As we grow older we
learn many things; and so--for I told you my home was by the sea--I got, in
time, to know the meaning of a very difficult verse; that one which speaks
of the "bound" which God has set, beyond which the sea with its proud waves
"may not pass." When the tide was coming in I used to watch the long blue
waves with their foamy crests coming nearer and nearer, and when I heard
them break with a loud noise against the strong rocks I was quite sure that
those stern barriers were the "bound" which kept them back, and would not
allow them to come any further.
But by-and-by I went to a place where the shore was quite different. There
were no rocky cliffs, like giants, guarding the land; only a long reach of
soft white sand, with which I was never tired of playing--making forts with
moats round them to keep off the enemy; or gardens with straight paths, and
trim beds in which I planted sea-daisies and poppies.
It seemed as if there was nothing about this shore strong enough to keep
back the great waves. They rolled in upon the sand with an angry roar when
the wind was high, and swept away my castles and gardens in no time. Still,
even here there was a bound, for the sea did not overflow the land; and so
I learnt that those waves, which threaten to overwhelm everything in their
resistless march, are kept in their place by God, who alone can say to the
restless ocean, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall
thy proud waves be stayed.
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