Mark 6:45-51 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before to Bethsaida… The winds always seem contrary to those who have any high and earnest purpose in life. Careless sailors afloat on the currents, with no aim but the pleasure of motion, who can watch the play of the wavelets, and hear their musical splash, or gaze on the tints that gleam on the opalescent sea, find life a pastime — for a time. But those who have a course, a compass, a pilot, and are in haste on the errand of heaven, are kept to the full strain of vigilance lest winds should sweep them backwards; and often hand weary, heart weary, they are tempted to give up all effort to keep their course, content to drift with the current which sets back again to the forsaken shore. An earnest purpose alone gives us the measure of the influences which surround us. I. We are able when thinking over this great matter, a life course and its issues, to remind ourselves of THE GREAT LIFE COURSE TO WHICH THE WINDS WERE EVER CONTRARY, which something seemed always to sweep back from its end. Without question, life is a hard matter to the earnest; the night is dark, the toil hard. Often the main support of faith is to look steadily to Him to whom the night was darker, the toil harder, and who is seated now a radiant Conqueror at the right hand of the throne of God. II. LET US LOOK AT THE BROAD FACT OF THE CONTRARINESS OF THE CURRENTS OF LIFE. I am not speaking of storms, but of the constant steady set of the current, which seems to keep us under perpetual strain. With some there is a lifelong struggle to fulfil the duty of some uncongenial calling, which yields no fair field of activity to the powers which they are conscious are stirring within. There are others who are crossed in their dearest hopes; life is one long, sad regret. There are others with a weak and crippled body enshrining a spirit of noblest faculty; with intense ardour pent up within. III. THE REASON AND RIGHTNESS OF THIS CONTRARINESS OF THE CURRENTS OF LIFE. God sets things against us to teach us to set ourselves against things, that we may master them. We are kings, and have to conquer our kingdom. IV. THE MASTER IS WATCHING HOW THE LESSON PROSPERS. Not from on high; not from a safe shore; but there in the midst of the storm He is watching, nay is walking, drawing nigh, in the very crisis of the danger and the strain. He enters the ship; the danger is over. A force stronger than the current is there to bear us swiftly to the shore. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. |
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