Article May 20, 1911 Issue

"AND THERE WAS NO MORE SEA"

AMY RUTH WENZEL.

In St. John's vision of the new heaven and the new earth, "there was no more sea." This statement has sometimes brought a suggestion of loss to those who love the sea, but it is a material sense of the sea, coupled with a dread of monotony, even though it be the monotony of goodness, that depresses thought. It is this same dread which to many makes heaven seem a rather dull and not wholly desirable place or condition. For material sense, bases on the fluctuating and uncertain, dreading yet ever desiring change, can make no clear distinction between permanence and monotony. Indeed, contradictory as it may seem, the only sense of permanency that mortals have is the certainty of change.

Yet it is this certainty of change that constitutes most of the sadness of mortal existence. Could the mother feel sure that her little one would keep his childish purity through the unfolding years, how heavy a weight of foreboding would be lifted from her brooding heart. Could the young people, happily preparing their new home, be positive that their happiness, though growing daily richer and more varied, would ever be the same happiness, with how much larger joy would they set about their preparations. Could all who are working for their own improvement and the world's betterment be assured that no flood-tide of achievement can ever turn, with how much greater zest would they press on. But, weighted and shackled by the belief that "nothing is sure but mutability," hope falters and achievement fails.

We read in the text-book of Christian Science that the sea in St. John's vision is "a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding" (Science and Health, p. 536). It is, therefore, only the belief in the law of mutability that passes away, leaving thought with a true basis of permanence for its infinite and eternal unfoldment, Thus, when properly understood, St. John's statement brings a sense of incalculable gain and of peace that passes understanding. God, who is infinite good, never takes from us anything that is really good. All the charm and inspiration of the sea is ours forever. And as the material sense is gradually exchanged for the spiritual and real sense, it will be found that this charm and inspiration is the indestructible reality of the sea.

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