Acts 10:6

Seaside Lodgings

He lodgeth... by the seaside. Acts 10:6.

The summer holidays have come round once more, and very soon we shall be packing our boxes, and brown-papering our windows, and setting off for “somewhere” in the country. Now I think the very best place to spend a holiday is the seaside, because there we find so many nice things to amuse us. There is the cool water in which we can splash on a hot day, and the pools at the water's edge which are just made for paddling. There are the sands where we can have such glorious fun riding on donkeys, building houses, and making turreted castles surrounded by moats. And there are the rocks with their pools in which we can find all sorts of wonderful things shells, and crabs, and shrimps, and small fish, and beautiful sea-weeds. There are the small boats in which we may spend the afternoons fishing and rowing. There are a dozen other nice things. We leave home rather tired and pale, and we come back strong and brown. Why, even the very sea-weedy smell as we sniff it at the railway carriage window makes us feel well!

Yes, I think the seaside is one of the very best places to spend a holiday, so today I have chosen a seaside text “He lodgeth... by the seaside.”

Now I suppose you know who it was that was lodging by the seaside. It was Simon Peter, and he was staying at Joppa, with a man called Simon, a tanner by trade. Joppa was an important seaport in those days. It was the seaport of Jerusalem just as Leith is the seaport of Edinburgh; only Jerusalem was a hundred miles distant. The town still exists, but it has changed its name to Jaffa; it is from there we get those lovely, big, juicy oranges called Jaffa oranges.

The spot where Simon Peter stayed is still shown to visitors, though a mosque has taken the place of the house in which he lodged. From that point there is a lovely view out over the Mediterranean Sea, and the waves wash right up to the walls of the courtyard, so that Peter could not have been nearer the sea unless he had lived in a boat.

I am not going to speak to you about the wonderful thing that happened to Peter at Joppa, because you can read that for yourselves in the tenth chapter of the Book of Acts, but I want you to think of a few of the lessons which the seaside teaches us.

Perhaps some of you say, “Oh, lessons again! We don't want to hear any more about lessons for weeks and weeks.” But then, you see, the seaside teaches its lessons in such a nice way that they are just like stories.

I want to speak to you about the rocks and some of the unusual things you find there.

1. First of all, there are our friends the crabs. Do you know how a crab grows? His outer coat or shell, as we call it, is very hard and will not stretch in the slightest degree, so when he wants to grow he has to change his coat, or rather get rid of the coat he has and grow a new one. This he does about once a year until he is quite full-grown. It takes him a few days to complete the change, and he always hides himself during that time because, when he has got rid of his old coat of mail, and has not yet grown a new one, his body is quite soft and unprotected from his enemies.

Now I often wish some people were more like crabs. You hear them saying, “Oh, it's no use trying to be good. I've tried already dozens of times, and I've always failed.” Well, no wonder these people have always failed they are always thinking of their failures! They stick to their old coats which have grown too small for them, and they will never “grow in grace” until they leave these old coats behind, forget about them, and put on a new coat of fresh endeavor.

We are meant to remember failures only as they help us to avoid the same mistakes the next time; we are not meant to think about them until they cramp us and stunt our growth. So if you have failed in any way, take heart and try again. Forget that you have failed, and make up your mind that you will succeed yet.

2. If you hunt in the muddy pools at low water you may find a creature which looks something like a hairy slug. It is between three and four inches long, and its almond-shaped body is covered with long hairs. This unusual creature is called a sea mouse. It looks very dull and dingy, but if you wash it repeatedly in clean pools until all the mud is gone, you will see that it is very beautiful. All the colors of the rainbow seem to be chasing each other over its bristles and altering with every movement of the creature and every change of light.

Doesn't it seem strange that this beautiful creature should live with its beauty covered up? And yet I think lots of boys and girls and men and women are like this sea mouse. They show a very ugly outside to the world and people never guess what a great deal of beauty they have underneath. And, do you know, I think we are all like this dingy sea mouse until Jesus comes to us and washes away the ugly mud of sin that covers up the beauty of our souls.

3. There is just one more sea creature I wish to talk about, and that is the jelly-fish. You often see jellyfish floating in the water when you are paddling or bathing unusual bluish creatures that look like large blobs of jelly. But the jelly-fish you should avoid is the big yellowish-brown one which sometimes comes in the early autumn. It has a fringe all round its body of what look like hairs, but these harmless looking things are really stings. If they sting you they can hurt very badly, and if you have a thin skin, they may make you seriously ill.

Now there are two things I should like to say. First, “Don't be a stinging jelly-fish.” Bitter, angry words can hurt and sting the heart just as much as the stings of the jelly-fish can hurt the body. And, second, “Don't be a thin-skinned person who magnifies little stings into big hurts.” Such people are a great bother to their friends and they make themselves needlessly unhappy. Think of other people, not of your own poor little feelings. That is the best recipe for growing a stronger skin.

There are many other unusual and wonderful things down by the sea which you will be able to study for yourself. Somehow or other God seems very near to us at the seaside. When we look at the grains of sand countless in number they speak to us of the multitude of God's loving-kindnesses to us. When we study the millions of tiny creatures He has made and remember that not one of them is forgotten in His sight, that not one little life is lived unknown to Him, we marvel at the wonders of His greatness. And when we look out to the vast ocean, stretching away and away into endless space, we remember the boundless love with which He has loved us, and the infinite forgiveness which casts all our sins into the depths of the sea.