The prophet then points to the sea for a reflexion of the presence of God. It is the picture of mighty force, regularized, limited, made safe and serviceable by its subjection to measure and law. And that-is a picture of God's ways which are so very different from ours. For what is our human problem? Where is it we fail for want of God? It is not the lack of power, for the forces resident in human nature are marvellous. It is that our forces get out of hand, our strength runs amok: we ignore boundaries. We have had this fact presented on a vast scale of late. Tha nations of Christendom gathered up their strength in army and navy and walked the earth with uplifted head and a conscious stride, But alas, tha pent up forces broke their bounds. The servant became the master. The manhood of Europe became the victim of its own machinery. The life of Europe was at the mercy of its proud inventions. Now tha nations that were so strong are burdened with debt, harassed by unemployment, if not actually threatened with starvation. Wa should indeed be as gods if only we could keep our strength within_the appointed limits.
It is the sama in personal life. The more richly a man is endowed with powers and frcu!ties, the more we have reason to fear and forebode their outbreak in forbidden ways unless he has given the reins of nis ife to God. Tha best men go wrong, as we truly and sadly say. The dodowmant becomes the peril and the glory becomes the shame. Sin is the transgression of the law, it is breaking over the boundaries. Wa fail and are bound to fail, unless we give our will to God who keeps the sea within its borders and will keep us too.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.