How much the Christian resembles the mariner in this wide expanse of ocean! All his bearings have to be taken from the heavens. Earth is out of sight, and there is no beaten path for him in the sea, so the mariner is entirely dependent on seeing the position of the heavenly bodies—mainly, the sun. So the Christian—the things of earth cannot guide him—he takes his bearings here entirely from Christ's position there, and steers his course accordingly. He cannot go on as though Christ were not rejected here, and yet he goes forward fearlessly because Christ who died for him has been received up into glory, and lives for him at the Father's right hand. So he keeps the world at his back, and a glorified Savior before him.
Alas! how many have made shipwreck because they have not so steered; many have even gone on without taking their bearings at all. Happy for us when it can be said, The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. Nothing to becloud our vision, or to distort our judgments by grieving the Spirit of God.