Daily Devotion - Dec 19 - ¥q¥¬¯u¨C¤éÆF­×(©]) Evening by Evening

司布真每日靈修(夜) Evening by Evening

十二月十九日

經文: 海也不再有了。（啓示錄二十一：1）

當我們想到將失去那榮美的古老海洋時，幾乎就快樂不起來。新天新地中若沒有大海，沒有閃爍的波浪，沒有細沙的海灘，沒有海的迷人處，真是令人難以想像。沒有海的物質世界就像缺少寶石的戒指，不再珍貴。但是必有其屬靈意義，在新天地中沒有分隔。海將民族國家彼此分割。深水如同牢獄的牆，將拔摩島上的約翰和他的弟兄、他的工作隔離了。在將要來的世界中，不再有這樣的阻隔。在我們和許多弟兄姊妹之間也有翻騰波濤之海洋，今晚我們只能以祈禱來紀念他們。但是在將來的世界中，在蒙救贖的家庭中每一位都可以毫無攔阻地彼此相交。也就是不再有海了。海也是變化的象微。海潮有時漲有時落，有時平靜如鏡，有時波濤洶湧，有時喃喃細語，有時驚濤怒吼，總不會長久不變的。地球只有其不一貫性上是�定的。但是在天國中，一切擾人之變化，一切教我門希望破滅，喜樂湮沒有的暴風浪都不存在了。玻璃海發出榮耀的光輝，沒有波浪將它破壞。在樂園的平靜岸上不再有暴風怒吼。不久我們將到那快樂之地，屆時不再有分離、變化和風暴，耶穌就要帶我們到那�去。

Evening, December 19

Scripture: "And there was no more sea."(Revelation 21:1)

Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean: the new heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores. Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea it is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division—the sea separates nations and sunders peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work: there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom to-night we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea. The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; earth is constant only in her inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall be ended! Jesus will waft us there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.

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