faith which God shall give us, that He would save them from a watery grave, or, if they thus perish, that He would comfort those who mourn their loss, and that in the day in which the earth and the sea shall give up the dead that are in them, they may all together enter the haven of eternal rest. So, too, should we ever pray that the time may soon come when the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto God, and the isles shall wait for His law. (C. Rockwell.)

The violent in the serene

The sea, as a rule, is tranquil. Yet what awful power it possesses when it is aroused to fury! Blocks of stone weighing over thirteen tons have been known to be hurled by it a distance of more than thirty feet, and blocks of three tons to more than one hundred yards. Jetties and bridges are dashed about like toys. The entire harbour of Fecamp was destroyed by its rage, and the mass of earth torn from the north side of Cape la Heve was estimated at more than 300,000 square yards. Yet these are only among the trifling achievements of the sea when it passes from its peaceful to its furious mood. Violence often slumbers under an appearance of serenity. A crowd of joyous holiday makers today may become tomorrow a foaming mob of insurrectionists! (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)

Power of the sea

That part of Hey Head; in Orkney, which is called the Brow of the Brae, is one sheer unbroken crag of 1150 feet. The Orcadians told me that in a hurricane they have seen an Atlantic wave strike this headland in such volume and with such power, that it has rushed half-way up the cliff, throwing itself in its great but impotent rage to the height of nearly 600 feet. Hurled by such a sea against such a crag, a man-of-war, though built of the strongest oak, and bound with the toughest iron, would be shattered like a ship of glass. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The sea

He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea. (George Herbert.)